The Textual Research Into The Literature And Document Of Peisongzhi's Notes On Chronicles Of The Three Kingdoms

Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms of Chenshou encouraged people to be good, which was good at administer a country. The author upheld justice in his writing and was strict in collecting materials. His expression was concise, but much concealment was also founded. The most default of this book was its simplicity and omission. It was Peisongzhi who had made immortal contribution to this book because of his explanatory notes.I The biography and works of Peisongzhi and the style of his notes.1 x The biography and works of PeisongzhiPeisongzhi, A.D.372--A.D.451, whose other name was Shiqi, lived in thecounty named Wenxi in Hedong province which is Wenxi county, shanxi province nowdays. He was born in a large scholarly family and he had ever been the head of the county of Chang in Wuxing province. In A.D.428, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty ordered Peisongzhi to make notes for Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. When these notes were presented, the Emperor appreciated that they were immortal works. He was again ordered to compile the history of his own dynasty, when he was 80 years old. At that time, he was passed away unfortunately however. Peisongzhi had a lot of works in his whole life besides these notes on Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. But apart from these notes, the rest had been lost.2 The style of these notesPeisongzhi created a new style to note history. Before this, the note for history mainly emphasized the phoneticism, the meanings of words and the explanation to objects, geography and allusions, etc. But Peisongzhi laid stress on four aspects: supplement to history facts, enumeration of similarities and differences, discrimination between truth and falsehood and making comment. This style to note history influenced Notes on Book of Waterways of Daoyuan-Li and notes on New Sayings of The World of Xiaobiao-Liu directly. However after Tang and SongDynasty, the former style was followed and this new way of Peisongzhi was not inherited.II The study of the ballads of Peisongzhi's notesPeisongzhi's notes embodied the thought of the Confucianism which emphasized the human being. He cited many ballads to note history to reflect the people's aspirations.1 The classification of these ballads of Peisongzhi 'notes. (1) Consciousness of the people to take part in and discuss political affairs. In the period of the Three Kingdoms, the political situation was turbulent and the social contradictions were here and there. The ballads spread among the people reflected the social facts. Two points can be listed particularly: firstly the comment to political affairs; secondly the attention to the struggle of the imperial family. (2) Curse to the corrupt officials. In that period, the politics was corrupt and the official circles were rotten. The ballads of Peisongzhi's notes reflected the people's course and hatred to the figures of that time. Bing influenced by the trend of comment in that time, the ballads became one of the important ways to review figures in that period. Pei songzhi's notes revealed the main character of the figures vividly and lively with rhymed words.2. Xian Qin Han Wei Jin Nan Bei Chao Shi (《先秦汉魏晋南北朝诗》) of Qinli-Lu did not collect Peisongzhi's notes, and it did not corrected the notes too.3 The wrongs of the ballads in Peisongzhi's notes and in Xian Qin Han Wei Jin Nan Bei Chao Shi( 《先秦汉魏晋南北朝诗》 )of Qinli-Lu are corrected in my article.III The ballads research and exposition of the prose of Peisongzhi's notesPeisongzhi's notes kept numerous pieces of prose. This article takes "three Cao" and "seven Persons" for example to research and expound these works of Caocao, Caopei, Caozhi, Kongrong, Chenlin, Wangcan, and Liuzhen, around the amount, the sections and chapters andthe versions of those pieces of prose, which kept in Peisongzhi's notes. Among the "seven persons", Ruanyu, Xugan and Yingyang had not prose, so this article do not mention them any longer.IV The research of the poems of Peisongzhi's notesThere were much...