Wú Jīng 吳兢 (670–749) was a Táng-period court historian and the most accomplished biographer of the Tàizōng era’s institutional history. A native of Jùnyí 浚儀 (modern Kāifēng) in Biàn Prefecture 汴州, he came to office on the recommendation of the chief minister Wèi Yuánzhōng 魏元忠 and entered the Bureau of Historiography (shǐguǎn 史館) early. He served at court through the reigns of Wǔ Zétiān, Zhōngzōng, Ruìzōng, and Xuánzōng, rising to Left Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent (tàizǐ zuǒ shùzǐ 太子左庶子). After demotion to Marshal of Jīngzhōu 荆州司馬 he served successively as prefect of Hóngzhōu 洪州 and Shūzhōu 舒州, and finally returned to the capital as Mentor to Prince Héng 恆王傅. He died in the first year of Tiānbǎo 天寶 (749) at the age of 80. His biography is in both Tángshū (Jiù 102, Xīn 132). His historiographical accomplishment includes the now-lost Wǔhòu shílù 武后實錄 and Tàizōng shílù 太宗實錄 (he was the principal compiler of the latter), the Zhēnguān zhèngyào 貞觀政要 KR2e0006 — by far his best-known work, transmitted continuously into the present — and a literary collection. He is one of the founding figures of Táng official historiography and was greatly admired by Liú Zhījī 劉知幾 (his colleague at the shǐguǎn) for his concision and moral seriousness; the Tángshū records the criticism that his late writings were somewhat slack, but his contemporaries called his earlier work liángshǐ 良史 (“the work of a fine historian”).