When Liu Zhiji started to write his meaningful work, history works had already achieved to represent a considerable genre of literature; historical writing was held in high esteem. It has to be kept in mind that in Tang dynasty already fifteen annals (i.e. Standard Histories) existed which precisely shows the importance ascribed to historiography from the official side. Even more striking is the total number of historical text; for example, in the literature catalogue of the Suishu 隋書 (Book of Sui; 656) altogether 817 historical works are listed with 13,263 juan, which depicts the eminence of historical compilations at the time.143
This fact also represents an example for the development of historical writing becoming a sovereign genre independent from classical works, which it used to belong to in former times. Generally three categories were distinguished: the canonical works (jing 經), writings by non-canonical authors (zi 子) and collected compositions written by single authors (ji 集); now a new category was added, namely the category of historical works (shi 史 ) which—together with the aforementioned categories— constituted the four divisions of literature (sibu 四部) in Chinese history. In the Sui
142 Shitong 史通, Shitong yuanxu 史通原序, p. 1. For a complete translation, see Damien
Chaussende (2014), pp. 2f.
catalogue, 13 additional departments of literature were distinguished, e.g. official annals, chronological history, recordings of imperial speeches and activities and so forth. But a striking fact is the non-existence of a shiping 史評-section, a section for historical criticism.144 This occurrence derives from the fact that the Shitong was in fact the first composition concentrating on the examination und critical evaluation of history works, the first shiping-work. Only after the emergence of Liu Zhiji’s work a genre of historical criticism (shiping) was established and included in the imperial catalogue of literature (Siku quanshu 四庫全書). In effect, it was in the twelfth century that Zhao Gongwu 兆公武 (ca. 1105-1180) arranged writings with discussions about history and historiography not in the ji 集 (collected miscellaneous writings) but in the shi 史- category in his Junzhai dushizhi 郡齋讀書志 (Explanatory Bibliography of Junzhai; 1151). As a matter of fact, this arrangement, i.e. the category shiping, only became firmly established in Qing dynasty in the Siku quanshu and its descriptive catalogue, the Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四 庫 全 書 總 目 提 要 (Explanatory Catalogue to the Complete Books of the Four Storehouses) from 1782.145
Although there were many historical compilations before the Shitong, this work was the first one to concentrate on the examination and critique of historical writings and the theory of historical writing. However, the Shitong as a critical composition towards historical writing had some precedents: One of Liu Zhiji’s methodological forefathers of whom there are still writings available is Liu Xiang 劉向 (79/77-8/6
144 Koh, Liu (1956), pp. 1f.
145 Koh, Liu (1956), pp. 2f; Q. Edward Wang, Franz L. Fillafer, Georg G. Iggers (2007), The Many
Faces of Clio: Cross-cultural Approaches to Historiography, Essays in Honor of Georg G. Iggers, New
York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, p. 265.
The Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 (Explanatory Catalogue to the Complete Books of the Four Storehouses) was planned as a descriptive catalogue to the Siku quanshu providing meta-information about the texts and the categories themselves of the latter work such as the origin of a specific text or the method of selection in a specific category. In the end, the Zongmu tiyao contained information about 6,793 books, while there are only 3,461 books included in the Siku quanshu collectaneum. See “Chinese literature— Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四 庫 全 書 總 目 提 要 ,” at
ChinaKnowledge.de, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/sikuquanshuzongmutiyao.html,
last accessed: July 3rd, 2017.
The shiping-category (shiping lei 史評類) of the Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 contains abstracts of 122 works; among others, abstracts of the Shitong, the Shitong tongshi, the Xueshi (see chap. 11.1), the Shijiu (see chap. 11.9)—all in juan 88—, the Shitong huiyao, the Shitong pingshi, the
Shitong xungu, the Shitong xungu pu (for all, see chap. 5)—all in juan 89. See Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao
BC)146 who compiled two works including discussions about the stories contained, namely the Zhanguoce 戰國策 (Strategies of the Warring States)147 and the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan).148 Yet, these discussions appear rather as moral evaluations than as historical assessments in any sense. Moreover, there exist discourses about the Shiji, for example debates by Yang Xiong 揚雄 (53 BC-18 AD) in his Fayan 法言 (Model Sayings), by Wang Chong 王充 (27-97 AD) in his Lunheng 論衡 (“Critical Essays” or “Discourses Weighed in Balance”), and one by Ban Biao 班彪(3-54 AD) from Han dynasty.149 Especially Wang Chong and his Lunheng can be seen as a precedent of the Shitong because the author here criticized the “belief in magic and omina” and the assumption of a metaphysical origin of objects; furthermore, it was only due to Liu Zhiji that the importance of Wang Chong’s work was recognized. Liu adapted and improved the essentials of the historical criticism, that is to say the spirit of skepticism, the devotion to seek the truth, the techniques of doing so and the challenging of authorities.150 Moreover, there was the Wei and Jin historian Zhang Fu 張輔 (d. 305)151 who did a comparison between the Shiji and the Hanshu. His parameters, thus, appear very superficial: He characterized
146 Liu Xiang 劉向 (79/77-8/6 BC), zi 字: Zizheng 子政, was a historian from Former Han dynasty
(206-8 BC). His sparsely transmitted works were collected in Ming dynasty by Zhang Pu 張溥 in his compilation Han Wei Liuchao baisan mingjia ji 漢魏六朝百三名家集. See “Persons in Chinese
History—Liu Xiang 劉 向 ,” at ChinaKnowledge.de,
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personsliuxiang.html, last accessed: July 14th, 2016. For more information, see Marc Hermann, Weiping Huang, Henriette Pleiger, Thomas Zimmer (2011),
Biographisches Handbuch chinesischer Schriftsteller: Leben und Werke, Berlin: De Gruyter (Geschichte
der chinesischen Literatur, ed. Wolfgang Kubin, 9), p. 165.
147 The Zhanguoce 戰國策 (Stratagems of the Warring States) is a compilation of stories and
debates from the Warring States period (fifth century-221 BC) by Liu Xiang. See “Zhanguoce 戰國策,” at ChinaKnowledge.de, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/zhanguoce.html, last accessed: July 14th, 2016.
148 The Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 (Spring and Autumn of Master Yan) is a compilation of
anecdotes about minister Yan Ying 晏嬰 (d. 500 BC) of the state of Qi 齊 by Han time scholar Liu Xiang.
See “Yanzi chunqiu 晏 子 春 秋 ,” at ChinaKnowledge.de,
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/yanzichunqiu.html, last accessed: July 14th, 2016.
149 Koh, Liu (1956), p. 4; Koh (1957), pp. 2f. 150 Hsu (1983), p. 434.
151 Zhang Fu 張輔 (d. 305) most important work was the Mingshi youlie lun 名士優劣論
(Disquisition on good and bad among famous scholars). See David R Knechtges and Taiping Chang (eds.) (2014), Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Leiden: Brill, vol. 3, pp. 2136ff.
Ban Gu as unskilled historiographer for he needed 800,000 characters to describe 200 years of history, while Sima Qian only used 500,000 characters for 3000 years; it is obvious that such a quantitative analysis is inappropriate to validate a historical work. Contemporary to Zhang Fu, Qiao Zhou 譙周 (201-270)152 criticized Sima Qian in his Gushi kao 古史考 (Study of the Ancient History) for having drawn on non-Confucian works as sources. Fan Ye 范曄 (398-445), the famous author of the Houhanshu 後漢書, even evaluated, approved and praised this work in his Songshu 宋書153 of the Liu-Song 劉宋 dynasty (420-479). Yet, all these texts were rather short commentaries and treatises including criticisms on historical writings.154
Other influences came from Pei Songzhi 裴松之 (371-451)155 of Eastern Jin dynasty (Dong Jin 東晉, 317-420) and Liu Xie 劉勰 (465-532), who was the author of the first critical history and treatise about the techniques and theories of literary styles, namely the Wenxin diaolong 文心雕龍 (The Literary Mind and the Carving of the Dragons);156 and postulated not to write something if you are in doubt about it. His Wenxin diaolong can be considered a systematical and critical examination of the theory of stylistic forms—the first critique to historical works. In this work, Liu Xie discusses
152 Qiao Zhou 譙周 (201-270) was a politician and scholar. The works of this Wei-Jin scholar are,
among others: the Gushi kao 古史考 (Investigation of Ancient History), the Shuben ji 蜀本紀 (Basic Annals of Shu), the Wujing ranfou lun 五經然否論 (Disquisition on What is Right and Wrong in the Five Classics), the Sanbaji 三巴記 (Notes on the Three Ba Commanderies), the Chouguo lun 仇國論 (Disquisition on Enemy States), or the Faxun 法訓 (Exemplary instructions). See Meng Mo 蒙默 (1989),
Sichuan gudai shigao 四川古代史稿, Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe 四川人民出版社, p. 157.
153 Fan Ye’s Songshu 宋書 about the Liu-Song time is not to be mixed up with the Songshu 宋書
(History of the[Liu-]Song dynasty) by Shen Yue 沈約 (441-513), one of the 25 Standard Histories, or the
Songshi 宋史, the history of Song dynasty (960-1297).
154 Koh (1957), p. 4; Koh, Liu (1956), p. 4.
155 Pei Songzhi 裴松之 (371-451), among other things, became famous for his annotation of the
Sanguozhi 三國志 (Records of the Three Kingdoms, third century BC); other works by him include: Jinji
晉紀 (History of Jin), Peishi jiazhuan 裴氏家傳 (Biographies of the Pei Family), Jizhu sangfu jingzhuan 集注喪服經傳 (Concentrating on Classics on Mourning Apparels and their Commentaries). See Shanghai shifan daxue, Zhongguo shixueshi yanjiushi 上海师范大学, 中国史学史研究室 (eds.) (1980),
Zhongguo shixue shilun ji 中国史学史论集, Shanghai renmin chubanshe 上海人民出版社, p. 325.
156 The Wenxin diaolong covers ten juan with fifty chapters which mainly consist of literary theory
in general (first five chapters) and the development of the different literary styles (chapter 6-25). Furthermore, it names and describes techniques of literary writing and literary critique. See “Chinese Literature—Wenxin diaolong 文 心 雕 龍 ‘The Mind of Literature and Carving Dragons,’” at
ChinaKnowledge.de, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/sanguozhi.html, last accessed: February 24th, 2017.
the Shiji, the Hanshu, the Zuozhuan, the Sanguozhi 三國志157 and many more, while applying the already known technique of moral judgment through praise and blame. As the reason for the integration of many different and unreliable sources, Liu Xie marks the unscientific curiosity of ancient historiographers; concerning the difficulties of historical writing, his main concern and critique hits the authors of historical works who only try to use as many and as different sources and opinions as possible in order to satisfy the curiosity of readers without taking into account the practical application of historical facts. Falsifications and deformations for the purpose of a favorable depiction of ancestors or important people of the past are outcomes of this method and are detected by Liu Xie. For all these reflections, the Wenxin diaolong is regarded as a very important and influential work in the development of Chinese critical analysis of historical compositions. Liu Zhiji also recognized the considerable role of Liu Xie’s work, which he mentioned—together with five other compositions—as being one of the reasons for having compiled the Shitong. On these grounds, it is not surprising that the style and composition of the Shitong shows similarities to the Wenxin diaolong, as it represents, in a sense, the model for the Shitong.158 In the self-preface, Liu Zhiji himself referred to the Wenxin diaolong.
詞人屬文，其體非一，譬甘辛殊味，丹素異彩，后來祖述，識昧圓
通，家有詆訶，人相掎摭，故劉勰《文心》生焉。159
Concerning the pieces of prose writing of the men of letters, their style cannot be one; for instance, sweet and bitter are different tastes, and red and white are different colors. But those who come afterwards [i.e. descendants] are confined to an established tradition and ignore the virtues of the synthesis, so that the schools will be denigrated and
157 “The Sanguozhi 三國志 (Records of the Three Kingdoms) is one of the official dynastic
histories (zhengshi 正史). Together with its predecessors Shiji 史記, Hanshu 漢書 and Houhanshu 後漢 書 it is one of the ‘four great histories’ (sishi 四史) of ancient China. It describes separately the history of each of the so-called Three Kingdoms 三國 (220-280 AD) in a biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti 紀傳 體). The author was Chen Shou 陳壽 from the Jin period 晉 (265-420)…,” see “Chinese Literature—
Sanguozhi 三國志” at ChinaKnowledge.de, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/
sanguozhi.html, last accessed: February 24th, 2017.
158 Hsu (1983), pp. 434f; Koh (1957), pp. 4f; Koh, Liu (1956), p. 6.
individuals will be criticized. Therefore, Liu Xie compiled the Wenxin
[diaolong].160
Moreover, the Song poet Huang Tingjian 黄庭堅161 once stated: “For discussing literature just [read] the Wenxin diaolong, for criticizing history just [read] the Shitong, these two books cannot be not looked at, in fact they are very profitable in later studies.”
(論文則《文心雕龍》，評史則《史通》，二書不可不觀，實有益於後學。162)
Liu Zhiji, as becomes evident, was not the first one to occupy himself with historical criticism. Nonetheless, he was the first to ever concentrate—in one single work—on historical criticism and, furthermore, to establish rules for the proper writing of history. He drew inspiration from many works from the past and chose the adequate elements from each of them. Therefore, he, indeed, can be regarded as an initiator for a systematic contention about historical criticism.