A Study Of Bai JiangZhuan By ZhangYu In The Song Dyansty

Song Dynasty was the second peak of the development of military books,which not only have a large number of military books,but also have various genres.Bai Jiang Zhuan is the first military book of biographies of famous generals in China.Through the description of military deeds and strategies of 100 generals,which combines specific examples with military theory to encourage readers to study the art of war.At present,there is no special research on Baijiang Zhuan in the academia.This paper makes a comprehensive and systematic study on its compilation methods,description and edition circulation,the selection criteria of 100 generals,and historical sources from the perspective of philology,which not only grasp the development of military books in the Song Dynasty,but also help to understand the value of traditional military books.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is about the author Zhang Yu and the completion of Bai Jiang Zhuan.Zhang Yu,a native of Dongguang(now Dongguang County,Cangzhou City,Hebei Province),lived in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty.He once annotated Sun Zi Bing Fa,and his annotations were included in the book Song Ben Shi Yi Jia Zhu Sun Zi.In addition,this paper also makes a distinction between the two books.Because the title and date are very close,many scholars mistake the two books for the same book.In fact,Zhang Shi Ji Zhu Bai Jiang Zhuan is an annotated version of Bai Jiang Zhuan by Zhai Andao,a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty.The second part is about the compilation and description.The author directly extracts,deletes and rewrites the official historical materials,retains the content related to military affairs and "can be used for human wisdom",and highlights the military strategy and life wisdom of the generals,which is of great educational significance.From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty,the book has been printed and recorded in the bibliographies,especially in the Qing Dynasty.By sorting out the editions and descriptions,we can see that the Ming Dynasty has the most block-printed editions and the most complete preservation.The third part is about the selection criteria and historical sources of the characters.First of all,it analyzes the selection criteria of one hundred generals,and concludes that military ability and loyalty,filial piety,chastity,righteousness are the primary factors for the author to consider,and then explores the historical sources of the book,which mainly come from biographies,families,records and biographies of official history before Song Dynasty;Finally,the completion time of Bai Jiang Zhuan is determined,through Liu Qi preface to the book and the author’s "the way to prepare for your majesty’s education of warriors" in the preface,and then the development stage and scale of martial arts in the Northern Song Dynasty are inferred,and then the completion time of the book is determined from the third year of Chongning to the end of Zhenghe(1104——1118).The fourth part is the academic value and its influence on later generations,which is the first special book of generals in the history of ancient military books in China.It’s appearance create a new variety of military books,and the style of military books of generals in later generations was also influenced by it.The book has preserved a large number of historical materials of military technology,which has attracted the attention of the court since its completion,and has been regarded as the official teaching material of martial arts,and has trained a large number of military talents.