Li Yanshou

Li Yanshou

Li Yanshou is a famous historian of Tang Dynasty. He was born in Xiangzhou (now Anyang City, Henan Province). His ancestral home is Didao County, Longxi County (now Lintao County, Gansu Province). He was born in guzang house, Li family.

During the reign of Zhenguan, he worked as Prince dianshancheng and scholar of Chongxian hall. Later, he served as the chief bookkeeper of Yushitai, an official to fuxilang, and also studied national history. Li Yanshou once participated in the official compilation of Sui Shu, historical records of Five Dynasties (i.e. records in Sui Shu, the most famous of which is Jingji Zhi), Jin Shu and the history of the state of that dynasty. He also independently compiled Nan Shi, Bei Shi and Taizong Zhengdian (lost). "New Tang Shu" has a high evaluation of the two books, saying that "the book is quite organized, and it is far more difficult to delete the words than to pass this book."

Life of the characters

Li Yanshou (birth and death unknown), the word Ya Ling, the Tang Dynasty Xiangzhou people, historians. It can be seen that his political and academic activities were carried out from the early years of Emperor Taizong to the early years of Emperor Gaozong. He served as the official of Donggong Dian Shan Cheng, the scholar of Chongxian hall, the master of Yushitai, the official of Zhiguo Shi Fu Xilang and the official of national history. He didn't do much in politics, and compiling history was his main career in his life. He took part in the official compilation of Sui Shu, historical records of the Five Dynasties, Jin Shu and contemporary history of the Tang Dynasty. He also wrote 30 volumes of Taizong Zhengdian, and inherited the will of his father, Master Li. In 16 years, he independently completed the southern history and Northern history. The new book of the Tang Dynasty has a high evaluation of the two books, saying that "the book is quite organized, and it is far too far to delete the words."

His father, Master Li, was a scholar who was interested in compiling the history of the northern and Southern Dynasties, but his writing only lasted about two years. He died in the second year of Zhenguan (628). Li Yanshou, the fourth son of Master Li, was deeply influenced by his father and family education. During the reign of Zhenguan, he worked as Prince dianshancheng and scholar of Chongxian hall. Later, he served as the chief recorder of Yutai history, and also as a direct national history. He worked as an official to Fu Xilang, and also as a national history practitioner. He had never been a senior official and devoted his whole life to the compilation of official and private history books.

In the third year of Zhenguan (629), Emperor Taizong ordered his ministers to compile the history of Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Chen and Sui dynasties. Wei Zheng majored in Sui Shu, and young Li Yanshou and some other famous scholars participated in the compilation of the book. In the fifth year of Zhenguan (631), his mother died again. He resigned his position as a historian and went home to watch the funeral. Fu Kai was sent to central Sichuan (now Sichuan) as an official. In addition to official business, the author makes a preliminary arrangement of some historical materials collected in previous years.

In the 15th year of Zhenguan (641), Li Yanshou was transferred back to Chang'an, Beijing, as the crown prince dianshancheng. Due to the recommendation of Linghu, he entered the Museum of history again. At that time, the history of the five dynasties had been written in 636. In 643, Emperor Taizong ordered Chu suiliang and others to compile the historical records of the Five Dynasties in the Five Dynasties, including Liang Dynasty, Chen Dynasty, Northern Qi Dynasty, Northern Zhou Dynasty and Sui Dynasty. Li Yanshou also participated in the compilation of the historical records of the Five Dynasties. After 123 years, the history of the Five Dynasties was completed in 656, the first year of Xianqing reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. The chronicles of the Five Dynasties consists of ten chronicles and thirty volumes, which were later incorporated into Sui Shu. Among them, Jing Ji Zhi was written by Li Yanshou and Jing Bo, recording the works from ancient times to Sui Dynasty. Jing Ji Zhi, also called Sui Zhi for short, refers specifically to Jing Ji Zhi. Jingjizhi formally established the classification of classics, history, Zi and Ji, which had a profound impact on the classification of later books.

Before the Tang Dynasty, there were about 20 kinds of Jin history written by historians, but "talent is not a good history, and things are not true records". Most of the compilers are not good history talents, and the historical events recorded are often untrue. Tang Taizong was not satisfied with these Jin histories, so he issued an edict in the 20th year of Zhenguan (646) to revise the book of Jin. Li Yanshou is one of 21 people who participated in the renovation. In 648, the book of Jin was rebuilt. Li Yanshou not only took part in compiling the history of the former dynasty three times, but also took part in compiling 80 volumes of the national history of the current Dynasty in 656. In addition, Li Yanshou independently wrote three historical books, namely, 80 volumes of Southern history and 100 volumes of northern history, which were written in 659, the fourth year of Emperor Gaozong's reign, and 30 volumes of Taizong's political code, which were lost. He died shortly after the completion of Taizong Zhengdian. In the reign of diaolu, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty read Taizong's political code and "sighed for beauty for a long time", which gave many rewards to Li Yanshou's descendants, and ordered people to copy two copies, one of which was collected by the Royal Library and the other was given to the crown prince.

In his early years, Li Yanshou had the ambition of "pursuing his father's ambition". He wanted to inherit his father's will and complete the unfinished business of his ancestors. Southern history and Northern history are historical works written by Li Yanshou for most of his life. Li Yanshou said that the compilation of these two historical books was "sixteen years from the beginning to the end". The 16 years mentioned here started from the year when he took part in the compilation of historical records of the Five Dynasties in the 17th year of Zhenguan (643). In fact, a long time ago, that is, when he took part in the compilation of Sui Shu in the third year of Zhenguan, he began to prepare for the compilation of "two histories". At that time, he made use of his "spare time", "day and night transcribing" and "things never seen in the past of the Five Dynasties" to accumulate materials for compiling "two histories" in the future. If we calculate from the time of collecting historical materials, the completion of "two histories" took 30 years.

Li Yanshou's "two histories" are mainly based on the "official histories" of the song, Qi, Liang, Chen, Wei, Qi, Zhou and Sui dynasties, but he is not limited to this. In addition, he also referred to more than 1000 volumes of various "miscellaneous histories", just as he said, "the doves gather to spread the news.". As for the eight dynasties history books, he adopted the principle of "removing the tedious and cutting off the redundant". The "cumbersome" he deleted were mainly some imperial edicts and statements, while the historical facts were retained as far as possible, which made the "two histories" much simpler than the "eight histories". Southern history and Northern history were later listed in the "twenty four histories" and played an important role in the history of Chinese historiography.

Li Yanshou's career was smooth. It has neither flourished nor denounced exile. In the early period of Zhenguan, Yanshou was the prince's dianshancheng (in charge of the meal affairs of the Prince) and the Bachelor of Chongxian Library (in charge of classics books and teaching apprentices); in Zhenguan, Yanshou was Fu Xilang (in charge of the emperor's seal and national talisman); in the late period of Zhenguan, Yanshou was the master of Yushitai (in charge of the clerical affairs of Yushitai). Yanshou focused on history, and seemed to have little interest in being an official. Despite the frequent changes in official positions, he never became a senior official. As a result, after his southern history and Northern history were written, people at that time "didn't call him a book" because of his low status.

background

Influenced by the patriarchal system since the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, there were still some customs of advocating family status in the early Tang Dynasty, and Li Yanshou was not immune from the custom. In his preface to the northern history, he talked about the deeds of his ancestors with great relish, claiming that Emperor Zhuanxu's Gaoyang family and Zhou Zhu's Xia Shi Li Er were "the first of Li's family". Li Er, who was respected as the leader of Taoism, had a special status in the Tang Dynasty. In the eighth year of Wude, Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty (625), the order of the three religions was Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty (637), he declared that Li Er was his ancestor. Li Yanshou took Li Er as his ancestor, aiming to show that he was a sage and had the same ancestor with the contemporary emperor. In the same preface, it lists the official status and achievements of the ancestors of the past dynasties, which is similar to writing genealogy, showing a strong concept of family status. He is not only infatuated with the glory of his ancestors, but also shows his dissatisfaction with his low status. Like most historians at that time, the reason why Li Yanshou embarked on the road of governing history was inseparable from his family origin. Li Xiao, the great grandfather, was praised by the people at that time for his "erudite knowledge of Confucian classics and history" and "admonishing Xu's children, who are well-known for their learning". Li Chao, the great grandfather, was praised by the people at that time for his "erudite knowledge of Confucian classics and history, not observing the rules and sentences", which is quite innovative and academic.

It was his father, Master Li, who had a great influence on longevity. Master Li, with the name of Junwei, is a "rare writer". He is diligent, knowledgeable, good at writing, and especially good at history. "If you know the stories of the previous generation, you can refer to them; if you compare business with the people of the present age, you can get the best of them.". Master's life was full of ups and downs. When he was young, he was a minor official, and his promotion was very slow. In the last years of emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, political corruption and official corruption became a common practice. The master Ren Xindu (now Jixian County, Hebei Province) shuzuo, who was the prefect of the county, lived a miserable life. Ju Xiaozhen, the county magistrate, said with admiration: "later in the cold of the year, this is what the public got."

After the outbreak of the peasant uprising in the late Sui Dynasty, Dou Jiande took possession of Hebei Province, and the master served as the Minister of rites in the Jiande army. After the rebellion was suppressed by the Tang soldiers, the master was exiled to Xihui Prefecture. He was depressed and unhappy there, so he wrote a poem named "Fu on thoughts". At that time, Yang Gongren, who was guarding Liangzhou (today's Wuwei area in Gansu Province), saw this Fu and appreciated the master's talent and learning, so he called him to the mansion and respected him deeply. The master had long had the ambition to compile the history of the northern and Southern Dynasties. At this time, he had leisure time, and Yang Gongren's family had a rich collection of books, which he could read to his heart's content. So the master spent several years in his hard work. In the ninth year of Wude (626), the Tang Dynasty granted amnesty to the whole world, and the master was able to return to Chang'an, the capital. His old friends Fang Xuanling and Feng Deyi were already high officials in the imperial court. They advised him to stay in Beijing as officials. He had no intention of becoming an official, so he went back to his hometown in Henan and continued to write the history of the northern and Southern Dynasties. Unfortunately, two years later, he died of illness and his work was not yet finished.

Historical contribution

The greatest achievement in Yanshou's life is the independent completion of two official histories: Southern history and Northern history.

Chinese PinYin : Li Yan Shou