劉謙之晉紀

Liú Qiānzhī Jìnjì 劉謙之晉紀

Liú Qiānzhī’s Record of the Jin by 劉謙之 (撰); reconstructed by 湯球

About the work

Liú Qiānzhī Jìnjì 劉謙之晉紀 is a jíyìběn reconstruction (1 juǎn, approximately 184 lines) of the lost Jìnjì 晉紀 composed by the early fifth-century historian 劉謙之 (Liú Qiānzhī). The reconstruction is part of 湯球’s compilation published in the Guǎngyǎ Shūjú Cóngshū 廣雅書局叢書.

The reconstruction is organized by emperor and covers the full span of the Eastern Jìn dynasty from Emperor Yuán 元帝 through Emperor Ān 安帝:

• 元帝 Tàixīng 2 (319 CE): A great famine in Jiāngdōng 江東; Yīng Zhān 應瞻 submitted a memorial attributing the crisis to the moral climate since Yuánkāng 元康 (291 CE) — the era of qīngtán 清談 philosophy: “Since Yuánkāng, people have disdained the classics and exalted the Dao, regarding lofty detachment as cultivated wisdom and Confucian frugality as provincial custom.”
• 明帝: An anecdote about Wáng Dūn’s 王敦 failed attempt to depose Emperor Míng as unfilial, thwarted by the correct testimony of Wēn Sīmǎ 溫司馬.
• 簡文帝: Xiè Ān’s 謝安 posthumous title memorial — proposing “Jiǎnwén” 簡文 as appropriate per the Shì fǎ 謚法.
• 孝武帝 Tàiyuán 11 (386 CE): Wáng Xiànzhī 王獻之 (the great calligrapher) died and was posthumously made Tàicháng 太常.
• 安帝: Wáng Gōng’s 王恭 campaign against Wáng Guóbǎo 王國寶; Huán Xuán’s 桓玄 usurpation (Yuán Xīng 2, 403 CE) and his reinstatement of military offices.

Principal citation sources: Wén Xuǎn 文選 annotations, Shìshuō Xīnyǔ 世說新語 annotations, Bái Shūchāo 書鈔, Tàipíng Yùlǎn 御覽.

Tiyao

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

Abstract

劉謙之 (Liú Qiānzhī; dates uncertain, probably early 5th century CE) was a historian of the Eastern Jìn whose Jìnjì 晉紀 is recorded in the Suí shū jīngjí zhì. He is not to be confused with Liú Qiānzhī 劉謙之 the Eastern Jìn general (Jìn shū 84). The surviving fragments — covering events from Emperor Yuán through the usurpation of Huán Xuán (403 CE) — suggest the Jìnjì extended through the end of the Eastern Jìn or close to it, making it one of the later pre-Tang histories of the dynasty. The fragments show a historian with good access to court documents and memorial texts.

湯球 reconstructed the surviving citations in approximately 184 lines. After the Tang Jìn shū was compiled in 648 CE, the work disappeared. CBDB has no entry for this figure.

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.