SānChǔ Xīnlù 三楚新錄
New Records of the Three Chǔ by 周羽翀 (撰)
About the work
The SānChǔ Xīnlù, in 3 juàn, is an early-Sòng chronicle of the three regional regimes that ruled the Chǔ 楚 region — the middle and lower XiāngHàn basin, modern Húnán and Húběi — during the Five-Dynasties period: the MǎChǔ 馬楚 of 馬殷 Mǎ Yīn at Chángshā 長沙 (juàn 1), the Wǔlíng 武陵 regime of 周行逢 Zhōu Xíngféng at Wǔlíng (juàn 2), and the Jīngnán 荊南 / NánPíng 南平 of 高季興 Gāo Jìxīng at Jiānglíng 江陵 (juàn 3). Author 周羽翀 Zhōu Yǔchōng (the rare graph 翀 chōng “soaring”) describes himself as “Rúlínláng shìMìshūshěng jiàoshūláng qián Guìzhōu Xiūrén lìng 儒林郎試秘書省校書郎前桂州修仁令” — i.e., a junior Sòng-period official of the late 10th / early 11th century. The book is undated; its information is largely drawn from regional oral tradition. Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn and modern historians cite it as the principal source for the regional history of the Five-Dynasties Chǔ.
Tiyao
By Zhōu Yǔchōng 周羽翀 of the Sòng. Yǔchōng’s place of origin is not preserved; his self-styling is “Rúlínláng shìMìshūshěng jiàoshūláng qián Guìzhōu Xiūrén lìng” — a Sòng-period early-period official. The title “Three Chǔ” refers to Chángshā under 馬殷 Mǎ Yīn, Wǔlíng under 周行逢 Zhōu Xíngféng, and Jiānglíng under 高季興 Gāo Jìxīng — all of whom occupied Chǔ territory and styled themselves wáng 王. He arranged each kingdom’s rise and fall as one juàn. Many of his statements conflict with the standard histories: for example, Mǎ Yīn was originally Wǔān jiēdùshǐ 劉建鋒 Liú Jiànfēng’s xiānfēng zhǐhuīshǐ 先鋒指揮使 and was the chief lieutenant in the seizure of Húnán; on Liú Jiànfēng’s murder by Chén Shàn 陳贍, the troops welcomed Mǎ as liúhòu 留後. He had never been Shàozhōu cìshǐ 邵州刺史. Yǔchōng has Mǎ Yīn coming south as a follower of one Héshì 何氏, “appointed Shàozhōu cìshǐ by Hé”; on Hé’s death the troops welcomed Mǎ as ruler — a pure invention. Again, on 馬希範 Mǎ Xīfàn’s audience at Luòyáng, 桑維翰 Sāng Wéihàn (a traveling literatus then) supposedly came to ChǔSì 楚泗 and asked for gifts, was refused, and “went off in anger”; later, when Xīfàn took the throne, Sāng was already chief minister and reduced Xīfàn’s yízhàng 仪仗 by half. But Mǎ Xīfàn’s accession was in Chángxīng 長興 3 (932) under the late HòuTáng — there was no HòuJìn dynasty yet — so Sāng could not have been zǎixiàng 宰相 at that point. Untrue. Again, on 王逵 Wáng Kuí: he was attacked by 潘叔嗣 Pān Shūsì and died in battle, but Yǔchōng has him “defeated by NánYuè 南越, escaping with his life only, dying eventually on the road.” All these and other points differ from the historical record. Yǔchōng evidently did not have access to the imperial archives, but compiled from oral tradition; his book cannot therefore be uniformly reliable. Yet for those yìshì 軼事 he does record — events not preserved in the standard histories — much is of value. Bàiguān yějì 稗官野記 (informal histories) have always been preserved by tradition; this book’s continuation among the Wǔdàishǐ references is fitting.
Abstract
周羽翀 Zhōu Yǔchōng was an early-Sòng (late-10th / early-11th c.) junior official of unclear origin; the catalog meta supplies only “宋” with no further detail. His self-styling — Rúlínláng (a low cí rank), shìMìshūshěng jiàoshūláng (acting jiàoshūláng of the Imperial Library), qián Guìzhōu Xiūrén lìng (former magistrate of Xiūrén county in Guìzhōu) — fits a junior Sòng official of the 980s–1010s. The SānChǔ Xīnlù is undated. The book covers (1) MǎChǔ 馬楚 (907–951) under the four generations of Mǎ Yīn 馬殷, Mǎ Xīshēng 馬希聲, Mǎ Xīfàn 馬希範, and Mǎ Xīè 馬希萼; (2) the Wǔlíng regime (951–963) under Liú Yán 劉言, Wáng Kuí 王逵, 周行逢 Zhōu Xíngféng, and Zhōu Bǎoquán 周保權; (3) the Jīngnán / NánPíng 荊南 / 南平 (924–963) under Gāo Jìxīng 高季興, Gāo Cónghuì 高從誨, Gāo Bǎoróng 高保融, Gāo Bǎoxù 高保勖, and Gāo Jìchōng 高繼沖. The book is uneven: as the Sìkù editors note, it preserves valuable yìshì 軼事 not in the JiùWǔdàishǐ or XīnWǔdàishǐ, but it also contains demonstrably wrong material that derives from oral tradition (notably its account of Mǎ Yīn’s early career and its anachronistic treatment of Sāng Wéihàn under Mǎ Xīfàn). It is the principal early source for the MǎChǔ and Jīngnán regional regimes and is heavily cited by 吳任臣 Wú Rènchén in the Shíguó Chūnqiū KR2i0021.
Translations and research
- Standard modern Chinese edition: in Wǔ-dài shǐ-shū huì-biān 五代史書彙編 (Hangzhou, 2004).
- Ruth W. Dunnell and Naomi Standen (eds). 1999. Frontiers of the Chinese World. — discusses the Mǎ-Chǔ and Jīng-nán regimes.
- Hugh R. Clark. 2009. “Frontier Discourse and China’s Maritime Frontier: China’s Frontiers and the Encounter with the Sea through Early Imperial History.” Journal of World History 20.1.
- No standalone English translation; substantial English-language work on the regimes treated here remains scarce.
Other points of interest
The combination of three regional Chǔ regimes (rather than only the MǎChǔ of the orthodox Wǔdài shǐ) under the single rubric “SānChǔ” 三楚 is Zhōu Yǔchōng’s own scholarly construction; the term has no Five-Dynasties precedent. Its inclusion of the Jīngnán (which the Wǔdài shǐ does not list among the Shíguó 十國) is also distinctive — though 吳任臣 follows it on this point in the Shíguó Chūnqiū.