Zizhi Tongjian (Family Bookshelf)

Author: Sima Guang
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: The Zizhi Tongjian is the largest and most accomplished chronological history in Chinese history, compiled over 19 years by statesmen and historians such as Sima Guang during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties. After its completion, it was revered by the crown prince as a "must-read textbook for governing," and subsequently became an authoritative classic that successive generations of officials eagerly copied for practical governance. The work covers 1,362 years of history, from the 23rd year of King Weilie of Zhou (403 BC) to the 6th year of Xingde in the Later Zhou during the Five Dynasties period (959 AD). Its content primarily focuses on politics, military affairs, and ethnic relations, while also encompassing economics, culture, academic thought, and evaluations of historical figures. The compilers employed keen observation and ingenious artistic techniques to vividly depict the grand social life and successfully create numerous lifelike historical characters. The narrative often uses multiple sources to describe a single event, and where discrepancies in dates or events exist, they are cross-examined and annotated with reasons for their selection or exclusion, forming The Examination of Discrepancies. This provided later historians with systematic and comprehensive materials. The book also includes 97 historical commentaries by predecessors and 118 commentaries written in the form of "Zeng Guang’s Reflections," which collectively reflect the author’s political and historical views. The text is concise, vivid, fluent, and refined, possessing considerable literary value, and has long been regarded alongside The Records of the Grand Historian as the pinnacle of Chinese historical writing. These features have had a profound influence on later historical scholarship.