What are the three types of commonly used paper documents?

The so-called "commonly used paper documents" refer to common historical works with paper materials as the carrier. If the traditional "four-division method" is taken as the standard, all the commonly used paper documents in ancient China can be divided into three categories: historical documents, classics, scholars and book collections, instead of four.

First, historical documents.

As we all know, since the compilation of Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi in Tang Dynasty, ancient Chinese documents have been divided into Jing, Shi, Zi and Ji. Among the "four parts", the historical part ranks second, and it is a fixed area dedicated to recording traditional historical documents. There are many kinds of history departments. Various documents are reflected by specific categories. If classified by genre, there are biographical styles such as Historical Records by Sima Qian and Hanshu by Ban Gu, chronological styles such as Chunqiu by Confucius and Zi Zhi Tong Jian by Sima Guang, chronological styles such as Zi Zhi Tong Jian by Shu Yuan, and chronological styles such as Ming Shi by Gu Yingtai, Du You and Ma You. There are Xu Tianlin's Hui Tong of the Western Han Dynasty and Yang's Hui Tong of the Three Kingdoms, Zhu's Zi Jian lue and Tong Jian Gang Jin Bian, Liu Zhiji's Shi Tong and Zhang Xuecheng's Wen Shi, Textual Research Record and Wang Wusheng's Seventeen Histories. According to time and space, it can be divided into other different types of history books. For example, divided by time, there are both general history such as Historical Records by Sima Qian and Tongzhi Jian by Sima Guang, and dynastic history such as Han Shu by Ban Gu and Han Ji by Xun Yue. In terms of space, there are not only the national history such as the History of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou and the Spring and Autumn Annals of Sixteen Countries by Cui Hong, but also the local chronicles such as Huayang National Annals by Chang Qu and Qian Shu by Tian Wen. Wait, the list goes on.

Followed by classic, educational and collected literature.

According to the traditional view, the so-called historical records refer to the documents of the four Chinese history departments. In fact, there are also precious historical materials and historical records with specific significance in the group classics, philosophers and collections. As Amin Li Zhi said: "Once Chunqiu is written, the history of Chunqiu is also temporary;" The book of songs, classics, the history since the two emperors and three kings; And "Yi" shows that people come out from what they have learned. Where history has never been, it is impossible to determine because the Tao moves repeatedly and changes frequently. Therefore, the ancient classics are all history ("Burning Books", Volume 5, "History is both exterior and interior"). The Book of a Hundred Schools is also closely related to history. For example, the works of Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Yin and Yang are the first-hand materials in the history of philosophy, while the expositions of astronomy, calendar, agriculture, medicine and five elements are the important reference materials for studying the problems of related disciplines and their development history. Even if "novels" are not noticed by ordinary people, they also contain important reference value. As for the collected documents, such as memorials and travel notes, they are historical materials that directly record historical events and historical sites.

Zhang Xuecheng, a scholar in A Qing, has a good exposition on the important historical materials in classics, philosophers and collections. In the Textual Research on Historical Records, he established "fifteen principles" for historical records, among which: "Scriptures should be accessible". "Subdivision should be selected" and "Set should be cut". The so-called "Department of Arts and Classics" means that "Classics" contains "history" and "integrates six arts, especially as a historian of Shangshu and the Spring and Autumn Period". Today, the six arts are respected by precepts. At the beginning, they were not based on their physical use and history. "The so-called' appropriate selection by department' is the book of various schools" is mostly opposite to the history department. "For example, the Code of Zhou Officials is more common in Guanzi and Lv Chunqiu, and trivial matters in other countries are more common in Yanzi and Everything is done wrong. The so-called "the collection department should tailor it to suit its own circumstances" means that the books of the collection department are also closely related to the history department. For example, there are "occasional notes" in the anthology of Tang Dynasty, and there are many "biographies, books and events" in the anthology of Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Third, there are no four documents.

The commonly used paper documents other than the Four Books mainly include the following six categories: archives, local chronicles, books, catalogues, newly discovered underground historical materials and ethnic minority documents. Any of these six categories of literature has a large number of literature resources. Take local chronicles as an example. China is the country with the richest local chronicles, with a long history and a wide variety. Among them, local chronicles include general chronicles, provincial chronicles, state chronicles, government chronicles, county chronicles and town chronicles. Among them, special records include mountain records, water records, Guan records, temple records, academy records, etc. There are also "magazines" with different contents and styles. The Joint Catalogue of China Local Records compiled by Beijing Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences contains more than 8,200 kinds of local records.