Ershiwushi bubian 二十五史補編

Ershiwushi bubian 二十五史補編 is a supplement to the twenty-five official dynastic histories. It has the shape of a series of collectanea, includes 240 books and was published in 1936 by the Kaiming Publishing House 開明書店 in Shanghai.

The supplement was written on the background of the incomplete character of a lot of these histories, especially with regard to the tables (biao 表) and treatises on statecraft (zhi 志). The Sanguozhi 三國志, Liangshu 梁書 and Chenshu 陳書, Beiqishu 北齊書, Zhoushu 周書, Nanshi 南史 and Beishi 北史, for instance, include no treatises at all, and a large number of these dynastic histories also lack tables of investitures of princes and marquesses and of appointments to the highest state offices. Even otherwise complete editions of the official dynastic histories are lacking treatises on certain topics, like military administration, administrative geography or imperial bibliographies. The Ershiwushi bubian also includes some books rectifying errors in the extant treatises and tables and supplements to such.

The largest part of the books included in the Ershiwushi bubian was written during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), when scholars widely undertook text-critical research of ancient texts, and the early years of the Republic, but there are also a few earlier texts like Qian Wenzi's 錢文子 (1148-1220) book Bu Han bing zhi 補漢兵志 "Supplementary treatise on the military system of the (Former) Han" from the Song period 宋 (960-1279).