Misplaced Pages

Old Book of Tang

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from First Canonical Book of the Tang Dynasty) Classic historical work about the Tang dynasty in China

Old Book of Tang
Traditional Chinese舊唐書
Simplified Chinese旧唐书
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinJiù Tángshū
Southern Min
Hokkien POJKū Tông-su (col.)
Kiū Tông-su (lit.)
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese唐書
Simplified Chinese唐书
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTángshū
Wade–GilesT'ang-shu

The Old Book of Tang, or simply the Book of Tang, is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (10th century AD), it was superseded by the New Book of Tang, which was compiled in the Song dynasty, but later regained acceptance.

The credited editor was chief minister Liu Xu, but the bulk (if not all) of the editing work was actually completed by his predecessor Zhao Ying. The authors include Zhang Zhao, Jia Wei (賈緯), and Zhao Xi (趙熙).

Structure

The Old Book of Tang comprises 200 volumes. Volumes 1–20 contain the annals of the Tang emperors. Twitchett notes that coverage over time in the annals is most dense during the early and middle Tang, including only very sparse information in the late Tang after 847.

Volumes 21–50 contain treatises, including rites, music, calendar, astronomy, five elements, geography, officials, carriages and clothes, literature, food and commodities, and law. The section on rites (volumes 21–27) is the longest and most detailed, showing the relative importance placed on ceremonial matters. This section includes descriptions of temple design, sacrifices, and festivals. The section on geography (volumes 38–41) contains a description of the regional administration of the Tang empire around the year 752. The section on officials (volumes 42–44) contains a description of the Tang administrative system. The section on the five elements (五行) contains a description of earthquakes, floods, and other natural events.

Volumes 51–200 contain biographical related content, including empresses and consorts (51–52), imperial families, and the peoples populating the areas bordering the Tang empire (194–200).

History

The book's compiling began when the Later Jin's founding emperor Shi Jingtang ordered its compilation in 941. The original chief editor was Zhao Ying, who was also the chancellor then. However, by the time of its completion, Liu Xu had become chancellor and taken over the work of organisation; as a result he was credited as chief editor when the work was presented in 945 to Emperor Chu of Jin.

Being a relatively quickly compiled work of official history, the Old Book of Tang was a compilation of earlier annals, now lost; it further incorporates other monographs and biographies, using as sources (for instance) the Tongdian of Du You. These sources were often directly copied from records and earlier histories, and the result would be severely criticised during the Northern Song; Emperor Renzong of Song, for example, called the book "poorly organised, burdened with unimportant details, wanting in style and poorly researched". These errors even included duplicated biographies of characters.

Because of these criticisms, in 1044 a new history of the Tang dynasty was commissioned; with Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi as editors, the New Book of Tang was then produced. After the New Book was presented, the original Old Book of Tang went out of print, and over centuries it became very rare. It was during the Ming dynasty when the remaining copies were gathered and the book was once again published, eventually becoming canonised as one of the Twenty-Four Histories.

References

Citations

  1. Zhao Yi, Ch. 16 "Old and New Books of Tang" (新舊唐書), Notes on Twenty-two Histories (廿二史劄記 (in Chinese)).
  2. Kaneko (1994), p. .
  3. Twitchett (2009), pp. 202–203.
  4. Twitchett (2009), pp. 207–208.
  5. Twitchett (2009), pp. 224–229.
  6. Twitchett (2009), pp. 229–231.
  7. Twitchett (2002), p. .

Sources

Works cited

External links

Twenty-Four Histories
Tang dynasty topics
History (Timeline) A ceramic female polo player
Government
Three Departments
Six Ministries
  1. Ministry of Personnel
  2. Ministry of Revenue
  3. Ministry of Rites
  4. Ministry of War
  5. Ministry of Justice
  6. Ministry of Works
Protectorates
Culture
Writers
Poets
Painters
Religion
Buddhism
Taoism
Confucianism
Other
Science and technology
Economy
Categories: