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Book of Jin
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Key Information
| Book of Jin | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 晉書 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 晋书 | ||||||||||
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The Book of Jin is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420.[1] It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang Xuanling as the lead editor, drawing mostly from official documents left from earlier archives. A few essays in volumes 1, 3, 54 and 80 were composed by the Tang dynasty's Emperor Taizong himself. However, the contents of the Book of Jin included not only the history of the Jin dynasty, but also that of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, which was contemporaneous with the Eastern Jin dynasty.
Compilation
[edit]Over 20 histories of the Jin had been written during the Jin era itself and the subsequent Northern and Southern dynasties, of which 18 were still extant at the beginning of the Tang dynasty. Yet Emperor Taizong deemed them all to be deficient and ordered the compilation of a new standard history for the period,[2] as part of a wider six-history project to fill in the gaps between the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the Book of Song, the Book of Qi, the Book of Wei and the Emperor's own time.[3] As part of this ambition, its treatises cover not only the Jin but also the preceding Three Kingdoms, making up for the lack of such a section in the Records of the Three Kingdoms.[4]
The book was hastily compiled between 646 CE and 648, by a committee of 21 people led by editor-in-chief Fang Xuanling. As some chapters were written by Emperor Taizong of Tang, the work is sometimes given the honorific "imperially authored".[2]
The Book of Jin had the longest gestation period of any official history, not seeing the light of day until 229 years after the end of the dynasty it describes.[5]
Contents
[edit]Annals (紀)
[edit]| # | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 | 帝紀第1 宣帝 | Emperor Xuan | Sima Yi (Western Jin) |
| Volume 2 | 帝紀第2 景帝 文帝 | Emperor Jing; Emperor Wen | Sima Shi, Sima Zhao |
| Volume 3 | 帝紀第3 武帝 | Emperor Wu | Sima Yan |
| Volume 4 | 帝紀第4 惠帝 | Emperor Hui | Sima Zhong |
| Volume 5 | 帝紀第5 懷帝 愍帝 | Emperor Huai; Emperor Min | Sima Chi, Sima Ye |
| Volume 6 | 帝紀第6 元帝 明帝 | Emperor Yuan; Emperor Ming | Sima Rui, Sima Shao (Eastern Jin) |
| Volume 7 | 帝紀第7 成帝 康帝 | Emperor Cheng; Emperor Kang | Sima Yan, Sima Yue |
| Volume 8 | 帝紀第8 穆帝 哀帝 海西公 | Emperor Mu; Emperor Ai; Duke of Haixi | Sima Dan, Sima Pi, Sima Yi |
| Volume 9 | 帝紀第9 簡文帝 孝武帝 | Emperor Jianwen; Emperor Xiaowu | Sima Yu, Sima Yao |
| Volume 10 | 帝紀第10 安帝 恭帝 | Emperor An; Emperor Gong | Sima Dezong, Sima Dewen |
Treatises (志)
[edit]| # | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 11 | 志第1 天文上 | Astronomy Part One | |
| Volume 12 | 志第2 天文中 | Astronomy Part Two | |
| Volume 13 | 志第3 天文下 | Astronomy Part Three | |
| Volume 14 | 志第4 地理上 | Geography Part One | |
| Volume 15 | 志第5 地理下 | Geography Part Two | |
| Volume 16 | 志第6 律歷上 | Rhythm and the Calendar Part One | |
| Volume 17 | 志第7 律歷中 | Rhythm and the Calendar Part Two | |
| Volume 18 | 志第8 律歷下 | Rhythm and the Calendar Part Three | |
| Volume 19 | 志第9 禮上 | Rites Part One | |
| Volume 20 | 志第10 禮中 | Rites Part Two | |
| Volume 21 | 志第11 禮下 | Rites Part Three | |
| Volume 22 | 志第12 樂上 | Music Part One | |
| Volume 23 | 志第13 樂下 | Music Part Two | |
| Volume 24 | 志第14 職官 | Government Service | |
| Volume 25 | 志第15 輿服 | Travel and Dress | |
| Volume 26 | 志第16 食貨 | Food and Commodities | |
| Volume 27 | 志第17 五行上 | Five Elements Part One | |
| Volume 28 | 志第18 五行中 | Five Elements Part Two | |
| Volume 29 | 志第19 五行下 | Five Elements Part Three | |
| Volume 30 | 志第20 刑法 | Punishment and Law |
Biographies (列傳)
[edit]Records (載記)
[edit]Legacy
[edit]The book has been criticized for being more reflective of the court politics in the Tang dynasty that compiled it, rather than the realities of the Jin dynasty itself.[6]
Despite Fang's team having at their disposal not only the pre-existing Jin histories, but also a large body of actual Jin primary sources, it appears that the book was primarily based on Zang Rongxu's (臧荣绪) identically-titled Jinshu from the Southern Qi, and further incorporates material from fictionalized novels. The Tang historian Liu Zhiji (661–721) accused the editors of generally selecting the sources that had the most vivid and compelling language, rather than the ones that were the most historically reliable.[3]
The collaborative nature of the project coupled with the rushed production time unsurprisingly leaves the book with a number of internal contradictions and editorial errors; such as misspelled personal and place names, draft-like and unpolished language, and "cross-references" to non-existent chapters that were presumably planned but never finished in time for publication.[7]
In spite of these shortcomings, the Book of Jin is recognized as the most important primary source for the Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms, because the pre-existing histories and other sources it was compiled from have all been lost – save for a few stray quotations in other works.[7]
Translations
[edit]No complete translations are known at this time. The astronomical chapters (11, 12 & 13) were translated by Ho Peng Yoke.[8] Choo translates the biography of Huan Wen in volume 98 and the biography of Sun Chuo in volume 56.[9] Knapp translates biographies of Liu Yin in volume 88 and Huangfu Mi in volume 51.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ The annals of Sima Yi, Sima Shi and Sima Zhao and the biographies of their contemporaries recorded events from their lifetimes before the Jin era. For some, including Sima Yi and Sima Fu, this includes the end of the Eastern Han dynasty.
- ^ a b Fang, Xuanling ed.(2002). Jinshu 晋书. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju 中华书局. Preface, p. 1
- ^ a b Fang (2002). Preface p. 2
- ^ Fang (2002). Preface p. 4
- ^ Wilkinson, Endymion (2018), Chinese History: A New Manual. Self-published. p. 690.
- ^ Wilkinson (2018) pp. 816–817
- ^ a b Fang (2002). Preface p. 3
- ^ Ho Peng Yoke, The Astronomical Chapters of the Chin Shu, with Amendments, Full Translation and Annotations (Paris/The Hague, Mouton & Co., 1966).
- ^ Choo, Jessey Jiun-Chyi (2014). "Return to the North? The Debate on Moving the Capital back to Luoyang". In Swartz, Wendy; Campany, Robert Ford; Lu, Yang; Choo, Jessey Jiun-Chyi (eds.). Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (e-book ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 47–56.
- ^ Knapp, Keith N (2014). "Confucian Views on the Supernatural". In Swartz, Wendy; Campany, Robert Ford; Lu, Yang; Choo, Jessey Jiun-Chyi (eds.). Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (e-book ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 665–676.
External links
[edit]
Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:
- Book of Jin 《晉書》 Chinese text with matching English vocabulary
See also
[edit]Book of Jin
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Compilation
Commissioning and Editors
The Book of Jin was commissioned in 646 CE by Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649) to establish an official dynastic history of the Jin (265–420), aligning with Tang efforts to systematize records of prior regimes for administrative and scholarly continuity.[3] Fang Xuanling (579–648), a prominent Tang chancellor, directed the project as chief editor, drawing on a committee of twenty-one scholars to synthesize fragmented Jin-era materials into a cohesive narrative.[4][3] Key contributors included Chu Suiliang (596–658) for drafting and Linghu Defen (583–666) for final revisions, ensuring alignment with Tang historiographical standards emphasizing annals, treatises, and biographies.[3] The work was expedited, with completion in 648 CE, yielding 130 juan submitted to the imperial court for approval.[3] This rapid timeline reflected Taizong's directive for authoritative texts to inform governance, though it later drew critique for occasional haste in sourcing.[4]Sources and Methodology
The compilation of the Book of Jin relied on the eighteen private histories of the Jin dynasty produced during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (300–600 CE) and the early Tang period (618–907 CE), which were preserved in Tang imperial archives.[3] These fragmentary works formed the core materials, with Zang Rongxu's Jinshu (compiled ca. 415–488 CE) serving as the primary source for much of the content, particularly annals on the Eastern Jin.[3] Notable among them was Sun Sheng's Jinyang qiu, a key chronicle emphasizing Jin political and military events.[3] The methodology entailed systematic collation of disparate annals, treatises, and biographies from these sources to create a unified official narrative, prioritizing chronological sequence and cross-verification against court records and eyewitness testimonies for empirical reliability.[3] Compilers under Fang Xuanling integrated supplementary literary texts, such as the Shishuo xinyu for anecdotal insights and Gan Bao's Soushenji for supernatural elements tied to historical causation, while embedding Confucian evaluative frameworks to assess virtue, vice, and dynastic legitimacy in rulers and officials.[3] This approach synthesized private historiographical efforts into a standardized format modeled on earlier dynastic histories like the Shiji and Hanshu, favoring documented events over unsubstantiated tradition.[3]Challenges in Compilation
The compilation of the Book of Jin faced significant evidential hurdles stemming from the destruction of primary documents during the dynasty's internal strife and collapse. The War of the Eight Princes (291–306 AD) and the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians (304–316 AD) precipitated the sacking of the capitals Luoyang and Chang'an, resulting in the widespread loss of imperial archives and official records. Subsequent dynastic transitions, including the establishment of the Eastern Jin (317–420 AD) and the ensuing fragmentation into Northern and Southern dynasties, further exacerbated this scarcity through ongoing warfare and administrative disruptions.[3] Compilers thus depended on fragmented secondary sources, including private histories such as Sun Sheng's Jin Yangqiu and Xi Zuochi's Zhonghua zhi, alongside literary collections like Shishuo xinyu and excerpts from earlier aborted official compilations (e.g., Shen Yue's Jinshu). This reliance introduced risks of inconsistency and anecdotal embellishment, as many originals survived only in quotations or summaries preserved in Tang-era libraries. Cross-referencing these disparate materials was essential but constrained by incomplete transmissions, with over 18 prior Jin histories contributing variably to the final text.[3] The temporal gap—over 200 years from the Jin's founding in 265 AD to the Book's completion in 648 AD under Tang Emperor Taizong—compounded these issues, amplifying opportunities for distortion in oral traditions or biased retellings across intervening regimes. Verification demanded rigorous collation, yet the absence of contemporaneous eyewitness accounts for later events, particularly Eastern Jin biographies, limited empirical fidelity and invited later critiques, such as Liu Zhiji's condemnation in Shitong of incorporated supernatural tales as undermining historical rigor.[3] Ideological tensions arose in reconciling the Sima clan's legitimacy, particularly Sima Yan's 265 AD usurpation via coerced abdication from Cao Wei's Emperor Huan, against portrayals of Wei as a flawed but antecedent regime. Tang compilers navigated this by emphasizing dynastic continuity through ritual abdication precedents, yet debates persisted on whether to retroactively delegitimize Cao rule to affirm Jin's Mandate of Heaven, reflecting broader historiographical caution toward portraying Sima coups as opportunistic rather than restorative.[3]Contents
Annals (本紀)
The Annals (本紀), comprising the first ten juan of the Book of Jin, form the chronological core of the historiographical work, recording the reigns of the Sima imperial lineage from the clan's foundational figures in the late Cao Wei period through the establishment, fragmentation, and eventual collapse of the Jin dynasty. These sections adopt the traditional benji format inherited from Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, organizing events by regnal years to emphasize imperial legitimacy, major policy initiatives, military campaigns, accessions, depositions, and dynastic transitions, while subordinating non-ruler figures to brief mentions where they intersect with sovereign actions.[3][5] The narrative begins with pre-Jin Simas positioned as precursors to imperial rule: juan 1 covers Sima Yi (posthumously Emperor Xuan, d. 251 CE), detailing his military suppression of rebellions and consolidation of power under Wei emperors; juan 2 addresses Sima Shi (Emperor Jing, r. 254–255 CE) and Sima Zhao (Emperor Wen, r. 255–265 CE), highlighting their orchestration of Wei's internal purges and territorial expansions. Juan 3 focuses on Sima Yan (Emperor Wu, r. 266–290 CE), founder of the dynasty, who forced Cao Huan's abdication on February 4, 266 CE, proclaimed the Jin era, and achieved unification by conquering Eastern Wu in the tenth month of 280 CE after Wang Jun's fleet captured Jianye, ending the Three Kingdoms division after nearly a century.[1] Subsequent Western Jin annals (juan 4–5) chronicle Emperor Hui (Sima Zhong, r. 290–307 CE), whose 37-year reign saw the execution of Empress Jia in 300 CE amid palace intrigues, followed by the War of the Eight Princes (291–306 CE), a cascade of fratricidal conflicts among Sima princes that precipitated the dynasty's collapse; juan 5 groups Emperors Huai (Sima Chi, r. 307–311 CE) and Min (Sima Ye, r. 313–316 CE), both captured by northern nomad forces, with Min's deposition marking the effective end of Western Jin control in 316 CE.[5] Eastern Jin annals (juan 6–10) trace the southern refugee court's tenuous legitimacy, starting with juan 6 on Emperor Yuan (Sima Rui, r. 317–323 CE) and Emperor Ming (Sima Shao, r. 323–325 CE), who stabilized the regime amid Wang Dun's rebellion (322–324 CE). Juan 7 covers Emperors Cheng (Sima Yan, r. 325–342 CE) and Kang (Sima Yue, r. 342–344 CE), noting regency influences and frontier defenses; juan 8 details Emperors Mu (Sima Dan, r. 344–361 CE), Ai (Sima Pi, r. 361–365 CE), and the deposed Hai Xi Gong (Sima Yi, r. 365–371 CE), including Huan Wen's 371 CE coup deposing Ai. Juan 9 addresses Jianwen (Symma Yi, r. 371–372 CE) and Emperor Wu (Sima Yao, r. 372–396 CE), with Yao's policies strengthening central authority against aristocratic clans; juan 10 concludes with Emperors An (Sima Dezong, r. 396–419 CE), mentally impaired and overshadowed by regents like Sima Yuanxian, and Gong (Sima Dewen, r. 419–420 CE), whose forced abdication to Liu Yu on June 11, 420 CE, extinguished the dynasty. Disputed successions, such as the multiple depositions in Eastern Jin (e.g., Hai Xi's brief reign amid Huan Wen's ambitions), are presented with emphasis on ritual propriety and omens, reflecting the compilers' Tang-era orthodox framework that privileges Sima continuity despite evidential gaps from lost contemporary records.[1][3]| Juan | Title | Primary Emperors Covered | Key Events Noted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annals of Emperor Xuan | Sima Yi (d. 251 CE) | Rise under Wei; suppression of rebellions.[1] |
| 2 | Annals of Emperors Jing and Wen | Sima Shi (r. 254–255 CE); Sima Zhao (r. 255–265 CE) | Wei purges; preparations for Jin founding.[1] |
| 3 | Annals of Emperor Wu | Sima Yan (r. 266–290 CE) | Abdication of Wei (266 CE); unification (280 CE).[1][5] |
| 4 | Annals of Emperor Hui | Sima Zhong (r. 290–307 CE) | Jia Wu upheaval (300 CE); Eight Princes war onset.[1] |
| 5 | Annals of Emperors Huai and Min | Sima Chi (r. 307–311 CE); Sima Ye (r. 313–316 CE) | Xiongnu invasions; Western Jin fall (316 CE).[1] |
| 6 | Annals of Emperors Yuan and Ming | Sima Rui (r. 317–323 CE); Sima Shao (r. 323–325 CE) | Eastern Jin founding; Wang Dun rebellion.[1] |
| 7 | Annals of Emperors Cheng and Kang | Sima Yan (r. 325–342 CE); Sima Yue (r. 342–344 CE) | Regency politics; northern defenses.[1] |
| 8 | Annals of Emperors Mu, Ai, and Hai Xi | Sima Dan (r. 344–361 CE); Sima Pi (r. 361–365 CE); Sima Yi (r. 365–371 CE) | Huan Wen's interventions; depositions.[1] |
| 9 | Annals of Emperors Jianwen and Wu | Sima Yi (r. 371–372 CE); Sima Yao (r. 372–396 CE) | Centralization efforts; clan balances.[1] |
| 10 | Annals of Emperors An and Gong | Sima Dezong (r. 396–419 CE); Sima Dewen (r. 419–420 CE) | Liu Yu's usurpation (420 CE).[1][5] |
Treatises (志)
The Treatises (志) of the Book of Jin consist of 20 juan (chapters 11–30), offering systematic monographs on cosmological, administrative, ritual, economic, and legal institutions that underpinned Jin dynasty governance from 265 to 420 CE. These sections draw on earlier historiographical models, such as those in the History of the Han, to catalog technical knowledge, state practices, and environmental factors influencing political stability, including celestial omens, territorial administration, and fiscal systems strained by events like the Yongjia Disaster of 311 CE, when Xiongnu forces sacked Luoyang, disrupting economic and administrative structures.[3] The treatises emphasize empirical records of institutional operations rather than narrative chronology, providing data on calendrical reforms, ritual protocols, and resource allocation that reveal causal pressures on the dynasty's central authority. For instance, the Food and Commodities Treatise (食貨志, juan 26) documents taxation, currency debasement, and agricultural yields, attributing fiscal collapse to overreliance on forced labor and barbarian incursions, with specific figures such as the sharp decline in grain reserves post-311 CE exacerbating institutional breakdown.[3] Similarly, the Five Agents Treatise (五行志, juan 27–29) correlates natural disasters and prodigies—e.g., droughts and eclipses recorded with dates like the 291 CE solar eclipse—with governance failures, including the migrations of the Five Barbarians (Xianbei, Di, Qiang, Xiongnu, and Jie), whose settlements strained border defenses and led to administrative fragmentation by the early 4th century.[3] Key treatises include:- Astronomy (天文志, juan 11–13): Records celestial phenomena, star catalogs, and prognostic models used for imperial decision-making, noting observations like comets presaging rebellions.
- Geography (地理志, juan 14–15): Details commanderies, population distributions, and barbarian migrations, quantifying settlements such as over 100,000 Qiang in Liang Province by 296 CE and their role in eroding Han-Chinese administrative control.[3]
- Pitch Pipes and Calendar (律曆志, juan 16–18): Outlines metrological standards and calendrical adjustments, including the Taikang era (280–289 CE) revisions aligning solar-lunar cycles with ritual timings.
- Rituals (禮志, juan 19–21): Codifies court ceremonies, sacrificial hierarchies, and tributary protocols, emphasizing Confucian orthodoxy amid Jin's syncretic influences from Wei precedents.
- Music (樂志, juan 22–23): Describes orchestral ensembles and tuning systems, linking harmonic theory to state harmony.
- Offices (職官志, juan 24): Enumerates bureaucratic ranks and functions, highlighting expansions under Sima Yan (r. 265–290 CE) that doubled administrative posts to over 20,000 officials.
- Carriages and Attire (輿服志, juan 25): Regulates imperial regalia and transport, symbolizing hierarchical order.
- Penal Law (刑法志, juan 30): Surveys legal codes, including edicts mitigating Wei-era harshness but failing to curb corruption, with case data from amnesties in the 290s CE.