Lìnghú Détén 令狐德棻
Native of Yídù 宜都 in Húnán, family originally of Dūnhuáng — the great Dūnhuáng Lìnghú 燉煌令狐氏 lineage. CBDB id 32966; lifedates 583–666 — exceptional longevity (84 years) for the era.
The principal architect of the early-Tang zhèngshǐ programme. Held Sànjì chángshì 散騎常侍, Hànwáng yǒu shǔ 漢王友屬 (in the household of the prince Lǐ Yuánjià), and after Tang Tàizōng’s accession a long succession of imperial-library posts: Hóngwénguǎn xuéshì 弘文館學士, Mìshū chéng 秘書丞, ultimately Bìshū jiàn 秘書監 (Director of the Imperial Library).
In Wǔdé 5 (622) Lìnghú Détén proposed to Tang Gāozǔ the comprehensive imperial commissioning of histories for Liáng, Chén, Zhōu, Qí, and Suí — the dynasties whose histories had been left unfinished by the Suí and the late Six-Dynasties courts. The project lapsed under Gāozǔ but was renewed under Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 3 (629); Lìnghú Détén was both the originator of the project and the lead compiler of one of the five histories (the Zhōu shū, KR2a0022). He was also a senior contributor to the Jìnshū (KR2a0015) under Fáng Xuánlíng’s chief editorship, and to the Wǔdài shǐ zhì 五代史志 (the ten zhì attached to the Suí shū) presented under Gāozōng in 656. He thus had a hand in five of the eight zhèngshǐ compiled at the Tang court.
Outside historiography, he composed the Zhèngdiǎn 政典 (10 juǎn, an institutional encyclopaedia, lost), and was one of the principal Tang court drafters of edicts and memorials.
His biographies are in Jiù Tángshū 73 and Xīn Tángshū 102 (KR2a0026, KR2a0027).