Qīndìng Xù Tōngdiǎn 欽定續通典
Imperially Authorized Continuation of the Tōngdiǎn by 嵇璜 (奉敕撰), 曹仁虎 (奉敕撰)
About the work
Continuation of Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn covering the period from Táng Sùzōng zhìdé 1 (756, the year after the Tiānbǎo end-point of the Tōngdiǎn) to the end of Míng Chóngzhēn (1644). 150 juǎn, organized in nine mén: Xuǎnjǔ (6), Zhíguān (22), Lǐ (41), Yuè (7), Bīng (12), Xíng (16), Zhōujùn (18), Biānfáng (4), Shíhuò (18). The catalog meta gives 150 juǎn; the Sìkù tíyào gives the same in detail. Note that this work splits Bīng and Xíng (which Dù Yòu treated together as Bīngxíng)—a structural adjustment, not a doctrinal departure.
Tiyao
By imperial command of Qiánlóng 32 (1767). Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn ends with the close of the Tiānbǎo era; this work continues from Táng Sùzōng Zhìdé 1 (756) down to the end of Míng Chóngzhēn (1644). 150 juǎn organized in nine mén: Xuǎnjǔ 6, Zhíguān 22, Lǐ 41, Yuè 7, Bīng 12, Xíng 16, Zhōujùn 18, Biānfáng 4, Shíhuò 18. The chapter-headings retain Dù Yòu’s old plan, with the difference that Dù appended Bīngzhì to Xíng; here Bīng and Xíng are separate.
Anciently, in the Yú court there were nine officers, including a Shì (Justice) but no Sīmǎ (Marshal): all matters of barbarians and brigands fell to Shì. The Lǔ yǔ records Zāng Wénzhòng saying “the great penalty uses armor and weapons; the next, axes and halberds; the middle penalty uses knives and saws; the next, awls and chisels; the light penalty uses whips and rods”—so bīng and xíng may be one. But the Zuǒ zhuàn records that under Shǎohào, Zhùjiū was Sīmǎ and Shuǎngjiū was Sīkòu; the Zhōu lǐ divides Autumn-Office and Summer-Office likewise—so bīng and xíng may also be two. Whether to separate or combine is a matter of bulk and arrangement. The general principle is unchanged.
As to compilation method: the Táng era is more remote, and old codes are largely lost; the Five Dynasties and Liáo are documentarily thin, and their standard histories too sketchy—so we have ranged through diagrams and miscellanies seeking detail. The Míng is recent enough that miscellaneous records are abundant; for the Sòng, Jīn, and Yuán, original works are also numerous and surviving fragments many—so we have cross-checked variants strictly to ensure reliable transmission. The aim is precision and breadth together, neither bloated nor deficient.
The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records a Sòng Bái Xù Tōngdiǎn in 200 juǎn, now lost. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records that Sòng Bái was commissioned in Xiánpíng 3 (1000) and presented the work in the ninth month of Xiánpíng 4 (1001), running from Táng Zhìdé to the end of Xiǎndé (959). Wáng Qīnruò observed that Dù Yòu’s original 200 juǎn covered “thousands of years,” with 40 juǎn devoted to the Kāiyuán lǐ alone; that Sòng Bái’s 200-juǎn sequel covered only some 200-odd years, equal in volume—and contemporaries criticized this redundancy. The present work has been adjusted under sage editorial direction to a measured volume; for the 978 years it covers, the origins and changes of institutions and the merits and failures of governance are clearly arranged. Compared to Dù Yòu’s original it is at minimum equal; Sòng Bái’s lost continuation is too trifling to mention.
Abstract
Together with KR2m0017 Qīndìng Huángcháo Tōngdiǎn (the parallel Qīng-only volume), this work fills the Sāntōngdiǎn of the Qiánlóng Shítōng (Wilkinson §51.2.4 nos. 4–5). Compilation was directed by Jī Huáng 嵇璜 and Cáo Rénhǔ 曹仁虎 in parallel with the Xù Wénxiàn Tōngkǎo (KR2m0014) and Xù Tōngzhì; the team operated within the Sānlǐguǎn / Wǔyīngdiàn program. The Xù Tōngdiǎn was substantively complete by 1772.
The work supersedes Sòng Bái’s 宋白 lost 200-juǎn Xù Tōngdiǎn (presented 1001), known only from bibliographies and fragments quoted in later compilations; the Sìkù compilers regard their own work as definitively replacing it. Dating notBefore=1767 (commissioning) / notAfter=1772 (working completion).
Translations and research
Standard editions: the Shítōng set, Shāngwù 1935–37, Zhōnghuá 1990 (in Scripta Sinica). Wilkinson, §51.2.4 #4, recommends as a first stop for institutional history of the post-Táng dynasties. Lǐ Yìlóng (2017) and Liú Yǎn (2018), as cited at KR2m0014 and KR2m0012 respectively, treat the textual history. Tāng Yìjùn 湯一介, ed., Sānxù tōngkǎo lùwén jí 三續通考論文集 (Běidà chūbǎnshè, 2015), collects the principal modern essays on the three Qiánlóng continuations.
Other points of interest
The structural decision to split Bīng from Xíng—which Dù Yòu had bundled as Bīngxíng per his preface—is silently followed by all subsequent Tōngdiǎn-tradition works. The Sìkù editors’ invocation of the Zuǒ zhuàn parallel (Shǎohào’s Sīmǎ/Sīkòu arrangement) provides classical sanction for the change.