Song Shu (8 volumes in total) -- Traditional vertical layout

Author: (Liang) Shen Yue compiled
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: The Song Dynasty was a feudal regime established in the south after the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the second year of the Yuexing era of Emperor An of Jin, the military governor of Jingzhou, Huan Xuan, usurped the Jin throne and declared himself emperor. The following year, Liu Yu, the commander of the Beifu forces, raised troops in Jingkou (now Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province) and Guangling (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province), overthrew Huan Xuan, nominally restored the rule of the Jin Dynasty, and actually grasped the military and political power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Fifteen years later, in the second year of the Yuexi era of Emperor Gong of Jin, Liu Yu established the Song Dynasty, with its capital in Jiankang. After Liu Yu, there were a total of seven generations, and by the third year of the Shengming era of Emperor Shun of Song, it was overthrown by Xiao Qi. The Song Shu consists of one hundred volumes, including ten volumes of Běnjì (Annals), thirty volumes of Zhì (Treatises), and eighty volumes of Liezhuan (Biographies), compiled by Shen Yue of the Liang Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was a feudal regime established in the south after the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the second year of the Yuexing era of Emperor An of Jin (403 AD), Huan Xuan, the military governor of Jingzhou, usurped the Jin throne and declared himself emperor. The following year, Liu Yu, the commander of the Beifu forces, raised troops in Jingkou (now Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province) and Guangling (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province), overthrew Huan Xuan, nominally restored the rule of the Jin Dynasty, and actually grasped the military and political power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Fifteen years later, in the second year of the Yuexi era of Emperor Gong of Jin (420 AD), Liu Yu established the Song Dynasty, with its capital in Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). After Liu Yu, there were a total of seven generations, and by the third year of the Shengming era of Emperor Shun of Song (479 AD), it was overthrown by Xiao Qi. The compilation of the official history of the Song Dynasty began in the sixteenth year of the Yuangai era of Emperor Wen of Song (439 AD). At that time, He Chengtian, a famous scientist, drafted the Běnjì and Liezhuan, and wrote the Treatise on Astronomy and the Treatise on Calendar and Pitch. Later, Shan Xianzhi, Pei Songzhi, Su Baosheng, and others successively participated in the compilation. However, their tenure as historians was very short. In the sixth year of the Daming era (466 AD), Xu Ai served as the Director of the Imperial Academy, and he compiled the "official history" based on previous drafts, covering events from the first year of the Yixi era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (405 AD) when Liu Yu actually came to power, to the Daming era. The Sui Shu Jingji Zhi records Xu Ai's Song Shu in sixty-five volumes, indicating that his work coexisted with Shen Yue's Song Shu. Fragments of Xu Ai's Song Shu are still preserved in works like the Taiping Yulü. However, Xu Ai was soon dismissed by the Song Dynasty, and the compilation of the Song Dynasty's "official history" was halted. In the fifth year of the Yongming era of the Southern Qi Dynasty (487 AD), Shen Yue was again commissioned to compile the Song Shu. At that time, Shen Yue served as the Chief of the Prince's Household and concurrently as the Director of the Imperial Academy. He supplemented and revised the works of He Chengtian, Xu Ai, and others, and it took nearly a year to complete seventy volumes of Běnjì and Liezhuan in the second month of the sixth year of the Yongming era (488 AD). In his memorial to the court, Shen Yue stated, "The various Zhì must be completed and submitted," indicating that the thirty volumes of eight Zhì in the Song Shu were later added. Among the eight Zhì, the Treatise on Auspicious Signs referred to the luan bird as the shénniǎo (divine bird) to avoid the taboo of Emperor Ming of Qi, Xiao Luan; the Treatise on Calendar and Pitch changed "shùn" to "cóng" to avoid the taboo of Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Shunzhi; and the Treatise on Music referred to Zou Yan as Zou Xian to avoid the taboo of Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan. This shows that the final draft of the Song Shu must have been completed after Xiao Luan declared himself emperor (494 AD), or even after Emperor Wu of Liang ascended the throne (502 AD). Around the same time or slightly later, during the Southern Qi Dynasty, Sun Yan wrote the Song Shu in sixty-five volumes, Wang Zhishen wrote the Song Ji in thirty volumes, during the Liang Dynasty, Pei Ziyao wrote the Song Lüe in twenty volumes, Wang Yan wrote the Song Chunqiu in twenty volumes, and Bao Hengqing also wrote the Song Chunqiu in twenty volumes. However, these works have all been lost. Among the relatively complete historical records of the Liu Song Dynasty, Shen Yue's Song Shu is the only one preserved. Shen Yue (441–513 AD), styled Xiuwen, was from Wu Kang (now Deqing County, Zhejiang Province). He served three dynasties: during the Song Dynasty, he was the Director of the Imperial Treasury, and during the Qi Dynasty, he rose to the position of Minister of Five Armies and President of the Imperial Academy. During the transition between the Qi and Liang dynasties, he strongly advised Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, to usurp the Qi throne and declare himself emperor. As a result, he was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Jianchang in the Liang Dynasty and rose to the positions of Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat, Director of the Imperial Secretariat, and concurrently Director of the Central Secretariat. Shen Yue wrote many works, but now, in addition to the one hundred volumes of the Song Shu and the nine volumes of his collected works, other works such as the History of the Jin Dynasty, the Annals of the Qi Dynasty, the Annals of Emperor Wu of Liang, and the Treatise on Song Literature have all been lost. Since the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the feudal hierarchy system had fully developed during the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties periods. The feudal aristocracy enjoyed privileges in politics and the economy, extensively acquiring land, extensively recruiting "yinhu" (), and exploiting labor through various means, brutally oppressing and exploiting the people. They boasted of their lineage and dominated official positions, as stated in the Commentary on Chu Yuan and Wang Jian's Biographies of the Southern Qi Shu: "All high-ranking officials and their families derive their status from noble lineage, and through steady advancement, they attain the ranks of ministers and marshals." Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, also strongly supported the aristocracy, and in his edicts, he specifically mentioned the need to correct the phenomenon of "reversed hats and shoes, indistinguishable jade and bronze." Shen Yue's ancestors were originally part of the Wu Xing aristocracy, as described in the Jin Shu as "The of Jiangdong, none surpass Zhou and Shen." Shen Yue's family was also prominent in official positions during the Song, Qi, and Liang dynasties. The Wenxuan by Xiao Tong of the Liang Dynasty includes Shen Yue's memorial criticizing Wang Yuan for the "mismatched marriages and official positions" of some feudal landlords. Therefore, the Song Shu compiled by Shen Yue during the Qi and Liang dynasties reflects the characteristics of its time and class, particularly in its praise of the aristocratic families and defense of the feudal hierarchy system. For example, in the Liezhuan of the Song Shu, nearly half of the biographies are dedicated to representatives of the landlord class and high-ranking aristocratic families. Just for the Wang and Xie clans, the Song Shu includes biographies of over fifteen and ten members of the Wang and Xie families, respectively. For instance, in the biography of Xie Hongwei of Chen State, the text describes how busy he was managing the Xie family's properties, yet at the end of the biography, he is praised as a person who is "simple yet not lacking, detached yet not flowing." Similarly, in the biography of Wang Wei of Langya, the text is filled with letters he wrote to friends, yet he is described as "internally upright, with an unyielding character that cannot be easily provoked." These two individuals were both from high-ranking aristocratic families, which is why the Song Shu includes their "excellent biographies." In the Song Shu, the aristocratic figures are generally described as "noble families of former generations," with "simple and noble demeanor" and "lofty style," and it is emphasized that "the world values intellectual discourse, and scholars promote simple arguments." In contrast, the Song Shu still holds certain historical value. The Shitong Book of Treatises states: "The years of the Song Dynasty only cover five dynasties, and the land is limited to Jianghuai. The book is full of one hundred volumes, known as being rich and abundant." The one hundred volumes of the Song Shu record the history of sixty years, preserving a wealth of historical materials, especially including many memorials, letters, and articles from that period, which provide insights into the social, political, and economic realities of the time. For example, in the eighty-second volume of the Zhou Lang Biographies, Zhou Lang's memorial discusses the harm of the zaitiao system, which severely hindered the development of productivity at the time. The fifty-sixth volume of the Kong Linzhi Biography, the sixtieth volume of the Fan Tai Biography, and the sixty-sixth volume of the He Shangzhi Biography contain debates on coinage reform, reflecting how feudal rulers intensified exploitation of the people during the coinage reforms. The fifty-fourth volume of the Yang Xuanbao Biography and the attached biography of his brother Yang Xi, the sixty-seventh volume of the Xie Lingyun Biography include the full text of Xie Lingyun's Mountain Dwelling, providing material for studying the great landlord estates. From the records in the Song Shu, it can also be seen that the peasant uprisings at that time were not only numerous in number but also widespread in region and scale. For instance, in the first year of the Jingping era (423 AD), there was a rebellion led by Sun Faguang in Fuyang. In the ninth year of the Yuangai era (432 AD), there was a rebellion led by Zhao Guang in Guanghan, with over a hundred thousand participants, who besieged Chengdu, the capital of, for several months (Annals of Emperor Wen, biography of Liu Cuì and his younger brother Liu Daoji). Additionally, in the early Yuangai era, there were uprisings by ethnic minorities in Xichuan and Danchuan; by the end of the Yuangai era, ethnic minority uprisings became more frequent in the three provinces of Jing, Yong, and Yu, with participation reaching over one million people (Biography of the Yi and Man, biography of Zhang Shao, biography of Shen Qingzhi, etc.). Although these records are extremely incomplete and heavily distorted, they still provide clues for studying class contradictions and class struggles at that time. Furthermore, the Xie Lingyun Biography and the historical commentary at the end of the biography discuss the development and evolution of literature since the Wei and Jin periods, as well as Shen Yue's own views on poetic phonology, which are important materials for studying the history of literary criticism during the Six Dynasties. The Biography of the Yi and Man also appropriately describes the friendly economic and cultural exchanges between the early Southern Dynasties and people from various countries in Asia.