What happened and why
China started to set up a museum to study history since Emperor Taizong; Make six official histories; The Book of Jin is the first one.
The divination in the Book of Jin is different from the divination in the Book of Changes.
when we talk about the Book of Jin, people will think of Tang Taizong's book Xiu < Book of Jin > A famous saying in the imperial edict: "It's great! It's useful to cover historical records!" (Collection of Imperial edicts of the Tang Dynasty, Volume 81, Quantang Wen, Volume 8) It means that history books play a great role! Emperor Taizong has always attached great importance to compiling history, and there are "twenty-five histories" today, among which six historical books were compiled during the period of Emperor Taizong. His imperial edict is to instruct the Royal Museum of History to rewrite the Book of Jin.
before the Tang dynasty, there were 18 schools of Jin history handed down from generation to generation, but in fact there were more than 2 schools, among which Shen Yue, Zheng Zhong and Yu Xi were all lost, and the rest still existed. At that time, Tang Taizong thought that these Jin histories had various defects, and that "although many productions were not perfect", it was convenient for Zhenguan to compile the Book of Jin in the twentieth year (646). In the Book of Jin, Tang Taizong said: "It is great to cover historical records for use."
The history books of the previous generation compiled during Li Shimin's reign included the history of Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Zhou and Sui Dynasties in addition to the Book of Jin. Why did Li Shimin choose the Book of Jin to write the history? This is mainly because the Western Jin Dynasty was a unified dynasty, which ended the decades-long division in the Three Kingdoms period. However, its unification was short-lived, and soon there was a big scuffle in the Central Plains, and then there was a long-term opposition between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Countries, the Southern Dynasties and the Northern Dynasties. Li Shimin, as the entrepreneurial king of the unified Tang Dynasty, wanted to explore the rise and fall of the Jin Dynasty for reference. It is for this reason that Sima Yi, the founder of the Western Jin Dynasty, and Sima Yan, who completed the cause of reunification, are taken as the main research objects (the historical theory of Lu Ji and Wang Xizhi mainly focuses on their literary and artistic achievements, which belongs to another situation, regardless of it). Although Xuan Di and Emperor Wudi's historical theories are relatively general, they do not touch the essence of the rise and fall of the Jin Dynasty's chaos control, but they point out that Sima Yan's "staying in power and forgetting danger", "not knowing where to be wide and thinking narrow" and "taking the new set as the basis of moving easily, without worrying about long-term stability and difficulty in pulling out", these comments finally see some phenomena.
Fang Xuanling and others were responsible for the supervision and revision of the Book of Jin, and organized a group of historians and scholars. Based on the Book of Jin written by Zang Rongxu, a person from the Qi Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and referring to other Jin history and related works, the book of Jin was "collected dozens of canon and miscellaneous sayings" and quoted historical records written by sixteen countries. It was written from the twentieth year of Zhenguan (646) to the twenty-second year of Zhenguan (648).
The compilation of the Book of Jin started in the 2th year of Zhenguan (AD 646) and was completed in the 22nd year (AD 648), which lasted less than three years. Twenty-one people participated in the compilation, including Fang Xuanling, Chu Suiliang and Xu Jingzong, and the remaining eighteen were Linghu Defen, Jingbo, Laiji, Lu Yuanshi, Liu Ziyi, Lu Chengji, Li Chunfeng, Li Yifu, Xue Yuanchao, Shangguan Yi, Cui Xinggong, Xin Qiuyu, Liu Yinzhi, Yang Renqing, li yanshou, Zhang Wengong, Ang Lee and Li Huaiyan. Astronomy, calendar and five elements are written by Li Chunfeng. The style of compiling history was drafted by Jingbo and has not been handed down. Because Li Shimin (Emperor Taizong) once wrote four essays on history to Xuan Di (Sima Yi), Emperor Wudi (Sima Yan) and Lu Ji and Wang Xizhi, it was also titled "Imperial Writing".
Emperor Taizong personally wrote historical comments for the Book of Jin, including Xuandi Ji, Wudi Ji, Lu Ji Zhuan and Wang Xizhi Zhuan. After the publication of the Book of Jin, "those who talk about the history of Jin all abandon their old books and write them anew".
Features
Compared with other histories in the twenty-fifth history, The Book of Jin has four characteristics.
the first characteristic is the large number of authors. There are twenty-one authors of the Book of Jin, and all of them have left their names, which is rare in the historical revision work of dynasties.
The existence of such a team of authors is an important reason why The Book of Jin can surpass previous Jin histories.
the second feature is the innovation of style. As mentioned above, the Book of Jin has thirty volumes of records. Recording is a form of describing the political power established by the rulers of the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jiejie, Bianyi and Qiang ethnic minorities, that is, the historical events of the Sixteen Kingdoms, which is a creation of the Book of Jin in the style of biographical history books. Earlier, Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote an overload record, but it was not used to record the historical events of minority regimes, nor was it regarded as an integral part of a history book. As an integral part of the book, The Book of Jin not only enriches the style of biographical history books, but also has far-reaching significance for showing the historical features of an important stage of the historical development of multi-ethnic countries-the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms Period.
The third feature is to make up for the shortcomings of the old history.
The History of the Three Kingdoms is disciplined and spread without ambition. The ambition in the Book of Jin was mostly written during the Three Kingdoms period. Cao Wei cultivated land, built water conservancy, developed agriculture, managed northwest China, and occupied land in Jin Dynasty. Shihuozhi talks about the economic development in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, which can make up for the shortcomings of Houhanshu and the Three Kingdoms. From the point of view of politicians, although the Book of Jin is a biography, it does not encourage Sima's family history. In the Book of Jin Xuandi Ji, it was said that Jin Mingdi asked about the specific situation of Jin's success in the world. Wang Dao told him, and the Ming emperor was ashamed. He buried his face in bed and said, "If it is fair, Jin Zuofu will be safe for a long time!" And in his historical theory, Emperor Taizong has even more cautionary meanings.
The fourth feature is that the history of Jin Dynasty before the Tang Dynasty is completely recorded, or only the historical events of the Western Jin Dynasty or the historical events of the two Jin Dynasties are recorded, but there is no special account of the historical events of the Sixteen Kingdoms. It can be said that it is not a complete history of Jin Dynasty. Compared with the Jin history before the Tang Dynasty, the content of the Book of Jin is more detailed and extensive, and a large number of imperial edicts, scripts, letters and articles contained in biographies are lengthy, but they have many historical values. Yu Fu Zhi, Li Zhi and Yue Zhi reflect the atmosphere of the ruling class advocating etiquette and clothing in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Zhao Yi said: "In the early Tang Dynasty, the Book of Jin was mainly written by Zang Rongxu, and it was also tested by various schools. Today, according to the biographies of books such as Jin and Song, there are dozens of people who are classified as the Book of Jin. "
after the publication of the Book of Jin, "all those who talk about the history of Jin abandoned their old books and wrote them anew", which shows that it was valued by people at that time and later generations. Of course, the Book of Jin also has obvious shortcomings, which are highlighted in that it records some supernatural stories and novel materials, which should not be treated as history. We must pay attention to this when reading the Book of Jin.