Suí-Táng Jiāhuà 隋唐嘉話
Fine Tales of the Sui and Tang by 劉餗
About the work
A bǐjì 筆記 in three juàn plus a supplement (bǔyí 補遺), compiled by 劉餗 Liú Sù (CBDB id 31725), the second son of the great Tang historian 劉知幾 Liú Zhījǐ (661–721). The work records anecdotes about court figures, literary personalities, and historical events from the Southern and Northern Dynasties through the Kaiyuan 開元 period (713–741). Endymion Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §49833) notes that Lǐ Zhào’s Guóshǐ bǔ explicitly positioned itself as a complement to Liú Sù’s work, which had covered events “from the Nánběicháo to Kāiyuán.” The Denecke Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (p. 16771) identifies the Suí Táng jiāhuà as a miscellany (zájì 雜記) type closely related to the bǐjì tradition.
Author note: 劉餗 Liú Sù (the character 餗, meaning sacrificial millet) is the son of Liu Zhiji and the author of this text. He is a different person from 劉肅 Liú Sù (the character 肅, meaning solemn), author of KR4k0008 Dà Táng Xīnyǔ. Both names sound identical in Mandarin but are written with different characters.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
劉餗 Liú Sù (fl. mid-8th century; CBDB id 31725) completed the outer sections of his father 劉知幾’s Shǐtōng 史通 in 722, based on Liu Zhiji’s drafts. He served at the Tang court under Emperor Xuanzong and compiled the Suí-Táng Jiāhuà from anecdotes he had gathered “since childhood.” The work’s coverage spans from the Sui dynasty (581–618) through the Kaiyuan era (713–741) of Xuanzong’s reign — the golden age of Tang culture.
The Suí-Táng Jiāhuà is organized as a series of brief anecdotes (jiāhuà 嘉話, “fine tales” in the sense of morally instructive or historically significant stories) without systematic topical arrangement. It records wit and wisdom of Tang officials, literary conversations, court ceremonies, stories of unusual talents, and miscellaneous observations. It is consistently cited alongside the Dà Táng Xīnyǔ and the Táng Guóshǐ bǔ as one of the three foundational Tang anecdote collections. Lǐ Zhào’s Guóshǐ bǔ explicitly states it was written to extend Liú Sù’s work chronologically.
Translations and research
- Tāng Qiú 唐逑 ed. Suí Táng jiāhuà jiàozhù 隋唐嘉話校注. Zhōnghuá, 1979. Standard critical edition.
- Denecke, Wiebke, et al. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature. OUP, 2017, p. 16771.
- Included in Táng Wǔdài bǐjì xiǎoshuō dàguān 唐五代笔记小说大观. Shanghai Guji, 2000.
Links
- Wikidata: no dedicated entry located