The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the
Liu Song dynasty
Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties peri ...
of the
Southern Dynasties of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the
Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. It was written in 492–493 by
Shen Yue from the
Southern Qi
Qi, known in historiography as the Southern Qi ( or ) or Xiao Qi (), was a Chinese imperial dynasty and the second of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties era. It followed the Liu Song dynasty and was succee ...
dynasty (479–502).
The work contained 100 volumes at the time that it was written, but some volumes were already missing by the time of the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
. Later editors reconstructed those volumes by taking material from the ''
History of the Southern Dynasties'', plus a few works such as the ''Historiette of Gao'' by Gao Jun, though many of those volumes were no longer in their original condition.
History
The ''Book of Song'' was based on records compiled beginning in the Liu Song. He Chentian 何承天 (370–447) was commissioned by the imperial court of the time in 439. He compiled biographies and also treatises on
astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
and
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
. Compilation was later continued by Shan Qianzhi 山謙之 ( 440–456), and Xu Yuan 徐爰 (394–475). The Qi court commissioned Shen Yue in 487 to complete the ''Book of Song''.
Contents
The first ten ''juan'' or volume are annals of the Liu Song emperors, 30 ''juan'' contain treatises, and 60 ''juan'' are dedicated to biographies.
Translations
There are no known full translations to English. Dien includes partial translations of The Disputation at Pengcheng, a conflict in present-day
Xuzhou
Xuzhou ( zh, s=徐州), also known as Pengcheng () in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 Chinese census, 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in ...
. Dien compares the
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 ...
and Liu Song accounts of this one in a long series of conflicts between the two states. The Liu Song account is included in volume 59 of the Book of Song. Holcombe translates a fragment of volume 54 on a land petition.
References
External links
Book of Song 《宋書》Chinese text with matching English vocabulary
History books about the Northern and Southern dynasties
Northern and Southern dynasties literature
Twenty-Four Histories
5th-century history books
Liu Song dynasty
Sixteen Kingdoms
5th-century Chinese books
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