Zhongguo yeshi jicheng 中國野史集成

Zhongguo yeshi jicheng 中國野史集成 "Collection of unofficial histories of China" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) specialized on historiography. It was compiled by a compilation group under the supervision of Miao Yue 繆鉞 (1904-1995), Hu Zhaoxi 胡昭曦 (1933-2019) and Lin Wanqing 林萬清, in cooperation with the Library of Sichuan University 四川大學圖書館. The collection was published in 1993 and comprises 50 volumes, plus an index volume.

It includes 950 titles from the Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE) to the Republican period (1911-1949). All books have been reproduced as facsimiles of excellent editions like Sibu congkan 四部叢刊, Guangya shuju congshu 廣雅書局叢書, Xuehai leibian, Xuejin taoyuan 學海類編, Hanhai 函海, Zhaodai congshu 昭代叢書 or Man-Qing yeshi 滿淸野史.

The titles are arranged chronologically. Books from the Song period 宋 (960-1279) cover almost seven volumes, such from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) 14 volumes, and books written during the Qing 清 (1644-1911) and the Republican periods 12 volumes.

The term yeshi 野史 was first used during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) and appears as a book title in "Master" Sha Zhongmu's 公沙仲穆 Dahe yeshi 大和野史. It designates a type of history book that was privately written and not acknowledged as official dynastic history or at least not issued by the court. There was never a consistent definition of yeshi among Chinese historians or librarians. At least, a few concepts can be mentioned, like a missing general historiographical concept or method (hence called "miscellaneous histories", zashi 雜史), a character as a writing by one single private person (hence called "private history", sishi 私史), a character as a non-official history written outside the court archives, in the "wilderness" (ye 野), and a writings style that include personal views and interpretations.

Unofficial histories also include a lot of hearsay or rumours from the street that cannot be historically proven. Some of these definitions can be disproved. The early official dynastic histories like Shiji 史記, Hanshu 漢書, Houhanshu 後漢書, and even the Xintangshu 新唐書, were written by private persons and not as books whose compilations was decreed by the emperor. It is also not justified to say that "wild histories" are all written in a confuse style and without a historiographical or methodological concept.

The type of unofficial histories are of an extremely high value as supplements for the official dynastic histories that were compiled in a biographical-thematical style (jizhuanti 紀傳體) that makes it difficult to establish a clear picture over the events of one period of time. Chronologically written books, like most of the unofficial histories, are of great help to overcome this problem. Unofficial histories include a lot of specific information on singular periods or events that are not to be found in official histories or even in annalist-style (biannianti 編年體) histories. The collection Zhongguo yeshi jicheng is therefore an invaluable source for Chinese history through the ages.

A 30-volumes-long supplement was published in 2000, by the same editors, under the title Zhongguo yeshi jicheng xubian 中國野史集成續編. It was published by the Ba-Shu Publishing House 巴蜀書社, too. The compilation of this collection was supervised by Chen Li 陳力 (b. 1958) and Duan Zhihong 段志洪. It includes even a few British books that were translated into Chinese, like Lord Macartney's (1737-1806) report of his visit to Beijing and Mukden in 1792, and the infamous, denigrating biography of Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧太后 (1835-1908) by Bland and Backhouse.