Alternative Histories (bieshi lei 別史類)

The historiographical type of alternative histories (bieshi lei 別史類) is a subcategory to the literary category of historiography (shibu 史部) in traditional bibliographies. This type of history books is seen as an unofficial but qualitatively excellent type of history. It did not reach the quality of the official dynastic histories (zhengshi 正史) but was still better than the "miscellaneous" histories (zashi 雜史).

Many of bieshi books were, in the literal sense, alternatives to the official dynastic histories. The term bieshi first appears in the Song period 宋 (960-1279) book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題. The Qidan guo zhi 契丹國志 and Da-Jin guo zhi 大金國志, for example, can be seen as alternatives to the official books Liaoshi 遼史 and Jinshi 金史, the Mingshu 明書 as alternative to the official Mingshi 明史.

In the bibliographic chapter Jingji zhi 經籍志 in the history book Suishu 隋書 the alternative histories are found either side by side with the official dynastic histories (like Dongguan hanji 東觀漢記; for the early alternative histories,consult the articles of the official dynastic histories) or in the chronicles section (like Jinyang qiu 晉陽秋), the section of old histories (like Diwang shiji 帝王世紀 or Chu-Han chunqiu 楚漢春秋), or that of genealogies (like Shiben 世本). The Shiben is also in later bibliographies found among the genealogies.

In the bibliographic chapters of the two Tangshu (Jiutangshu 舊唐書, Xintangshu 新唐書) and early Song period bibliographies most of the alternative histories are found among the chronicles section, with the important exception of the Dongguan hanji that was always seen as a kind of supplement to the Houhanshu 後漢書 and is therefore found among the official dynastic histories.

The Songshi 宋史 bibliography sorts the Dongguan hanji into the bieshi subcategory, but the bibliographic chapter in the encyclopaedic history Wenxian tongkao 文獻通考 into that of the "miscellaneous" histories and the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) catalogue Guoshi jingji zhi 國史經籍志 again side by side with the official dynastic histories.

The term bieshi has not only the narrow meaning of a history book presenting an alternative of a dynastic history, like the Dongguan hanji, Xiao Chang's 蕭常 Xu houhanshu 續後漢書 (alternative to the Sanguozhi 三國志) or the books Songshiyi 宋史翼 (alternative to the Songshi), Yuanshi xinbian 元史新編, Yuanshu 元書 (alternatives to the Yuanshi 元史) and Mingshu (alternative to the Mingshi). Some "alternative histories" cover several dynasties, like Zheng Qiao's 鄭樵 Tongzhi 通志, or certain periods of the distant past not limited by dynastic periods, like Luo Mi's 羅泌 Lushi 路史, Guo Zhiqi's 郭之奇 Jigupian 稽古篇 or Li Kai's 李鍇 Shangshi 尚史.

Others only deal with parts of dynastic periods, like Chunqiu biedian 春秋別典 (Spring and Autumn period 春秋, 770-5th cent. BCE, part of the Zhou period 周, 11th cent.-221 BCE) by Xue Yuji 薛虞畿, Dongdu shilüe 東都事略 (Northern Song 北宋, 960-1126) by Wang Cheng 王稱 or Nansongshu 南宋書 (Southern Song 南宋, 1127-1279) by Qian Shisheng 錢士升.

Some alternative histories even have political implications, like the two books with the title , one written by Xiao Chang and the other by Hao Jing 郝經. While the official history Sanguozhi saw the Cao-Wei dynasty 曹魏 (220-265) as the legitimate heir of the great Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) Xiao and Hao were of the opinion that the "lesser" Han dynasty in Shu 蜀漢 (221-263) was the rightful successor. Similarly, Chen Ting 陳霆, author of the Tangyu jizhuan 唐餘紀傳, held that the Southern Tang dynasty 南唐 (937-975) was the legitimate successor of the great Tang 唐 (618-907), and not the Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) in China's north.

The subcategory of alternative histories in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 includes 20 books in total, and a further 36 books are described in the catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 (section cunmu 存目).