"Twenty-four histories" in why there are two "book of Tang", will not repeat?

Twenty-four histories, is the general name of the twenty-four histories compiled by successive dynasties in ancient China, these twenty-four histories start and end in time: the Yellow Emperor (about 2550 BC) to the seventeenth year of the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen (1644). Twenty-four history of the origin of the claim that the Qianlong four years to forty-nine years of the Wuying Hall engraved and printed the "Qin Ding twenty-four history," which can be called the most important, the most official historiography of ancient China. These twenty-four histories are the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), Han Shu (Book of the Han), Hou Han Shu (Book of the Later Han), San Guo Zhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms), Jin Shu (Book of the Jin), Song Shu (Book of the Song), Nanqi Shu (Book of the Southern Qi), Liang Shu (Book of the Liang), Chen Shu (Book of the Chen), Wei Shu (Book of the Wei), Beiqi Shu (Book of the Northern Qi), Zhou Shu (Book of the Zhou), Sui Shu (Book of the Sui), Nan Shi (History of the Southern Qi), Beishi (History of the Northern Wei), Old Tang Shi (Old Tang Shi), New Tang Shu (New Tang Shi), Old Five Dynasties History (Old Five Dynasties Shi), New Five Dynasties History (New Five Dynasties Shi), Song Shi (Song Shi), Liao Shi (History of the Liao Dynasty), Jin Shi (Jin Shi), Yuan History, and Ming History. The History of Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan, and Ming. Above_ The Records of the Grand Historian With the exception of the Records of the Grand Historian, all of them are interrupted histories (historical books that record the history of a certain period or dynasty). A careful study reveals a strange phenomenon: although the histories of many dynasties or periods are intersected in different histories, for example, the Northern History is a compilation and deletion of the Wei Book, the Northern Qi Book, the Zhou Book, and the Sui Book, and the Old Five Dynasties History and the New Five Dynasties History both record the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. But the only only record of the history of the Tang Dynasty has two historical books ("Old Five Dynasties History" and "New Five Dynasties History" recorded the history of the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is not a dynasty), that is, the "Old Book of the Tang Dynasty" and the "New Book of the Tang Dynasty", which means that there are two of the twenty-four histories "the Book of the Tang Dynasty". The Old Book of Tang", although signed as compiled by Liu cozy and others in the Later Jin Dynasty, was actually compiled by Zhao Ying of the Later Jin Dynasty under the auspices of Zhao Ying, and was completed in the second year of the Kaiyun era (945). The New Book of Tang was compiled during the Northern Song Dynasty by Song Qi, Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gongliang, and Lv Xiaqing in the fifth year of the Jiayou reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1060 AD). The book was written by Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gongliang and Lu Xiaqing during the Northern Song Dynasty. Above_ The Old Book of Tang was compiled not far from the fall of the Tang Dynasty, and is a relatively rich source of information So, why are there two "Book of Tang"? First, the "Old Book of Tang" is subject to the compilation of the age, there are many flaws. The Old Book of Tang was compiled in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the Later Jin Dynasty, which experienced only two emperors, before and after only twelve years. In that era of frequent wars, the compilation of the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty was relatively hasty, starting from the fifth year of Tianfu of the Later Jin Dynasty (940) to the completion of the second year of Kaiyun of the Later Jin Dynasty (945), which was completed in just over four years. Moreover, the historical sources of the Old Book of Tang were mainly the Tang Records and the State History of the Tang Dynasty. Its style, clipping, and literary style were not perfect enough. Zeng Gongliang, one of the editors of the New Book of the Tang Dynasty, criticized the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty in the Table of Entering the New Book of the Tang Dynasty, saying that "the chronicle is impossible, the details are out of the middle, the literary style is not clear, and the facts are fragmentary". For example, due to the massive transcription of the original text of the Tang Real Records and the State History of the Tang Dynasty, the Old Book of the Tang resulted in the existence of many such words as "大唐", "本朝", and "今上" in the the view of later generations somewhat unorthodox characters. The name of the clan is ""大唐", "本朝", "今上", etc. Above_ The Clan Map of the End of the Tang Dynasty In addition, due to the middle and late Tang Dynasty into a long period of feudalism, eunuchs chaotic government, peasant uprisings, resulting in the loss of most of the "Wuzong Real Records," the Tang Emperor Xuanzong, Yizong, Xizong, Zhaotong, Mourning Emperor five generations is directly did not leave the Real Records, and therefore had to refer to the "Supplementary Records of the Tang Dynasty Years", "the end of the Tang Dynasty, three dynasties hear and see the record of the" and other books before they barely repaired, and the work is actually written through the These works were actually written through insights and novels. It can be imagined that the historical records of the late Tang Dynasty after Emperor Wuzong in the Old Book of Tang can be said to be quite rough. In order to correct the shortcomings of the Old Book of Tang, Song Renzong issued an imperial edict in the fourth year of the Qingli reign (1044 AD) to revise the book. The Old Book of the Tang Dynasty was rewritten by Song Renzong in 1044 AD. Above_ Song Renzong, Zhaozhen (1010-1063) Second, the Northern Song court used the "Yidai revision of history" to prove its orthodoxy and boast of its prosperity. Ancient China has always had the tradition of "easy generation to repair history, and the flourishing world to repair the book". The so-called "easy generation to repair history", that is, the emerging dynasty for the extinction of the previous dynasty to compile and repair history books; "Sheng Shi Xiu Shu" refers to the country is rich and strong, the people live and work in peace and contentment, can be organized large-scale manpower and material resources to repair the book (repair of history is also considered to be a part of the repair of books). (history revision is also considered a part of book revision). This tradition first began with Sima Qian, the Grand Historian of the Western Han Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when the mystery of the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty inspired people to summarize their historical experiences and lessons, and the great work of historiography, the Shiji, was born out of this trend. Although the compilation of the Shiji and the subsequent Han Shu was only a personal act, it left a tradition of "Yi Generation Cultivation of History" to future generations. ? Above_ Emperor Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (January 28, 598 - July 10, 649) "The reason why "revision of history in different generations" was valued by successive rulers was not only to summarize the lessons learned from the previous generations and to find out the ways of governance, but also, and even more importantly, to illustrate the legitimacy of succession to a new dynasty and to show that one's own legitimacy had been achieved. The legitimacy of the new dynasty, indicating their orthodox status. In the third year of Emperor Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty (629), the system of history revision was formally established in the Historical Hall. From then on, the revision of history became an official system of the feudal dynasties. The Northern Song Dynasty was actually inherited from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in time, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms due to the change of dynasties, wars and divisions are too frequent, so who is the orthodoxy has not been able to be determined, the ruler of the Northern Song Dynasty in order to show that their own orthodoxy, naturally, not willing to recognize that they are the successor to the Five Dynasties, but rather claimed that they are inherited from the Tang Dynasty. If the Old Book of Tang is regarded as the official history, it is equivalent to acquiescing that the Later Jin Dynasty is the orthodox successor after the Tang Dynasty, which is obviously what the Northern Song rulers did not want to see, so the Old Book of Tang must be denied, plus, the Northern Song Dynasty was in the flourishing Qingli years, and in order to boast its own prosperity, it was also necessary to rewrite the history books of the previous dynasty. The New Book of the Tang Dynasty (《新唐書》) was the first of its kind. The New Book of Tang and the Old Book of Tang have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the combination of the two can ensure the integrity of the history of the Tang Dynasty. After the promulgation of the New Book of the Tang Dynasty, the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty suffered bad luck and was abandoned by the historians in the unattended corners, and after an edition was engraved and printed in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was left unattended. It was not until more than four hundred years later, in the 17th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1538), Wen Renxue, a native of Zhejiang Province, asked someone to re-proofread the manuscript of the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty when he was borrowing books from Suzhou, and opened the edition for printing, so the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty came back to the light of the day. The fundamental reason why the New Book of Tang and the Old Book of Tang were included in the "Twenty-Four Histories" is that both works have their strengths and weaknesses, and only by combining the two can the integrity of the historical records of the Tang Dynasty be guaranteed to the greatest extent possible. ? Above_ Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) The New Book of the Tang Dynasty was begun in the fourth year of the Qingli reign (1044 AD) and completed in the fifth year of the Jiayou reign (1060 AD), a period of seventeen years, far exceeding the four years of compilation of the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty. Participated in the compilation of the Northern Song Dynasty is a famous literati, historians, editor Ouyang Xiu is listed as one of the "Eight Greats of Tang and Song Dynasty"; in addition, the Northern Song Dynasty to the Ping Dynasty and the prosperity of the rule of civilization, a lot of difficult to collect and preserve the historical materials of the period of war and chaos are able to get improved, "New Book of the Tang Dynasty" sources of historical materials than the "Old Book of the Tang Dynasty" to be more extensive. All of these contribute to the New Book of the Tang Dynasty, compared to the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty, has many advantages. Firstly, the literary style, chronology, and cuttings are more perfect; secondly, it makes a major innovation in the style, adding the "Military Zhi" and "Election Zhi", which were not found in the previous official history, thus giving a detailed and complete discussion of the military and imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty, and this innovation was also followed by the later generations; thirdly, it supplements and adds the missing information in the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty, for example, the "Food and Goods Zhi" was increased to five volumes, which preserves a large amount of information about the social and economic history of the Tang Dynasty in an organized way; the columns of the New Book of the Tang Dynasty are more comprehensive than that of the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty. For example, the Food and Goods Zhi was increased to five volumes, preserving a large amount of information on the social and economic history of the Tang Dynasty in an organized manner; dozens of biographies were added, and the history of the late Tang Dynasty was effectively added. However, everything is overkill. The New Book of Tang stands in the subjective point of view of the Northern Song people, there are also relatively obvious shortcomings: First, in order to correct the problem of cumbersome literary style in the Old Book of Tang, too demanding text refinement, at the expense of deleting many important episodes, for example, almost 60% to 70% of the main record has been subtracted (more than 300,000 words in the main record in the Old Book of Tang, the New Book of Tang is just more than 90,000 words). Second, serious contempt for peasant revolts, for example, the end of the Sui dynasty in Hebei quite popular, outstanding achievements of the peasant revolt leader Dou Jiande was used extremely "" hedgehog hair and excited ","" grinding teeth shake poison ","" sin gas fishy flames " and other vicious words. ? Above_ The map of Tang dynasty territory in the second year of Tang Emperor Gaozong's general chapter (669) As for the Old Book of Tang, although there are many defects, it is still far from the point that it should be discarded. Standing in a longer perspective, the Old Book of Tang has a lot of flashpoints. First, for the preservation of the first-hand historical materials of the Tang Dynasty has made a significant contribution. The Old Book of the Tang Dynasty was compiled in the Later Jin Dynasty only thirty years after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, and much of the information in the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty actually came from the Tang people. Although the Old Book of Tang copied a lot from the Tang Records and the national history of the Tang Dynasty, which led to the Song people reading it in an unorthodox style, the copying of the Old Book of Tang was fortunately preserved due to the large amount of first-hand information about the Tang Dynasty that had been lost in the later generations; secondly, the Old Book of Tang contains a very detailed description of the ethnic minorities of the Tang Dynasty as well as foreign countries, which reflects the preservation of the national policies and foreign relations of the Tang Dynasty very well. In conclusion, if we want to study the history of the Tang Dynasty in its entirety, the New Book of the Tang Dynasty and the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty are indispensable, and they can complement and corroborate each other. Wen: Boling Qinghe

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