Shu-Han benmo 蜀漢本末

Shu-Han benmo 蜀漢本末 "The History of the Han Dynasty in Shu in its Entirety" is a history of the state of Shu 蜀漢 (221-263), one of the Three Empires 三國 (220-280), written by the Yuan-period 元 (1279-1368) scholar Zhao Juxin 趙居信, courtesy name Zhao Jiming 趙季明. He hailed from Xuzhou 許州 (modern Xuzhou, Henan) and was Hanlin academician recipient of edicts (Hanlin xueshi chengzhi 翰林學士承旨) during the Zhizhi reign 至治 (1321-1323).

His 3-juan long book was inspired by Zhu Xi's 朱熹 (1130-1200) history Zizhi tongjian gangmu 資治通鑒綱目, but the title of a different genre of historiography, the jishi benmo 紀事本末 type. It begins in 161, in the late Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), and ends in 271, when the state of Jin 晉 (265-420) conquered Sichuan. The resummé (Zonglun 總論) was written in 1271, and the book published in 1273.

The literary and scholarly quality of the text is quite mediocre and can not be compared with other histories on that period of time. It seems that a great part of the text was copied from Zhu Xi's book and somewhat shortened. The text was therefore not included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書. It was published in 2004 by the Beijing Library 北京圖書館 in the series Zhonghua zaizao shanben congshu 中華再造善本叢書 and in the series Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書.