The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the and followed by ''

Nihon Kōki is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 840, it is the third volume in the Six National Histories. It covers the years 792–833. Background Following the earlier national history '' Shoku Nihongi'' (797), in 819 Em ...

''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as the primary editors. It is one of the most important primary historical sources for information about Japan's

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

. The work covers the 95-year period from the beginning of Emperor Monmu's reign in 697 until the 10th year of Emperor Kanmu's reign in 791, spanning nine imperial reigns. It was completed in 797 AD. The text is forty volumes in length. It is primarily written in kanbun, a Japanese form of

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

, as was normal for formal Japanese texts at the time. However, a number of or "imperial edicts" contained within the text are written in a script known as "senmyō-gaki", which preserves particles and verb endings phonographically.

References

External links

* *
Text of the ''Shoku Nihongi''
(Japanese)

at Japanese Historical Text Initiative
Manuscript scans at Waseda University Library
8th-century Japanese literature 8th-century history books Late Old Japanese texts Heian period in literature History books about Japan 797 Emperor Kanmu 8th-century Japanese books History books of the Heian Period {{japan-hist-book-stub