Twenty-six Histories

Author: None
Publisher: Yanbian People's Publishing House
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
Features: Simplified horizontal layout, modern punctuation, new-style compilation, included CD-ROM
Due to different formats, historical books are categorized into various types such as chronicles, biographical records, annals, encyclopedic records, study cases, discourses, historical critiques, notes, etc. Among these types, only biographical record-based historical books are revered as "official histories."
The biographical record system originated with Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). Shiji established five categories: "Annals," "Tables," "Treatises," "Hereditary Houses," and "Biographies." After History of the Han Dynasty, the "Annals" were renamed "Chronicles," the "Treatises" were renamed "Chronicles," the "Hereditary Houses" were abolished and merged into "Biographies," thus establishing the standard format for official histories based on the biographical record system. The four categories—Chronicles, Tables, Chronicles, and Biographies—work in harmony, forming a complete and rigorous system that has been followed for over two thousand years. Chronicles