The Making of Song Dynasty History Sources and Narratives, 960–1279 CE

In this ambitious work of political and intellectual history, Charles Hartman surveys the major sources that survive as vestiges of the official dynastic historiography of the Chinese Song dynasty (960?1279). Analyzing the narratives that emerge from these sources as products of Song political discourse, Hartman offers a thorough introduction to the texts and the political circumstances surrounding their compilation. Distilling from these sources a 'grand allegory of Song history', he argues that the narratives embedded within reflect tension between a Confucian model of political institutionalism and the Song court's preference for a non-sectarian, technocratic model. Fundamentally rethinking the corpus of texts that have formed the basis of our understanding of the Song and of imperial China more broadly, this far-reaching account of historiographical process and knowledge production illuminates the relationship between official history writing and political struggle in China.

Introduction: Toward a dynamic historiography of the Song dynasty; Part I. Sources: 1. The Song State Compendium; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 The origins and distinctiveness of the Song dynasty huiyao; 1.3 The first and second collections; 1.4 A hundred year hiatus; 1.5 Resumption under Emperor Xiaozong; 1.6 New paradigms; 1.7 The Reconstructed Draft; 1.8 Understanding the Recovered Draft; 1.9 Conclusion; 2. Li Tao and the Long Draft; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 The historian from Sichuan; 2.3 The origins of the Long Draft; 2.4 The reign of Emperor Xiaozong and the politics of the Long Draft; 2.5 Method and message in the Long Draft; 2.6 The fate of a masterpiece; 2.7 Conclusion; 3. Li Xinchuan and the Chronological Record; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 The life of Li Xinchuan; 3.3 Corrections of Errors in Old Accounts; 3.4 The Chronological Record; 3.4.1 Facts and sources; 3.4.2 Constructing narratives; 3.4.3 Creating a political discourse; 3.5 The Diverse Notes; 3.6 The Record of the Way and its Fate; 3.7 Conclusion; 4. The daoxue historians; 4.1 Zhu Xi; 4.2 Chen Jun; 4.3 Lü Zhong's Lectures on Song History; 4.4 Daoxue historiography; 5. The Song History; 5.1 Introduction: a flawed history?; 5.2 The project and the committee; 5.3 Structure and meaning; 5.3.1 The imperial eulogies; 5.3.2. The prefaces and evaluations; 5.3.3 Cyclical structure and meaning in the Song History; 5.4 Politics and message; Part II. Narratives: 6. Political precedents and the origins of historical narrative; 6.1 The power of precedent; 6.2 The policies of the ancestors; 6.3 Precedents in Southern Song; 7. Song history as grand allegory: an introduction; 8. An empire of benevolence; 8.1 Yuanyou origins; 8.2 Luo Congyan's Record of Revering Yao; 8.3 New history for a new regime; 8.4 Hu Anguo's 'Plans for the Restoration' and the return of Qin Gui; 8.5 Zhao Ding, Fan Chong, and the Yuanyou legacy; 9. From soldier to sage: deifying the prime ancestor; 9.1 Fighting over Chen Bridge; 9.2 A banquet for the generals; 9.2.1 The Song military problem; 9.2.2 The restoration context; 9.2.3 Sima Guang again; 10. The lineage of evil: benevolence undermined; 11. The rhythms of Song history; Bibliography; Index.

Charles Hartman is Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York.