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陸機晉紀

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Text ID
KR4k0333
Date
265–303
Dynasty
晉

Lù Jī Jìnjì 陸機晉紀

Lù Jī’s Record of the Jin by 陸機 (撰); reconstructed by 湯球

About the work

Lù Jī Jìnjì 陸機晉紀 is a jíyìběn reconstruction (1 juǎn, approximately 83 lines) of the lost Jìnjì 晉紀 composed by the Western Jìn literary polymath 陸機 (Lù Jī, 261–303 CE). Only three fragments survive. The reconstruction is part of 湯球’s larger Jiǔjiā Jiù Jìnshū Jíběn 九家舊晉書輯本, published in the Guǎngyǎ Shūjú Cóngshū 廣雅書局叢書 and reprinted by the Commercial Press (Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn 商務印書館) in the Cóngshū Jíchéng 叢書集成 first series (1936).

The surviving fragments are:

  1. 晉書限斷議 (Essay on the scope and cut-off of the Jin History): A methodological discussion of whether the “three ancestors” (sān zǔ 三祖) — Sīmǎ Yì 司馬懿, Sīmǎ Shī 司馬師, and Sīmǎ Zhāo 司馬昭, all of whom died before the founding of the Jìn dynasty — should be recorded in annals styled as emperors (jì 紀) or as ministers (zhuàn 傳). Lù Jī argues that since the three were in fact subjects (chén 臣) during their lifetimes, their deeds must be narrated as such; yet because the Jìn state retroactively elevated them to imperial rank (zhuīwáng zhī yì 追王之義), their biographies must nonetheless bear the jì format. Source: Chūxué Jì 初學記 21.

  2. 文帝 (Emperor Wén): A terse judgment on Cáo Pī 曹丕 (Emperor Wén of Wèi): “His power surpassed the three-way division [of the realm], yet he ended his days still bowing as a subject.” Source: Chūxué Jì 初學記 9.

  3. Wáng Jùn’s dream (王濬之在巴郡): The anecdote of the general Wáng Jùn 王濬, then Administrator of Bājùn 巴郡, who dreamed of four knives (dāo 刀) hanging on his wall; his aide Lǐ Yì 李毅 interpreted this ominously until noting that three knives (sān dāo 三刀) form the graph for “province” (zhōu 州), and four thus signaled that he would govern an additional province — Yìzhōu 益州, which he duly did. Sources: Lèijù 類聚 60 and 79; Shūchāo 書鈔 123; Yùlǎn 御覽 254 and 345. The compiler’s note: “This citation is attributed to a 武紀 (jì of Emperor Wǔ) in one source.”

Tiyao

No tiyao found in source. This is a jíyìběn reconstruction.

Abstract

陸機 (261–303 CE; zì Shìhéng 士衡) was one of the foremost literary figures of the Western Jìn — his Wén Fù 文賦 and collected poetry are preserved in KR4b0006. He was also briefly active as a court historian. The Jìnjì is recorded among his works in his Jìn shū 晉書 biography (juàn 54) and in the Suí shū jīngjí zhì 隋書經籍志, which gives the extent as 4 juǎn. Only these three fragments survive, all drawn from the secondary encyclopedic tradition (lèishū) and from the annotations to the Wén Xuǎn 文選 (as “注” references).

The scope of the Jìnjì appears to have been the early decades of the Jìn dynasty — the first fragment’s discussion of the “three ancestors” (Sīmǎ Yì, Shī, and Zhāo) suggests coverage from the Wèi-Jìn transition, while the Wáng Jùn anecdote pertains to the Western Jìn conquest of Wú (280 CE). The Jìnjì was one of the early official histories on which the Tang Jinshu compilers drew; after the new Jìn shū 晉書 was completed in 648 CE, the original fell into disuse and was lost. Táng Qiú’s reconstruction is the only systematic effort to recover it.

Translations and research

  • Goodman, Howard L. 2015. “Jin shu.” In Chennault et al., eds., Early Medieval Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. IEAS, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 136–145.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 4th ed. Harvard HUAC, 2015. Cites Tang Qiu 湯球 (1804–81), ed. Jiujia Jiu Jinshu jiben 九家舊晉書輯本. Guangya, 1920.

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