Shíliùguó Chūnqiū Biéběn 十六國春秋別本
Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms (Alternative Edition) by 崔鴻
About the work
A 15-juan alternative reconstruction of the Shíliùguó Chūnqiū 十六國春秋 (Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms) attributed to 崔鴻 Cuī Hóng (478–525 CE) of the Northern Wei dynasty. The designation biéběn 別本 (alternative edition) signals that this is a version distinct from other reconstructed recensions. The original Shíliùguó Chūnqiū was a major chronicle of the sixteen short-lived kingdoms that ruled parts of northern China between 304 and 439 CE, but it was lost after the Northern Song. The present text was reconstructed in the late Ming dynasty by assembling excerpts from the Jìnshū 晉書 Zaiji chapters and from Tang and Song encyclopedias and miscellanies.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
崔鴻 Cuī Hóng (478–525 CE; CBDB id 48191) was a Northern Wei official and historian. He spent decades compiling the Shíliùguó Chūnqiū 十六國春秋, covering sixteen mainly short-lived dynasties established in northern China and surrounding regions between 304 and 439 CE. The work comprised 100 juan (organized into 16 “records,” one per kingdom) and was completed around 520 CE, though Cui died before he could present it formally. It was available in the Tang and Northern Song but was lost sometime after the fall of the Northern Song capital in 1127.
As Wilkinson notes (Chinese History: A New Manual, §60.3), the work of the same title circulating since the late Ming was “put together by assembling excerpts from the Jinshu Zaiji chapter and from Tang and Song leishu.” Tang Qiu 湯球 (1804–1881) subsequently compiled a more rigorous reconstruction. The biéběn (alternative edition) in the Kanripo corpus likely represents one of these Ming-era reconstructions, distinct from the Tang Qiu version. The 15-juan structure covers the same sixteen kingdoms treated in the original (前趙, 後趙, 前燕, 前秦, 後秦, 蜀, 前涼, 西涼, 北涼, 後涼, 後燕, 南涼, 南燕, 西秦, 北燕, and others), as indicated by the table of contents.
This is among the most important sources for the history of the “Sixteen Kingdoms” period and the basis for the Zaiji sections in the standard Jìnshū 晉書. The received text, however, lacks the critical apparatus and systematic source attribution of modern reconstructions.
Translations and research
- Tang Qiu 湯球, comp. Shíliùguó Chūnqiū jíbǔ 十六國春秋輯補. Repr. Qi-Lu, 2000.
- Chen Changqi 陳長琦 and Zhou Qun 周群. 2005. Shíliùguó Chūnqiū jíbǔ 十六國春秋輯補. (A different modern reconstruction.)
- David Honey. Entry on Shiliuguo chunqiu in Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (EMCT).
Links
- Wikidata: Cui Hong