Liǎng Jìn Mìshǐ 兩晉秘史
Secret History of the Two Jin Dynasties by 楊爾增 (著)
About the work
The Liǎng Jìn Mìshǐ 兩晉秘史 (“Secret History of the Two Jin Dynasties”) is a historical novel (lìshǐ yǎnyì 歷史演義) by the late-Míng author Yáng Ěrzēng 楊爾增, narrating the history of the Western Jìn 西晉 (265–316) and Eastern Jìn 東晉 (317–420) dynasties from the reunification under Jìn Wǔdì 晉武帝 through the fall of the Western Jìn at the hands of the Hàn-Zhào 漢趙 and the establishment of the Eastern Jìn in the south. The work is organized in huí 回 chapters (the table of contents lists well over one hundred huí) and covers the celebrated “Disorder of the Eight Princes” (Bā Wáng zhī luàn 八王之亂) and the “Disorder of the Five Barbarians” (Wǔ Hú luàn Huá 五胡亂華).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The text is a classic example of the late-Míng yǎnyì 演義 historical novel genre that flourished alongside the better-known Sānyán erpāi collections. The table of contents lists 106 huí, running from the quarrel between Wáng Jùn 王浚 and Wáng Hún 王渾 over credit for the destruction of Wú (huí 1) through the establishment of Eastern Jìn under Sīmǎ Ruì 司馬睿 (huí 82ff), with extended coverage of the Eight Princes’ power struggles, the rise of Shí Lè 石勒 and Liú Cōng 劉聰, and the tragic fall of Luòyáng. The final huí visible in the table of contents ends with “Shí Lè yǐ jūn jù Xiāngguó” 石勒以軍據襄國 (huí 80).
The compiler Yáng Ěrzēng 楊爾增 is a late-Míng Sūzhōu publisher-author known primarily for commercial fiction publications. He is identified in some sources with the publishing house Xiōngyù táng 雄宇堂 in Sūzhōu. His exact dates are unknown; CBDB returns no entry. He also compiled or published the Xīnshuō Xīyóu Jì 新說西遊記 and is associated with the commercial fiction market of the late-Wànlì to Tiānqǐ period (c. 1600–1624). The title “秘史” (“secret history”) was a marketing convention of the period rather than a claim of access to hitherto unknown archival sources; it signals a novelistic treatment of material the author considers underexplored or sensationally re-rendered.
The Liǎng Jìn Mìshǐ draws primarily on the Jìnshū 晉書 and the Zīzhì Tōngjiàn 資治通鑑 for its historical content, presented in novelistic form with invented dialogue and dramatic elaboration. It belongs to the cluster of “dynastic-history novels” (cháo-dài xiǎoshuō 朝代小說) that proliferated in the Míng and included works on the Sòng, Táng, Yuán, and Hàn as well as the Six Dynasties period.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature specifically on this work located.
- Rolston, David L., ed. How to Read the Chinese Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. (Background on the Ming-Qing historical novel genre.)
Links
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