The Comparative Study Between Annals Of Warring States And A Brief Chronological Record Of The Late Zhou Dynasty

Published in the middle of Qing Dynasty, Lin Chunpu’s A Brief ChronologicalRecord of the Late Zhou Dynasty (Zhou for short) and Huang Shisan’s Annals ofWarring States (Annals for short)are all based on the research findings ofpredecessors. Comparing with History As Mirror written by Sima Guang andChronicle of Events written by Lv Zuqian, these two books do better in the aspect ofdata collection and textual research. Works of warring states especially which putemphasis on chronicles often quote their viewpoints, so it is of great importance tostudy these two books thoroughly and comprehensively. In order to reveal theaccomplishments and defects, four parts are written in the way of comparison.The first part is the comparison of writing background. Firstly, there is a briefintroduction of a dozen of works related with chronicles of Warring States in the pastdynasties and the academic situation of the writing time of the books. Secondly, it isthe introduction of lifetime and research habit of Lin Chunpu and Huang Shisan.Thirdly, the writing process will be compared.The second part writes the styles of the two books. They all use techniques ofChun Qiu writing especially in salutation and years recording which is a style ofwriting in which words have implications. And in using this technique, Zhou is morecomplicated. In data collecting, Annals is more extensive which contains epigraphymaterials. Zhou has a better use of literature and keeps a detailed record of events.With the objective of colleting data to compare, Annals comments a little. There isabundant historical criticism in Zhou under the principle of tolerance. Annals introduces the geography of various states with a volume of land which makes a mapof Warring States. Along with a volume of chronology, Annals benefits the laterresearch.The third part writes the comparison of textual research. In exegesis andliterature collating, Zhou is more abundant and detailed. Chronicling all thehistorical materials of Warring States, the two books all attach incidents withundefined years to related events. That the two books differ in the chronicle ofhistorical materials influence the writers view on historical events.“Listen to bothsides and you will be enlightened; heed only one side and you will be benighted”,the view of the opinions of the two writers will contribute to the exploration ofrelated questions. Zhou has more textual research, border scope of historical eventsand more achievements absorbed from the processors than Annals.The forth part analyzes the defects of the two books. There four faults in thetwo books. The first one is the oversight of pseudograph. They all adopt the contentof Kong Cong Zi without thinking. The second one is misapprehension ofconnections between two events that are close in time. The third one is neglecting ofexamining the source of history materials. For example, they follow the mistake ofHistory As Mirror without checking original documents. The last one is that theyavoid the difference of historical materials which leads to the misunderstanding ofevents.Annals is just one of the books that Lin Chunpu write in the field of Pre-Qinhistory while Huang Shisan uses decades to write Zhou with continuousmodification, so Zhou is better than Annals generally. As the monographs ofchronicle of Warring States, the two books contribute a lot to the study of history ofWarring States. The chronicling of historical materials and the examining andcorrecting of historical events are still essential references to the study of the history of Warring States.