Wèi Shōu 魏收
Zì Bóqǐ 伯起; childhood name Fózhù 佛助 (“Buddha’s helper”). Native of Qǔyáng 曲陽 in Xiàběi 下博 of Jùlù 鉅鹿 (modern Héběi). Lifedates 506–572.
Career across three Northern dynasties — Northern Wèi, Eastern Wèi, Northern Qí. Under Northern Wèi he held Tàixué bóshì 太學博士 and Sànjì shìláng 散騎侍郎; under Eastern Wèi (534–550), the dynastic continuator of Northern Wèi at Yè 鄴, he became Zhōngshū láng 中書郎 and the principal court historiographer. Under the Northern Qí dynasty that followed (550–577), he held Zhōngshū lìng 中書令 — the de facto chief minister of the cultural-literary court.
In 551, by imperial commission of Northern Qí Wéndì 文宣帝, he was set to compile the Wèishū (KR2a0020) — the dynastic history of the just-fallen Northern Wèi. The completed work in 130 juǎn was presented in Tiānbǎo 5 (554). It immediately attracted bitter complaint from descendants of those whose forefathers were treated unfavourably or omitted; Wèi Shōu was twice forced to revise (the second revision presented in Tiānbǎo 8 = 557); the work was nicknamed Huì shǐ 穢史 (“the foul history”) by his detractors. Two later attempts (Wèi Dàn 魏澹 under the Suí; Zhāng Tàisù 張太素 under the Tang) tried to supersede the Wèishū; both are now lost, while Wèi Shōu’s text survives in the zhèngshǐ canon.
In addition to the Wèishū, Wèi Shōu composed substantial fù, zhào (edicts; he was the principal Eastern-Wèi and early Northern-Qí court drafter), and one of the earliest Wǔ lì 五禮 systematizations of imperial ritual. His memorial corpus is partly preserved in the Yìwén lèijù. He died in officio in 572.
His biographies are in Běi Qí shū 37 and Běi shǐ 56 (KR2a0021, KR2a0025). The “huì shǐ” reputation, repeated by Liú Zhījī, has been substantially rehabilitated in modern scholarship — most influentially by Tián Yúqìng 田餘慶 and Tāng Yòngtǒng 湯用彤.