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| Chinese | 二十四史 | ||||||||||||||
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TheTwenty-Four Histories, also known as theOrthodox Histories (正史;Zhèngshǐ), are a collection ofofficial histories detailing thedynasties of China, from the legendaryThree Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to theMing dynasty in the 17th century.
TheHan dynasty historianSima Qian established many conventions of the genre, though its form was not standardized until much later. Starting with theTang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records, partly in order to establish its own link to the earliest times. As fixed and edited in theQing dynasty, the whole set contains 3,213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources onChinese history and culture.[1]
The titleTwenty-Four Histories dates from 1775, which was the 40th year in the reign of theQianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, theHistory of Ming was reworked and a complete set of the histories was produced.
The idea of compiling a collection of Chinese official histories have existed as the Three Kingdoms era, when theThree Histories consisted ofShiji,Book of Han, andDongguan Hanji.Book of the Later Han would later gradually replace theDongguan Hanji. After theRecords of the Three Kingdoms appeared, it was soon tacked on to produce theEarly Four Historiographies前四史.[2]
By theTang dynasty, the ten official histories starting fromRecords of the Three Kingdoms and ending withBook of Sui were collectively called theTen Histories. Combined with the earlier three, they make theThirteen Histories. Two Tang scholars have written works based on theThirteen Histories:Criticism of the Thirteen Histories byWu Wuling [zh] (20 volumes) andIndex of the Thirteen Histories by Song Jian (10 volumes).[3]
During theSong dynasty, on top of on theThirteen Histories,History of the Southern Dynasties,History of the Northern Dynasties,New Book of Tang, andNew History of the Five Dynasties were added to form theSeventeen Histories. Northern Song'sWang Ling (Song Dynasty) [zh] wroteMaster Wang's Enlightenment on the Seventeen Histories, and Southern Song'sLü Zuqian wroteDetailed Excerpts of the Seventeen Histories.[3]
TheTwenty-One Histories was formed during theMing dynasty. Qing dynasty'sGu Yanwu wrote inDaily Knowledge Records: Official Edition of Twenty-One Histories日知錄·監本二十一史: "In Song times there were only seventeen histories, now with the addition of the histories of Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan, there are twenty-one histories."[3]
During theYongzheng period of theQing dynasty, after the completion of theHistory of Ming, they were collectively known as theTwenty-Two Histories, and Zhao Yi'sNotes on the Twenty-Two Histories was named accordingly. Later, with the addition of theOld Book of Tang, it became theTwenty-Three Histories. When compiling theComplete Library in Four Sections, theOld History of the Five Dynasties, which was extracted from theYongle Encyclopedia, was also included, making it theTwenty-Four Histories.[3]
These works were begun by one historian and completed by an heir, usually of the next generation.
There were attempts at producing new traditional histories after the fall of the Qing dynasty, but they either never gained widespread acceptance as part of the official historical canon or they remain unfinished.
| Title | Year | Dynasty | Main authors |
|---|---|---|---|
| New History of Yuan新元史 | 1927 | Yuan | Ke Shaomin (Republic of China) |
| Draft History of Qing清史稿 | 1920 | Qing | Zhao Erxun (Republic of China) |
In 1961, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the declaration of theRepublic of China (ROC), the ROC government inTaiwan published theHistory of Qing, adding 21 supplementary chapters to theDraft History of Qing and revising many existing chapters to remove derogatory passages towards the1911 Revolution and denounce thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) as illegitimate.[5] This edition has not been widely accepted as the official Qing history because it is recognized that it was a rushed job motivated by political objectives. It does not correct most of the errors known to exist in theDraft History of Qing.[6]
An additional project, attempting to write aNew History of Qing incorporating new materials and improvements in historiography, lasted from 1988 to 2000. Only 33 chapters out of the projected 500 were published.[6] This project was later abandoned following the rise of the Taiwanese nationalistPan-Green Coalition, which argues that it is not the duty of Taiwan to compile the history of mainland China.
In 1961, the PRC also attempted to complete the Qing history, but historians were prevented from doing so against the backdrop of theCultural Revolution.[7]
In 2002, the PRC once again announced that it would complete theHistory of Qing.[8]The project was approved in 2002,[9] and put under the leadership of historianDai Yi.[10] Initially planned to be completed in 10 years,[11] the project suffered multiple delays, pushing completion of the first draft to 2016.[12]Chinese Social Sciences Today reported in April 2020 that the project's results were being reviewed.[13] However, in 2023, the manuscript was reportedly rejected,[14] and there are also rumors that the project has been indefinitely halted.[15]
In China, theZhonghua Book Company have edited a number of these histories. They have been collated, edited, and punctuated by Chinese specialists.[16] From 1991 to 2003, it was translated fromLiterary Chinese into modernwritten vernacular Chinese, byXu Jialu and other scholars.[17]
One of theTwenty-Four Histories is in the process of being fully translated into English:Records of the Grand Historian by William Nienhauser, in nine volumes.[18]
In Korean and Vietnamese, only theRecords has been translated. Most of the histories have been translated into Japanese.[citation needed]
