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 The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

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 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 ...

, a traditional collection of historical records. It was written in 492–493 by

Shen Yue Shen Yue (; 441 – 1 May 513), courtesy name Xiuwen (休文), was a Chinese historian, music theorist, poet, and politician born in Huzhou, Zhejiang. He served emperors under the Liu Song dynasty, the Southern Qi dynasty (see Yongming poetry ...

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''.

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 {{China-hist-book-stub

History

Contents

Translations

References

External links