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Wudai chunqiu 五代春秋

Oct 21, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Wudai chunqiu 五代春秋 "Spring and Autumn of the Five Dynasties" is a history of the Five Dynasties period 五代 (907-960) compiled by Yin Zhu 尹洙 (1001–1047, courtesy name Shilu 師魯). He was an expert of the Confucian Classic Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals" and laid stress on the preservation of the spirit of the ancient writings. Yin Zhu's collected writings are called Henan xiansheng wenji 河南先生文集.

The 2-juan long Wudai chunqiu imitates the structure of the Classic Chunqiu. It begins with the foundation of the Later Liang dynasty 後梁 (907-923) by Emperor Taizu 梁太祖 (r. 907–912) and ends with the demise of the Later Zhou 後周 (951-960). The book is written in short and concise sentences, like in the old Chunqiu, which makes the book not easy to read, so that the reader has to make use of other histories on that period of time, in order to understand the context of each entry.

The book is included in Yin Zhu's collected writings, as well as in the series Ziteng shuwu congke 紫藤書屋叢刻, Dushuzhai congshu 讀書齋叢書, Chanhua'an congshu 懺花盫叢書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 and Xuehai leibian 學海類編.

Table 1. Chapters of the Wudai chunqiu 五代春秋
1. [後]梁太祖 Emperor Taizu of the Liang (r. 907-912)
[後梁]末帝 The Last Emperor [of the Liang] (r. 913-923)
後唐莊宗神閔皇帝 Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang, the Spiritful-Lamentable (r. 923-925)
[後唐]明宗仁德皇帝 Emperor Mingzong, the Kind-Virtuous (r. 926-933)
[後唐]閔皇帝 The Lamentable Emperor (r. 933-934)
2. 後唐末帝 The Last Emperor of the Later Tang (r. 934-936)
[後]晉高祖 Emperor Gaozu of the [Later] Jin (r. 936-942)
[後晉]少帝 The Minor Emperor [of the Later Jin] (r. 942-946)
[後]漢高祖 Emperor Gaozu of the [Later] Han (r. 947-949)
[後漢]隱帝 The Obscured Emperor [of the Later Han] (r. 948-950)
[後]周高祖 Emperor Gaozu of the [Later Zhou] (r. 951-954)
[後周]世宗 Emperor Shizong [of the Later Zhou] (r. 954-959)
[後周]恭帝 The Revered Emperor [of the Later Zhou] (r. 959-960)
Source:
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, 896.