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1 - The Song State Compendium

from Part I - Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Charles Hartman
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York
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Summary

Chapter 2 traces the history of the compilation of the Song State Compendium (Song huiyao), a production of the court historiographical operation that was intended as a reference collection of existing precedents for use by court officials. First compiled in 1044, the Compendium was updated about a dozen times throughout the dynasty. An examination of these updatings, however, reveals how dominant political coalitions constantly revised the work to accommodate their historiographical needs. None of these individually revised compendia survive in their original form. The second part of this chapter therefore shows that the presently existing Recovered Draft of the Song State Compendium (Song huiyao jigao) does not represent a systematic, consistent collection of primary documents but derives from a project initiated by Zhao Ruyu (1140–1196) in 1180 to compile a subset of Compendium material that would support the political goals of a coalition of literati officials, many of whom were associated with the Learning of the Way (daoxue) movement. An analysis of the chronological coverage of this surviving body of Compendium material demonstrates how it relates to the once primary archival base of Song state historiography. The chapter concludes with a history of the convoluted transmission of this recovered material to the present and the implications of this fragmentary transmission for modern scholarly use of the work.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Making of Song Dynasty History
Sources and Narratives, 960–1279 CE
, pp. 23 - 48
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • The Song State Compendium
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.003
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  • The Song State Compendium
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.003
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Song State Compendium
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.003
Available formats
×