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Da-Jin diaofa lu 大金吊伐錄

Oct 21, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Da-Jin diaofa lu 大金吊伐錄 "The Destruction Campaign of the Great Jin" (also written 大金弔伐錄) is a collection of documents about the early phase of the Jin empire 金 (1115-1234) written by an anonymous author. It described the conquest of the Liao empire 遼 (907-1125) of the Khitans and the destruction of the Northern Song empire 南宋 (1127-1279) by the Jurchens under the emperors Taizu 金太祖 (r. 1115-1122) and Taizong 金太宗 (r. 1123-1134).

The 4-juan long book was compiled on the base of various documents various of local administrations. The oldest documents cover one theme from the year 1122. The further documents describe the military and diplomatic activities between 1123 and 1127, when the puppet states of Chu 楚 (1027) and Qi 齊 (1130-1137) were dissolved by the Jurchens, and Emperor Gaozong of the Song 宋高宗 (r. 1127-1162) crossed the Yangtze River to found the Southern Song dynasty 南宋 (1127-1279).

The collection includes 161 documents like "diplomatic notes" (guoshu 國書), imperial edicts (shizhao 誓詔), memorials to the throne (cebiao 冊表), reports to the authorities (wenzhuang 文狀) or military dispatches (diexi 牒檄) that are arranged in chronological order. The book can therefore be called a collection of sources. The appendix includes documents written by the Duke of Hunde 昏德公 (the deposed emperor of the Song who was taken hostage by the Jurchens, posthumously known as Emperor Hui of the Song 宋徽宗, r. 1100-1125), the Marquis of Chonghun 重昏侯 (Emperor Qin of the Song 宋欽宗, r. 1125-1126) and the King of Haibin 海濱王 (the Tianzuo Emperor of the Liao 遼天祚帝, r. 1101-1125).

The book can be compared with other history about this critical phase in the history of the Song period, like Xu Mengxin's 徐夢莘 (1124-1207) Sanchao beimeng huibian 三朝北盟會編.

The edition in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 is based on the version in the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典. The book is also included in the series Mohai jinhu 墨海金壺, Shoushange congshu 守山閣叢書, Sibu congkan sanbian 四部叢刊三編 (2 juan), and Guoxue wenku 國學文庫.

Sources:
Gao Wende 高文德, ed. (1995). Zhongguo shaoshu minzu shi da cidian 中國少數民族史大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin jiaoyu chubanshe), 644.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 937.
Mao Zhixiang 冒志祥 (2010). "Qiantan Da-Jin diaofa lu de dang'anxue jiazhi 淺談《大金弔伐錄》的檔案學價值", Lantai shijie 蘭台世界, 2010 (12).