Wǔdài shǐ bǔ 五代史補
Supplement to the History of the Five Dynasties by 陶岳 (compiler)
About the work
A 5-juǎn supplement to the Jiù Wǔdài shǐ 舊五代史 of Xuē Jūzhèng 薛居正 et al. (974) compiled by the Northern-Sòng official Táo Yuè 陶岳 (zì Jièlì 介立, of Xúnyáng 潯陽) and dated by the author’s own preface to rénzǐ in the year of the imperial sacrifice at Fényīn 汾陰祀 — i.e. Dàzhōng Xiángfú 5 (1012). The work supplies items missing from or insufficiently treated in the official compilation across all five dynasties (Liáng 21 items, Hòu Táng 20, Jìn 20, Hàn 20, Zhōu 23 = 104 items in the present recension; Cháo Gōngwǔ records the original total as 107). It is the principal narrative supplement for early-Sòng readers’ knowledge of the Five Dynasties not preserved by Xuē, and was extensively drawn upon by Ōuyáng Xiū’s Xīn Wǔdài shǐ and by Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn. Despite occasional anecdotal coloration, the work is a serious source-collection rather than a xiǎoshuō miscellany.
Tiyao
Composed by Táo Yuè 陶岳 of Sòng. Yuè’s zì was Jièlì 介立; he was a man of Xúnyáng 潯陽 (modern Jiǔjiāng 九江, Jiāngxī). When Xuē Jūzhèng 薛居正 et al.’s Wǔdài shǐ had been completed at the start of Sòng, Yuè considered there were still many lacunae. He therefore took the various regional appropriations and the affairs of dynastic foundation across successive reigns, edited and arranged them into a book, and supplied what they had missed. His own preface says: “At the present time, after his Imperial Majesty had performed the sacrifice at Fényīn, the year is rénzǐ” — that is, Dàzhōng Xiángfú 5 of the Zhēnzōng reign (1012). Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì lists this work under the title Wǔdài bǔlù 五代補錄, but Yuè’s own preface in fact calls it Wǔdài shǐ bǔ; Cháo’s record is in error. Cháo also says the total is 107 items. The present text contains 21 Liáng items, 20 Hòu Táng items, 20 Jìn items, 20 Hàn items, and 23 Zhōu items — 104 items in all, three short of Cháo’s count. Examining Wáng Míngqīng 王明清’s Huīzhǔ lù 揮麈錄, the entry on Mǔqiū Jiǎn 母邱儉 borrowing the Wén xuǎn during his poverty and being met with reluctance — vowing that if he ever became rich he would print the Wén xuǎn and gave it to scholars; later, when serving as chief minister of Shǔ, he kept his word and printed it, the inception of the printed circulation of literary works — this episode is recorded as drawn from Táo Yuè’s Wǔdài shǐ bǔ; the present text lacks this entry, presumably an omission in transmission. Although the book leans toward the xiǎoshuō style, the narration of events is full and accurate, and Ōuyáng Xiū’s Xīn Wǔdài shǐ and Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn both draw on it heavily. There are some small errors: e.g. the entry on Zhuāngzōng hunting at Zhōngmóu and being remonstrated with by the magistrate, “I forget his name” — but the Tōngjiàn identifies him as Hé Zé 何澤; the entry on Yáng Xíngmì 楊行密’s feigned blindness saying it lasted only three years, but Yáng was actually feigning until the killing of Zhū Sānláng 朱三郎 — less than three years; the entry on the Wáng family’s holding of Fújiàn saying that on the death of Wáng Shěnzhī 王審知 his brother Yánjūn 延鈞 succeeded him, when according to Xuē’s history and the Tōngjiàn, Yánjūn was Shěnzhī’s son; the entry on Liáng Zhèn 梁震’s lateral aid says Zhuāngzōng commanded Gāo Jìxīng 高季興 to depart, ten days passed, Zhuāngzōng changed his mind, hastily ordered Liú Xùn 劉訓 in Xiāngzhōu to find a chance to imprison Jìxīng; that Jìxīng’s heart misgave him on his way to Xiāngzhōu, abandoned his baggage cart and fled south, reached Fènglín Pass 鳳林關 already at dusk, broke down the gate and went out, and that night at the third watch the urgent express did indeed arrive — but the Tōngjiàn kǎoyì explains that no such imperial command and express was issued at all, and Yuè has merely transmitted the rumor. These sorts of slips are not avoided, but in the wake of Xuē’s history, this work’s gathering of the scattered and the lost, and supplementation of the missing, is no small contribution to the discipline of history.
Abstract
The Wǔdài shǐ bǔ of Táo Yuè 陶岳 (fl. early 11th c., zì Jièlì 介立, of Xúnyáng) was completed in Dàzhōng Xiángfú 5 (1012) — the year of the great Fényīn imperial sacrifice — and is the principal early-Sòng narrative supplement to the official Jiù Wǔdài shǐ of Xuē Jūzhèng et al. (974). It is composed of 104 (originally 107) discrete narrative items distributed across the five dynastic histories, each typically a several-line prose anecdote drawn from oral tradition, surviving local sources, or regional records, designed to fill specific gaps in Xuē’s official compilation. The Sìkù compilers correct an old misreading: Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì lists the work as Wǔdài bǔlù 五代補錄, but Táo Yuè’s own preface gives the title as Wǔdài shǐ bǔ. The work was extensively drawn upon by Ōuyáng Xiū for the Xīn Wǔdài shǐ and by Sīmǎ Guāng for the Zīzhì tōngjiàn; the Sìkù tiyao identifies several specific source-points where Sīmǎ Guāng accepted Táo’s narrative as well as several where Sīmǎ rejected it (most famously the Zhuāngzōng-hunting-at-Zhōngmóu and Gāo Jìxīng episodes). The work is also the locus of one of the most famous early-Sòng anecdotes of the inception of printing: Mǔqiū Jiǎn’s 母邱儉 vow, fulfilled when he became chief minister of Shǔ, to print the Wén xuǎn — although this particular item is now missing from the surviving recension and known only through Wáng Míngqīng’s Huīzhǔ lù citation.
Translations and research
- Hilde De Weerdt and Christian Lamouroux, eds. 2002 ff. Several articles in T’oung Pao and Études chinoises discuss the early-Sòng Wǔdài shǐ tradition.
- Richard L. Davis. 2004. Historical Records of the Five Dynasties. New York: Columbia. (Cites the Wǔdài shǐ bǔ in apparatus.)
- Charles Hartman. 2014. “Sōng Government and Politics,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5.2.
- Tāng Qiú 湯球, comp. Wǔdài huìyào jiào jì 五代會要校記. Cited regularly for Wǔdài shǐ bǔ parallel texts.
- Wú Yùgōng 吳玉貢. 1981. Wǔdài huìyào jiàozhù 五代會要校注. Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú. (Discusses Táo Yuè in the textual apparatus.)
- No substantial Western-language monograph dedicated specifically to the Wǔdài shǐ bǔ.
Other points of interest
The Mǔqiū Jiǎn–Wén xuǎn anecdote, though now missing from the surviving Wǔdài shǐ bǔ, stands as one of the earliest narratives of the inception of printed-book circulation in the Five Dynasties, and is regularly cited in the historiography of the Chinese book.