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歷代通略

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Text ID
KR2o0016
Date
1310–1310
Dynasty
元

Lìdài tōnglüè 歷代通略

A General Outline of Successive Dynasties

by 陳櫟 (Chén Lì, 1252–1334)

About the work

A 4-juan compendium of dynastic history from Fú Xī down to the Southern Sòng Níngzōng, with each dynasty treated in a single dedicated essay carrying Chén Lì’s signed verdict. The work uses the conventional “deeper coverage near, lighter coverage far” (xiáng jìn lüè yuǎn 詳近略遠) pattern: from Fú Xī through the Five Dynasties is condensed into 2 juàn; the Northern Sòng and Southern Sòng each occupy a separate juàn. Coverage of the Southern Sòng halts at Níngzōng, with Chén Lì’s own colophon explaining that for Lǐzōng and Dùzōng’s reigns “no history is yet available.” The work was completed in Zhìdà 3 (gēngxū 1310). The book is appended in some editions by a Tōnglüè méngqiú 通略蒙求 (a primary-school rhyming tag-list) and a section of biographical materials on Chén Lì himself (his xíngzhuàng 行狀 and tomb inscription).

The Sìkù tiyao notes that the work circulates under the title Zēngguǎng tōnglüè 增廣通略 (“Enlarged Tōnglüè”), and that Huáng Yújì’s 黃虞稷 Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù 千頃堂書目 records a Tōnglüè jùjiě 通略句解 in 5 juàn without naming the author — Chén Lì’s own colophon refers to a “Tíngfāng” 廷方 whose treatment of the Jīn affair he could not draw on (since he had not seen that history); the Sìkù editors infer that “Tíngfāng” may be the original Tōnglüè author, with Chén Lì providing the zēngguǎng (enlarged) edition. The matter is unsettled.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Lìdài tōnglüè in four juàn was composed by Chén Lì of the Yuán. Chén has the Shū zhuàn zuǎn shū, already separately catalogued. This compilation gives an account of the rise-and-fall of successive dynasties, with verdicts attached. Each dynasty receives one essay. From Fú Xī down to the Five Dynasties is in two juàn; the Northern Sòng and Southern Sòng each occupy one juàn — the principle being deeper coverage of recent matters and lighter coverage of remote ones.

The Southern-Sòng portion stops at Níngzōng. Chén Lì’s own colophon explains that for Lǐzōng and Dùzōng’s reigns no history is yet available. The old printed text bears the title Zēngguǎng tōnglüè but does not say which earlier author’s work it enlarges. Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records a Tōnglüè jùjiě in 5 juàn, also without naming an author. Chén’s colophon says: “On Jīn matters, Tíngfāng has briefly outlined them, but I too have not seen that history, and dare not lightly write.” Was Tíngfāng then the original compiler of this Tōnglüè? His name and rank cannot now be ascertained. The book was completed in the gēngxū year of Zhìdà (1310).

In Zhèngtǒng rénxū of the Míng (1442), Chén Lì’s grandson Pán Zhī 盤之, his son-in-law Wáng Jìng 王靜 — Prefect of Hànyáng — obtained a copy from a fellow-villager Fāng Miǎn 方勉, and printed it for the first time. The present text was printed by Yuán Yìngzhào 袁應兆, dated only “the yǐhài year” without any reign-title; the appended biographical material includes a Wànlì wùzǐ (1588) note, so the yǐhài must be Chóngzhēn 8 (1635). Appended is a Méngqiú (rhyming primer) by Chén Lì; the closing four-rhyme verses extend down to early Míng, with a note: “These eight lines were added by Zhū Fēnglín” (the YuánMíng zhūfūzǐ Zhū Fēnglín). The original text ends at Yáshān (the 1279 collapse of the Sòng), with the gloss “the Sòng was forced down by the Yuán” — quite unlike the diction of contemporary Yuán texts; this too has been altered.

Although this work outlines only the broad strokes and is not without summary brevity, its argument is upright and pure. As a source for cross-reference it is not enough; as a guide to right-and-wrong for the historical reader, its judgements may indeed be drawn upon.

Abstract

Chén Lì of Xiūníng (Huīzhōu, modern Ānhuī) was the principal late-Sòng / early-Yuán Zhū-school Shàngshū and Shūjīng commentator (compiler of KR1b0027 Shàngshū jízhuàn zuǎnshū 尚書集傳纂疏). After the Sòng fell in 1279, he retreated into reclusion, refused official invitations, and lived as a private teacher for thirty-eight years; he sat the Yuán provincial examination only in Yánȳòu 1 (1314), aged 63, when the reinstated examinations had been put on a Zhū-Xī-orthodox basis, but illness prevented him from completing the metropolitan examination. CBDB confirms his lifedates as 1252–1334 (per Yuánshǐ Rúxué zhuàn and his own dated writings — he was 83 suì at death).

The Lìdài tōnglüè is the historical-criticism side of his pedagogical project. It is one of the two principal early-Yuán Gāngmù-style dynastic-history textbooks, alongside Hú Yīguì’s KR2o0017 Shíqī shǐ zuǎn gǔjīn tōngyào 十七史纂古今通要 — both produced inside the same Wùyuán Huīzhōu Zhū-school circle, and both designed for use as orthodox study-guides under the post-1313 examination-curriculum reform. Where Hú Yīguì’s work is more conventional in following the Gāngmù-school’s late-Sòng zhèngtǒng (legitimate succession) verdicts, Chén Lì’s Tōnglüè is more independent in its institutional-historical attention.

The text’s editorial history is unusually layered. Chén Lì completed it in 1310; it survived in family hands until 1442, when his grandson and son-in-law obtained a copy from a fellow villager and printed it for the first time. By 1635 a second, modified printing (by Yuán Yìngzhào) added a Míng-period extension to the appended Tōnglüè méngqiú. The present WYG text is the 1635 recension; the Sìkù editors note (and discount) the late additions. The accompanying xíngzhuàng and tomb inscription are likewise late-Míng additions, useful as biographical material for Chén Lì but not part of his original work.

Translations and research

No complete English translation located.

  • Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (Cambridge UP, 2021), §6.6 on Chén Lì within the late-Sòng / early-Yuán Gāngmù tradition.
  • Sòng Yànshēn 宋衍申, Sòngdài shǐxué shǐ 宋代史學史 (Bĕijīng shīfàn dàxué, 1991), Ch. 8 (which extends into early Yuán).
  • Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòngdài Sìshū xué yǔ Lǐ-xué 宋代四書學與理學 (Rénmín, 1991), passim on the late-Sòng / early-Yuán Wù-yuán-Huīzhōu Zhū-school circle.
  • Hé Bǐng-dì 何炳棣 et al., Sòng-Yuán xué àn bǔyí 宋元學案補遺.
  • Liú Jīng 劉靜, “Chén Lì Lìdài tōnglüè yánjiū” 陳櫟《歷代通略》研究, Huīxué 徽學 (2010).

Other points of interest

The work’s modest length and pedagogical orientation should not obscure its significance: it is one of the principal documentary witnesses to how the ChéngZhū dàoxué synthesis read pre-Sòng dynastic history at the precise moment when that synthesis was being institutionalised as the Yuán imperial curriculum. Chén Lì’s own colophon noting that no history existed yet for Lǐzōng and Dùzōng (the Sòngshǐ would not be compiled until Zhìzhèng 5–6 / 1345) is a striking moment of professional honesty about the limits of what could be said about the Southern Sòng’s last fifty years.

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