Book of Southern Qi (Full 3 Volumes) -- Traditional Vertical Layout

Author: Xiao Zixian
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: The Book of the Southern Qi records the history of the Southern Qi Dynasty from the first year of Emperor Gao's Jianyuan era to the second year of Emperor He's Zhongxing era, covering a total of 23 years. It is the earliest extant dynastic history in the annals of the Southern Qi. Originally titled The Book of Qi, it was renamed The Book of the Southern Qi during the Song Dynasty to distinguish it from The Book of the Northern Qi by Li Baiyao. The author was Xiao Zixian.
Xiao Zixian, styled Jingyang, was a historian and litterateur of the Southern Qi Dynasty. Born into the imperial family, Xiao Zixian was erudite and knowledgeable, skilled in writing. As a nobleman who moved from the Qi to the Liang Dynasty, he was familiar with or had personally experienced many historical events and royal affairs of the Southern Qi. Additionally, the Liang Dynasty replaced the Southern Qi without major wars, allowing many books and documents to be preserved, which provided favorable conditions for Xiao Zixian to compile his historical works.
The Book of the Southern Qi survives in 59 volumes, including 8 imperial chronicles, 11 treatises, and 40 biographies. One missing volume is the Preface. The text is concise, the writing is fluent, and the narrative is comprehensive. The biographies follow the classification method of The Book of Han by Ban Gu and draw inspiration from the chronological method of The Book of the Southern Song by Shen Yue. This approach allows multiple individuals to be included in a single biography, avoiding the cumbersome problem of having separate biographies for each person. Furthermore, most of the treatises and classified biographies in the book are preceded by prefaces, which summarize the content and highlight the main purpose of the writing.