Monday, February 22, 2021

The Twenty Four Histories


The Twenty-Four Histories (Chinese二十四史pinyinÈrshísì ShǐWade–GilesErh-shih-szu shih), also known as the Orthodox Histories (Chinese正史pinyinZhèngshǐ), are the Chinese official historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century.

The Han dynasty official Sima Qian established many of the conventions of the genre, but the form was not fixed until much later. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture.[1]

The title "Twenty-Four Histories" dates from 1775 which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, the History of Ming was reworked and a complete set of the histories produced.

These works were begun by one historian and completed by an heir, usually of the next generation.

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