Ce Fu Yuan Turtle Research

CefuYuangui [《册府元龟》] is a Chinese ancient super encyclopedia which was edited by Wang Qinruo[王若钦]and others under the command of the Emperor Zhenzong[真宗]of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The1,000volumes book is the biggest one in the Four Books of Song Dynasty, which records the deeds of emperors and ministers through ages. In this book, a large quantity of the materials about Tang Dynasty (618-907) is preserved which is the most valuable part of it. However, for a very long period, study on the source of those historical materials is not enough resulting in few evaluations on its values. Furthermore, people could not make full use of it concerning researches. Whereas all these mentioned, this thesis probes into some philosophy problems and mainly centers on detailed study and classified discussion on the source of materials about Tang Dynasty in the book. Such analysis would be based on former researches, taking the historical records of Tang history noted down in Cefu Yuangui as core, compared with other historical records of Tang Dynasty entered in other history books and referring to the analysis and discussion basic facts preserved in Tang historical records collected by the royal courts in the early period of Northern Song Dynasty.By studying, I deem that:1. Cefu Yuangui exerted great influence upon the development of ancient encyclopedia in China. It shows the ancient compilation level of encyclopedia books exclusively compiled for emperors, breaks the traditional concept of expounding on predecessors'theories without producing anything original oneself and enormously influences the latter development of expertise encyclopedia books. In addition, this book was endowed with a special obligation, that is, being the first general classified style historical book compiled by the Northern Song Emperor (collected into the History Section of Yiwen Zhi[艺文志]in Songshi [《宋史》]). In fact, it becomes an emperor-appointed book providing historical knowledge and historical experiences about ruling and managing society. Regarding its style and content, it functions specially such as preserving the orthodoxy, the hierarchical order and the ethics and bondage of feudal dynasty.2. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the emperor ordered to compile giant reference book for many reasons. This is a political and cultural act of the court. Quite a lot of objective historical factors makes it possible. Not only the emperor's political intentions and his own cultural accomplishments and understandings give it a push, but the environmental objective conditions such as economic condition and cultural condition guarantee and support it.3. As for the persons who had compiled this book, there is no absolute answer. Seeing from existing materials,21compilers including Nie Zhen[聂震]while except Wang Qinruo, Yang Yi[杨亿]and other18people, are mentioned clearly. Furthermore, it is discussed briefly as for when they entered and left the publishing house which was temporarily set up. Before August of Jingde[景德]the fourth year, its location was in the national archives bureau in Chongwen Yuan[崇文院]and later moved to the General Office of South Xuanhui Yuan[宣徽南院].4. By a contrast study on the historical materials of Tang Dynasty, the sources in Cefu Yuangui are listed as follows:First, the history from Tang Emperor Gaozu[唐高祖]to Tang Emperor Wuzong[唐武宗]recorded in the Diwang Section[帝王部]is basically originated from the records of the Tang Emperors. As for other sections of this book, some of them are from the records of the Tang Emperors, relatively speaking, the ChugongSection[储宫部]and the Waichen Section[外臣部]belong to this kind. And such materials are all about emperors.Secondly, it is proved that Tangshu [《唐书》] which has130volumes narrating history of Tang Dynasty compiled by Wei Shu[韦述]and others is one of the main historical sources of Cefu Yuangui. Records in the sections except the Diwang Section1) either are not found in Jiu Tangshu [《旧唐书》] or could be found in different words;2) are seen in the part of Taiping Yulan [《太平御览》] introduced from Tangshu while the describing words are different and no mentioning of them in other books. These two cases are usually from the narration of the Tang history compiled by Wei Shu and others. Such records are all about the deeds of ministers.Thirdly, as for the official stories recorded in other sections other than the Diwang Section and totally same with the recording in Old Tang Book or just a few words different, most of them originated from the Old Tang Book.Finally,other sections of this book such as Bangji Section[邦计部],Xianguan Section[宪官部],QuanxuanSection[铨选部],Xuexiao Section[学校部],and TaishengSection[台省部],recorded the system of laws and institutions in Tang Dynasty. And those records are basically from Tongdian [《通典》], Huiyao [《会要》]by Su Mian[苏冕],Xu Huiyao [《续会要》] by Cui Xuan[崔铉]as well as the Tang Huiyao [《唐会要》] by Wang Pu[王溥].