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Wu shu (history)

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Not to be confused with the Wu shu section of the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

The Wu shu (Chinese: 吳書, lit. 'Book of Wu') is a lost history of the Eastern Wu. It was compiled by the official historians of the Wu court, under orders from the emperor. The only portions of the text that still survive are the numerous quotations preserved in Pei Songzhi's annotations to the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

Sun Quan first commissioned the work probably around 250, with Ding Fu [zh] and Xiang Jun [zh] as compilers. Only a few years later, at the start of Sun Liang's reign, a new committee was created which replaced Ding and Xiang, consisting of Wei Zhao, Zhou Zhao [zh], Xue Ying, Liang Guang (梁廣), and Hua He, likely due to political factionalism. The second committee faced difficulties due to interference, as Zhou Zhao and Liang Guang died within 20 years of the committee's creation and Wei Zhao and Hua He died soon after. The last surviving member of the committee, Xue Ying, lived through the fall of Wu and died in 282. The book was probably not completed, and it was lost sometime after the Tang dynasty.

The other two of the Three Kingdoms also compiled their own official histories: Cao Wei with the Wei shu [zh] and Shu Han with a Shu shu (蜀書). They were all written to follow the pattern of the Dongguan Hanji, which was compiled by several generations of official historians during the Eastern Han.[1]

Compilation[edit]

The Wu shu was first commissioned by Sun Quan probably around 250. According to a memorial written by Hua He submitted to the last Wu emperor Sun Hao in around 273, quoted in the Sanguozhi biography of Xue Ying, around the end of his reign, Sun Quan ordered the Court Historian (太史令) Ding Fu [zh] and the Palace Gentleman (郎中) Xiang Jun [zh] to compile the Wu shu.[2][3]

In 252, at the start of Sun Liang's reign, another compilation committee replaced Ding Fu and Xiang Jun at the suggestion of regent Zhuge Ke, consisting of Wei Zhao, Zhou Zhao [zh], Xue Ying, Liang Guang (梁廣), and Hua He himself.[2][4][5][6]

The new committee faced difficulty in compiling the work due to interference. Zhou Zhao and Liang Guang died within 20 years of the second committee's creation. No more details about Liang Guang's death are recorded, but a supplementary note in the Sanguozhi biography of Bu Zhi states that Zhou Zhao was sent to prison, and although Hua He petitioned the emperor on his behalf, he would be executed.[7][8]

Wei Zhao was executed at the age of more than seventy and his family exiled to Lingling Commandery [zh], despite pleas by Hua He. He had angered Sun Hao by refusing to write a chapter of annals for Sun Hao's father Sun He, whom he had canonized as an emperor posthumously; and refusing a ceremonial toast at a banquet, citing health reasons, as he was trying to retire from the court due to old age.[9]

Xue Ying had once commanded a garrison at Wuchang, but around 273, he was exiled to the far south for involvement in a mistaken strategy, soon after Wei Zhao's disgrace. Hua He pleaded to the emperor on his behalf, and in his memorial concerning the history project he wrote that Xue Ying was one of he few men who could assist in his work. This time, his words were acted upon and Xue Ying was recalled back to the capital and made State Historian on the Left. However, the project did not advance much more as only two years later in 275 Hua He himself was dismissed for a minor offense and died at home a year later. Xue Ying had also been exiled to the far south a second time. He was later recalled again, but his chief service during his time as a minister was to write the Wu's surrender document to the Jin dynasty. Xue Ying served the Jin court for a short time before dying in 282.[10]

Political controversies[edit]

In his memorial, Hua He states that the change of committee was due to Ding Fu and Xiang Jun being incapable of completing the work,[2] but Rafe de Crespigny argues that it likely that the change of committee was caused by political factionalism, as Ding Fu was learned enough to have compiled the Hanguan yishe xuanyong, a study of the official selection system of the Han, and the Han yi, a study of the rituals of the Han,[11] and their drafts were clearly useful to the successors and may have survived independently into the 4th century.[4] Rafe de Crespigny also notes that it is recorded that when Zhuge Ke came to power at the end of the reign of Sun Quan he pushed liberal and reformist policies, which further suggests a political component to the change of committee.[12]

Lack of biography of Sun Shao[edit]

Yu Xi, the author of the Zhi lin (志林), quoted in Pei Songzhi's annotations to the Sanguozhi annals of Sun Quan, wrote that he was surprised that the Sanguozhi did not include a biography of Sun Shao, an important politician and the first chancellor of Wu, so he asked the learned scholar Liu Shengshu (劉聲叔) for his opinion. Liu Shengshu claimed that Ding Fu and Xiang Jun's work contained a biography of Sun Shao, but since the later compiler Wei Zhao sided with Sun Shao's political opponent Zhang Wen, it was excluded from the later text.[13] Rafe de Crespigny states that this explanation is plausible, and notes that similar omissions are found in other histories.[12]

Content[edit]

The only substantial portion of the Wu shu's text that remains is the quotations in Pei Songzhi's Annotations to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, along with the likely inclusion of large amounts of uncredited text included in the Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou.[12]

The Pei Songzhi's quotations of the Wu shu contain indications of the book's original contents. The Wu shu is quoted in the biographies of Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo, indicating that the book covered the career of Sun Jian during the final years of the Han dynasty. However, in the annals of the three Wu emperors after Sun Quan, the Wu shu is only quoted once by Pei, and the quotation is rather irrelevant. The Sanguozhi biographies of people involved with the final years of the Wu are also rather lacking. This suggests that the book was never completed, although this could also mean that Chen Shou had fully incorporated its material into the main Sanguozhi text.[12]

Pei Songzhi's quotations of the Wu shu present an important Wu perspective on events that otherwise would have been missing. For example, the first time Pei cites the Wu shu is in the biography of Cao Cao, which states that Cao Song was killed by Tao Qian, while the Wu shu quotation states that it was one of Tao's subordinates who killed Cao Song, and that Cao Cao unjustly blamed the murder on Tao.[4]

The Book of Sui records a copy of the Wu shu containing 25 chapters out of an original 55, and the bibliographies of the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang record a copy of the book containing the complete 55 chapters. The book was later lost.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ de Crespigny 2018, p. 423.
  2. ^ a b c de Crespigny 2018, p. 428.
  3. ^ Sanguozhi, vol. 53: "大皇帝末年，命太史令丁孚、郎中項峻始撰《吳書》。"
  4. ^ a b c Tian 2016.
  5. ^ Sanguozhi, vol. 53: "至少帝時，更差韋曜、周昭、薛瑩、梁廣及臣五人，訪求往事，所共撰立，備有本末"
  6. ^ Sanguozhi, vol. 65: "孫亮即位，諸葛恪輔政，表曜為太史令，撰《吳書》，華核、薛瑩等皆與參同"
  7. ^ de Crespigny 2018, p. 430.
  8. ^ Sanguozhi, vol. 52: "周昭者字恭遠，與韋曜、薛瑩、華覈並述《吳書》，後爲中書郎，坐事下獄，覈表救之，孫休不聽，遂伏法云。"
  9. ^ de Crespigny 2018, pp. 430–431.
  10. ^ de Crespigny 2018, p. 431-432.
  11. ^ de Crespigny 2018, p. 432.
  12. ^ a b c d e de Crespigny 2018, p. 433.
  13. ^ Yu Xi's Zhi lin (志林) quoted in the annotations to Sanguozhi vol. 47: "吳之創基，邵爲首相，史無其傳，竊常怪之。嘗問劉聲叔。聲叔，博物君子也，云：「推其名位，自應立傳。項竣、吳孚[丁孚]時已有注記，此云與張惠恕不能。後韋氏作史，蓋惠恕之黨，故不見書。」"

Bibliography[edit]

  • Compiled by Chen Shou, with annotations compiled by Pei Songzhi. Sanguozhi 三國志 [Records of the Three Kingdoms] (in Chinese).
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