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 dynasty in the 17th century.

The Han dynasty official Sima Qian established many of the conventions of the genre, but the form was not fixed until much later. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records, partly in order to establish its own link to the earliest times. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3,213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture.

The title ''Twenty-Four Histories'' dates from 1775, which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, the '' History of Ming'', was reworked and a complete set of the histories was produced.

History

The idea of compiling a collection of Chinese official histories have existed as the Three Kingdoms era, when the ''Three Histories'' consisted of ''Shiji'', ''Book of Han'', and '' Dongguan Hanji''. ''Book of the Later Han'' would later gradually replace the ''Dongguan Hanji''. After the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' appeared, it was soon tacked on to produce the ''Early Four Historiographies'' .

By the Tang dynasty, the ten official histories starting from ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' and ending with ''Book of Sui'' were collectively called the ''Ten Histories''. Combined with the earlier three, they make the ''Thirteen Histories''. Two Tang scholars have written works based on the ''Thirteen Histories'': ''Criticism of the Thirteen Histories'' by (20 volumes) and ''Index of the Thirteen Histories'' by Song Jian (10 volumes).

During the Song dynasty, on top of on the ''Thirteen Histories'', ''History of the Southern Dynasties'', ''History of the Northern Dynasties'', ''New Book of Tang'', and ''New History of the Five Dynasties'' were added to form the ''Seventeen Histories''. Northern Song's wrote ''Master Wang's Enlightenment on the Seventeen Histories'', and Southern Song's Lü Zuqian wrote ''Detailed Excerpts of the Seventeen Histories''.

The ''Twenty-One Histories'' was formed during the Ming dynasty. Qing dynasty's Gu Yanwu wrote in ''Daily Knowledge Records: Official Edition of Twenty-One Histories'' : "In Song times there were only seventeen histories, now with the addition of the histories of Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan, there are twenty-one histories."

During the Yongzheng period of the Qing dynasty, after the completion of the ''History of Ming'', they were collectively known as the ''Twenty-Two Histories'', and Zhao Yi's ''Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories'' was named accordingly. Later, with the addition of the ''Old Book of Tang'', it became the ''Twenty-Three Histories''. When compiling the Complete Library in Four Sections, the ''Old History of the Five Dynasties'', which was extracted from the Yongle Encyclopedia, was also included, making it the ''Twenty-Four Histories''.

Collection

Inheritance works

These works were begun by one historian and completed by an heir, usually of the next generation.
* The ''Shiji'', inherited from Sima Tan by Sima Qian
* '' Book of Han'', inherited from Ban Biao, Ban Gu by Ban Zhao
* '' Book of Liang'' and '' Book of Chen'', inherited from Yao Cha () by Yao Silian
* '' Book of Northern Qi'', inherited from Li Delin by Li Baiyao
* '' History of the Southern Dynasties'' and '' History of the Northern Dynasties'', inherited from Li Dashi by Li Yanshou ()

Related works

There were attempts at producing new traditional histories after the fall of the Qing dynasty, but they either never gained widespread acceptance as part of the official historical canon or they remain unfinished.

Modern attempts at creating the official Qing history

In 1961, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of China (ROC), the ROC government in Taiwan published the ''History of Qing'', adding 21 supplementary chapters to the ''Draft History of Qing'' and revising many existing chapters to denounce the People's Republic of China (PRC) as an illegitimate, impostor regime. It also removed passages that were derogatory towards the Xinhai Revolution. This edition has not been widely accepted as the official Qing history because it is recognized that it was a rushed job motivated by political objectives. It does not correct most of the errors known to exist in the ''Draft History of Qing''.

An additional project, attempting to write a ''New History of Qing'' incorporating new materials and improvements in historiography, lasted from 1988 to 2000. Only 33 chapters out of the projected 500 were published. This project was later abandoned following the rise of the Taiwanese nationalist Pan-Green Coalition, which argues that it is not the duty of Taiwan to compile the history of mainland China.

In 1961, the PRC also attempted to complete the Qing history, but historians were prevented from doing so against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution.

In 2002, the PRC once again announced that it would complete the ''History of Qing''. The project was approved in 2002, and put under the leadership of historian Dai Yi. Initially planned to be completed in 10 years, the project suffered multiple delays, pushing completion of the first draft to 2016. ''Chinese Social Sciences Today'' reported in April 2020 that the project's results were being reviewed. However, in 2023, the manuscript was reportedly rejected, and there are also rumors that the project has been indefinitely halted.

Modern editions

In China, the Zhonghua Book Company have edited a number of these histories. They have been collated, edited, and punctuated by Chinese specialists.Xu Elina-Qian, p. 19. From 1991 to 2003, it was translated from Literary Chinese into modern written vernacular Chinese, by Xu Jialu and other scholars.

Translations

One of the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' is in the process of being fully translated into English: '' Records of the Grand Historian'' by William Nienhauser, in nine volumes.''The Grand Scribe's Records'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994- )

In Korean and Vietnamese, only the ''Records'' has been translated. Most of the histories have been translated into Japanese.

See also

* Chinese classic texts
*'' Draft History of Qing'', a continuation of the histories through 1911
*History of China
* Official communications in imperial China
*''Zizhi Tongjian''

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

*

External links

Chinese Literature The Ershiwushi 二十五史 "The Twenty-five Official Dynastic Histories" (zhengshi 正史)
Ulrich Theobold


{{Twenty-Four Histories

Series of history books