Sui Shu (Complete 6 Volumes)

Author: (Tang) Wei Zheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1996-05-01
Features: The Book of Sui consists of 85 volumes, including 5 volumes of imperial chronicles, 50 volumes of biographies, and 30 volumes of treatises. This book was compiled by multiple authors and was completed in two phases, taking a total of 35 years from its inception to completion. In the fourth year of the Wude era (621 AD), Linghu De proposed the suggestion to compile histories of the five dynasties: Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui. The following year, the Tang court ordered historians to begin the compilation, but after several years, the work had not yet been completed. In the third year of the Zhenguan era (629 AD), the five-dynasty history was rebuilt, with Wei Zheng overseeing the overall project and serving as the chief editor of the Book of Sui. The authors of the Book of Sui were all erudite scholars with high standards in historical compilation. The Book of Sui is the earliest extant specialized history of the Sui Dynasty and one of the historical works with the highest compilation standards among the Twenty-Five Histories.
First, it has a clear guiding principle. Emperor Taizong of Tang, who personally experienced the war that led to the fall of the Sui Dynasty, often discussed the lessons of its collapse after coming to power. He explicitly stated the view that "using the past as a mirror can reveal the rise and fall of dynasties." Learning from historical lessons and taking history as a guide became the guiding principle for compiling the Book of Sui.
Second, the Book of Sui upholds the fine tradition of writing history with impartiality, evaluating figures with fewer biases or omissions. The chief editor, Wei Zheng, was upright and incorruptible. The chronicles and biographies he supervised contained fewer distortions and avoided concealing the faults of the powerful. For example, the book honestly recorded the harsh and autocratic nature of Emperor Wen of Sui, his disdain for poetry and books, and his lack of understanding of the greater principles. It also portrayed Emperor Yang of Sui as hypocritical, as well as his crimes of killing his father and mother, and eliminating his relatives and loyal ministers, without any concealment.
Lastly, the Book of Sui preserves a large amount of political, economic, and scientific and cultural materials. The ten treatises document the institutions and systems of the five dynasties—Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui—and some parts even trace their origins back to the Han and Wei dynasties.