"Records of the Grand Historian: Hu's Annotations with Subtle Insights (Complete Two Volumes)"

Author: Chen Yuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-03-01
Features: Table of Micro-Insights into Hu's Annotations to the Zizhi Tongjian is a milestone in Chen's scholarship and, to some extent, a comprehensive summary of his historical studies. The book compiles over 730 selected excerpts from Hu's annotations and cites more than 250 books. The format begins with the original text from the Zizhi Tongjian, indented one level for Hu's annotations (the seventh chapter draws from Discussions on Errors in the Interpretation of the Zizhi Tongjian, hence all the text is from Discussions on Errors). The insights are indented one level further. (This was a pioneering format created by Chen, originally designed for Liu Naihe's Investigations in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Refer to Liu's Notes on Re-reading, found in Liyun Chengxue Lu by Beijing Normal University Press, 1992 edition.) The structure of the first ten chapters on historical methodology and the last ten chapters on historical events was inspired by Chen's early study of Zhao Yi's Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories. Chen once categorized Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories into two major sections: "Historical Methodology" and "Historical Events" for study (refer to Chen Lesu's Chen Yuan in Biographies of Chinese Historians, Volume 2, Zhongzhou Ancient Books Press, 1985 edition). As for the purpose of each chapter, Chen explicitly elaborates in the preface to each section—do not overlook these insights.