The ''History of the Northern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''

Twenty-Four Histories The ''Twenty-Four Histories'', also known as the ''Orthodox Histories'' (), are a collection of official histories detailing the dynasties of China, from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to the Ming ...

'' canon. The text contains 100 volumes and covers the period from 386 to 618 CE: the histories of

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an Dynasties of China, impe ...

Western Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Western Wei (), was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei. One of the Northern dynasties during the era of the Northern and Southern dynasties, it ruled the weste ...

Eastern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Eastern Wei (), was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei dynasty. One of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Nor ...

Northern Zhou Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties of China's ...

Northern Qi Qi, known as the Northern Qi (), Later Qi (後齊) or Gao Qi (高齊) in historiography, was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese imperial dynasty and one of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties during the ...

, and

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. Like the ''

History of the Southern Dynasties The ''History of the Southern Dynasties'' is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. It contain 80 volumes and covers the period from 420 to 589, the histories of the Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang, ...

'', the book was started by Li Dashi and compiled from texts of the ''

Book of Wei The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'' and '' Book of Zhou''. Following his death, Li Yanshou (李延寿), son of Li Dashi, completed work on the book between 643 and 659 CE. Unlike most of the rest of the Twenty-Four Histories, this work was not commissioned by the state.

Content

Volumes 1–5 contain the Wei annals including the Eastern Wei and Western Wei emperors. Volumes 6–8 contain the annals of the Northern Qi emperors, volumes 9–10 contain the annals of the Northern Zhou emperors, and volumes 11–12 contain the annals of the Sui emperors. Volumes 13–14 contain the biographies of empresses and consorts. Volumes 15–19 contain biographies of the imperial families of the Wei dynasties and volumes 20–50 contain the other Wei biographies. Volumes 51-79 contain biographies of figures from the Northern Qi (51–56), Northern Zhou (59–70), and Sui (71–79) dynasties. Volumes 80 through 100 contain other biographical content, including families of imperial consorts (80), Confucian scholars (81-82), literature (83), filial acts (84), recluses (75–76), exemplars of the loyal and righteous (85), virtuous officials (86), cruel officials (87), recluses (88), divination (89–90), exemplary women (91), favorites of nobles (92), foreign states and peoples (93–99), and a preface to the biographies (100).

References

Citations

Works cited

* *

External links

Text of the ''History of the Northern Dynasties''
National Sun Yat-sen University
''History of the Northern Dynasties'' 《北史》
Chinese text with matching English vocabulary

Content

References

Citations

Works cited

External links

See also