Zhōngcháo gùshì 中朝故事
Stories of the Central Court by 尉遲偓 (撰)
About the work
A two-juàn anecdotal account of late-Táng court matters (Xuānzōng, Yìzōng, Zhāozōng, Āidì — the “four reigns”) compiled at the Southern Táng court by 尉遲偓 Yùchí Wò 尉遲偓 in his capacity as historian. The title “Central Court” (Zhōngcháo) refers to Chángān — the Southern Táng house claiming descent from the Táng Tàizōng and styling itself as the legitimate continuation, so that Chángān, the former imperial seat, was “the Central Court” from the Jīnlíng (Nánjīng) Southern-Táng perspective. Juàn 1 contains political and ceremonial matters; juàn 2 contains marvels and supernatural anecdote. Submitted to the throne by imperial command.
Tiyao
Source directory missing in /home/Shared/krp/KR3l/KR3l0018; the following tiyao is extracted from the Kyoto Zinbun Shikō Teiyō digital text (curl-fetched from http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0289401.html), base text being the Zhèjiāng Bào Shìgōng family library copy.
By the Southern-Táng Yùchí Wò. Wò’s career and origin are not known in detail. The head of the book carries the old title-band “Cháoyì láng, shǒu Gěishìzhōng, xiū guóshǐ, Xiāojì, cì zǐjīn yúdài chén Yùchí Wò fèngzhǐ zuǎnjìn” — that is, when the Lǐ [Southern Táng] possessed the realm, Wò was a shǐguān and composed the work under imperial command. Lǐ Biàn 李昪 [the Southern Táng founder] claimed descent from Tang Tàizōng and to inherit the Táng legitimacy, hence Chángān is called “Central Court.” The book records the jiùwén (old tradition) of the Táng’s four reigns Xuānzōng, Yìzōng, Zhāozōng, Āidì. Juàn 上 is largely on ruler-and-minister affairs and court institutions; juàn 下 records the shényì guàihuàn (supernatural and strange) miscellaneously. Among middle passages not entirely defensible: the entry that Xuānzōng, being feared by Wǔzōng, requested to be a monk and travelled south of the Yangzi — Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn kǎoyì has already refuted this as vulgar and unfounded; further the entry that Lù Yán wished to harm Liú Zhān and was thwarted by the Yōuzhōu jiédùshǐ Zhāng Gōngsù’s memorial of defence — at that date the Yōuzhōu governor was actually Zhāng Yǔnshēn, not Zhāng Gōngsù — the record errs. Further the entry of Zhèng Tián’s guǐtāi (ghost-pregnancy) — start to finish identical with the Táng-era Qítuī nǚ zhuàn, with only names changed, plain plagiarism. Yet, the work was composed not far in time from the Táng, drawing on old-family documentary memory, and its records are often supportable. The entry on the rivalry between Cuī Yànzhāo and Wáng Níng — Sīmǎ Guāng’s Kǎoyì objects only to the substitution of Yànzhāo for Níng as Salt-and-Iron Commissioner, while taking the rest of the matter; juxtaposed with the zhèngshǐ, with the false stripped away and the true preserved, the work is by no means without source-critical value.
Abstract
The work occupies an unusual historiographic position: composed at the Southern Táng court (Jīnlíng / Nánjīng) under official commission as part of the Southern Táng historiographic project, by a court official with substantive titulary (Counsellor-Officer of Lordly Audience, acting Director of the Imperial Diary, Compiler of State History, Xiāojì Captain, with permission to wear the gold purse). The Southern Táng’s claim to be the legitimate Táng continuation made the documentation of the late Táng court a matter of dynastic-legitimacy import, not antiquarian interest. The work was therefore composed in the 940s — 950s, after the founding (937) but during the consolidation of the regime.
The Sìkù compilers’ factual corrections (Sīmǎ Guāng’s debunking of the Xuānzōng / Wǔzōng monk story; the misidentification of the Yōuzhōu governor; the guǐtāi plagiarism from Qítuī nǚ zhuàn) are well-founded. The work nevertheless preserves much court-internal anecdote not in the Histories. It is regularly cited by Tōngjiàn kǎoyì and is a primary source for the late-Táng court-and-minister biographies in the Xīn Táng shū.
Translations and research
- Sī-mǎ Guāng’s Zī-zhì tōng-jiàn kǎo-yì 資治通鑑考異 cites Zhōngcháo gùshì repeatedly with corrections.
- No book-length European-language treatment has been located.
- Modern Chinese collations: included in Wǔ-dài shǐ-shū huìbiān 五代史書彙編 (Hángzhōu, 2004).
Other points of interest
The work’s preservation of the Zhèng Tián guǐtāi anecdote is one of the better-documented instances of a Tang zhìguài tale being incorporated into a court-history compilation with the names changed — a methodological cautionary case for using Five-Dynasties bǐjì.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §62 (Five Dynasties sources).
- Kyoto Zinbun Shikō Teiyō digital text