Jìn Zhōngxīng Shū 晉中興書
History of the Jin Restoration by 何法盛
About the work
Jìn Zhōngxīng Shū 晉中興書 is a jíyìběn reconstruction in 7 juǎn of the lost Eastern Jin history by 何法盛 (Hé Fǎshèng), a Liú-Sòng 劉宋 dynasty historian. Unlike the comprehensive Jin histories that covered both Western and Eastern Jin (such as Wáng Yǐn’s and Yǔ Yù’s), this work focused exclusively on the “Restoration” (zhōngxīng 中興) — the Eastern Jin after the court’s flight south in 317 CE. It was one of the most frequently cited unofficial Jin histories through the Táng period.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This is a jíyìběn reconstruction.
Abstract
Hé Fǎshèng was a Liú-Sòng official about whom little is known except that he compiled this history. A controversial tradition recorded in the Nán Shǐ 南史 claims that Hé Fǎshèng stole the draft from a poorer scholar named Author Xú Guǎng 酈紹 (or another figure depending on the source), but the story may be apocryphal — a mirror of the Wáng Yǐn/Yǔ Yù plagiarism narrative.
The Suí Shū 隋書 bibliography records the Jìn Zhōngxīng Shū in 78 juǎn, making it one of the largest of the unofficial Jin histories. The jíyìběn in 7 juǎn was reconstructed by 湯球 and published in the Guǎngyǎ Shūjú Cóngshū 廣雅書局叢書. It draws principally from the Tàipíng Yùlǎn 太平御覽 (370 citations), Běitáng Shūchāo 北堂書鈔 (160), Shìshuō Xīnyǔ 世說新語 commentary (124), and Yìwén Lèijù 藝文類聚 (71). The text opens with Juǎn 1: Emperor Zhōngzōng Yuán 中宗元皇帝 (Sīmǎ Ruì 司馬叡), recording portents of his birth and his early years as Prince of Lángyá. It also includes a supplement (“Jìn Lù bǔyí” 晉錄補遺) at the end, collecting fragments from the anonymous Jìn Lù 晉錄.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.