Complete Collection of Sui Dynasty Writings - Supplements

Author: Han Lizhou (compilation and editing)
Publisher:
Publication Date: March 1, 2004
Features: The Sui Dynasty was a highly typical feudal empire in Chinese history. It ended the nearly three centuries of division and chaos following the late Jin Dynasty, abolished long-standing problems, introduced many innovations, brought social stability and economic development, and was renowned for its prosperity in the 17th year of Emperor Kaigong, with a booming population and abundant stores of grain both at home and abroad, making the state wealthy (as recorded in the Treatise on Food and Finances of the History of the Sui Dynasty). However, in no time, the economy declined, public grievances rose, and the Sui Dynasty perished in the waves of peasant uprisings. This powerful yet short-lived dynasty bore many similarities to the Qin Dynasty. These two dynasties provided both valuable lessons in governing from chaos and profound lessons in descending from order into chaos for later generations. The Han and Tang Empires, which rose after the Qin and Sui, drew lessons from them and implemented reforms to alleviate social contradictions and enrich the nation, establishing the splendid golden age that the Chinese nation remains proud of to this day. It is a consensus among historians that the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui system. The significant contributions of the Qin and Sui dynasties in terms of institutional and cultural aspects had an extremely far-reaching impact. Therefore, in my opinion, the study of Qin and Sui culture should be an important part of the research on traditional Chinese culture.
Text is the foundation of all research. The writings of the Sui people are the most precious first-hand materials for studying Sui society. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the renowned scholar Ke Zhen compiled the grand and academically valuable anthology Complete Ancient and Medieval Writings from the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, and Six Dynasties, including Complete Sui Writings, comprising 36 volumes with 683 pieces of prose (13 entries listed but without text, actually totaling 670 pieces). These individual prose pieces, as records of all aspects of Sui society, have been the preferred source material for academia for over a century. Compiling and organizing texts from over a thousand years ago is a highly academic and meticulous task. Ke Zhen, with his personal efforts, collected all the single prose pieces of the Sui Dynasty that he could find, excluding specialized books, benefiting the academic community and making immeasurable contributions, which should be fully recognized. However, it must be acknowledged that due to various reasons, Complete Sui Writings also has serious omissions. The "completeness" of Complete Sui Writings can only be said to be relatively comprehensive in terms of what Qing scholars had seen. After Ke Zhen, over the past century, the discovery of Dunhuang manuscripts, the long-lost Wen Guan Ci Lin, Yuzhu Bao Dian, and other texts imported from foreign regions, as well as the excavation of numerous steles, epitaphs, and statue inscriptions from Turpan and all parts of the country, have provided abundant and reliable evidence for supplementing Complete Sui Writings. Therefore, the compiler believes that it is now a historical opportunity to supplement the omissions of Complete Sui Writings, and both the necessity and feasibility have matured. If we do not put in hard work to promptly and carefully compile these remaining texts, we will fall short of the expectations of our predecessors and successors.