Shísān zhōu zhì 十三州志
Monograph on the Thirteen Provinces
Anonymous (compiler unknown)
About the work
A fragmentary geographic text preserved under the generic title Shísān zhōu zhì 十三州志 (“Monograph on the Thirteen Provinces”), distinct from the better-attested work of the same title by Kǎn Yīn 闞駰 (KR2k0157). The surviving fragments include etymological discussions of administrative terminology and brief geographic notes on commanderies and counties across the Chinese administrative system, from the Northwest to the central plains and Jiangnan. Citations are drawn from 《史記索隱》 (Sima Zhen’s Shǐjì suǒyǐn) and other Tang-period encyclopedias.
Abstract
The Shísān zhōu zhì reconstructed in this text overlaps in content and organization with the Kǎn Yīn work of the same title (KR2k0157) but is preserved as a distinct set of citations. The largest surviving passage discusses the institutional history of the Han hé-dī (dyke/canal) system: Emperor Cheng’s floods in Qing, Xu, Yan, and Yu provinces led to the appointment of Colonel Wang Yan 王延 as dyke supervisor (with a salary of 1,000 shí), whose office was also called Hùdū-shuǐ shǐzhě 護都水使者. Other fragments cover commandery-county naming patterns, the size thresholds between lìng 令 and zhǎng 長 titles (counties over 10,000 households = lìng; those below = zhǎng), and historical changes in administrative units across the Qin-Han-Wei transition.
The relationship between this text and the Kǎn Yīn Shísān zhōu zhì is unclear. It may represent: (a) a different edition or recension of Kǎn Yīn’s work; (b) a separate geographic compilation of the same name by another author; or (c) fragments of a generic “Thirteen Provinces” genre text not specifically attributed. The citation from 《史記索隱》 sets a terminus post quem of *c.*735 CE (when Sima Zhen completed the Suǒyǐn) for the compilation of the present anthology, but the underlying source materials may be much older.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- ctext.org search: https://ctext.org/search.pl?if=en&search=十三州志