Study On The Historiographer System Of North Song Dynasty

China’s ancient history could not be recorded continuously without the efforts ofhistoriographer and historian, so the study of historiographer institution is very important.While Northern Song Dynasty’s historiographer institution occupies a very important positionthroughout the whole ancient historiographer institution, therefore to analyze the HistoryCompiling Institution, the election of historiographer and historian, the historiographer’sresponsibilities and the characteristics of historiographer institution during this period couldenrich the history research content of the Northern Song Dynasty.1Northern Song’s History Compiling InstitutionThe government established a series of History Compiling Institution in Northern SongDynasty, which were mainly living rooms, politics record rooms, academia historica,calendarsinstitute, national historical institute, record center, jade plate center and so on, and someinstitutions were set up or abandoned often. These institutions are mainly divided into twocategories by author: recording institutions and compiling institutions. The recordinginstitutions include living rooms and politics record rooms and compiling institutions mainlyinclude academia historica, national historical institute, record center, calendars institute andjade plate center.2The election of historiographer and historianFor the long-term stability of the rule, Northern Song Dynasty rulers especially focus oncompilation work, historiographer and related officials involved in compilation are selectedand appointed rigorously. There are three main ways in the Northern Song Dynasty to electhistoriographer and compilation officials. The first way is appointment by the emperor, theearly Northern Song Dynasty mainly focus on prime mister supervision and compilation, andposition of Tiju are set up in Renzong’s reign. After YuanFeng restructuring, national history,national history initiates, editing, compilation, compilations initiates and review officers areset up also. The second way is part-time officer, some of the compilation officials alsoundertake other duties in Northern Song Dynasty,thus causing the compilation officialscertainly unable to put their whole energy into compilation, which must have effect in compilation’s quality and speed. The third way is other officials to recommend,sometimes, the government of Northern Song Dynasty is not very clear about the ability ofnon public officials for compilation, but these ones’history cultivation and compilation abilitycould promote the government’s compilation work, which requires officials to recommend, inorder to facilitate the compilation work, therefore, other officials recommend is also becomeone way.3Historiographer’s responsibilitiesThe historiographer and compilation officials’s responsibilities in Northern SongDynasty include the compiling of notes, national history, history of former dynasty, classbooks, jade plate books and geography books.(1)The compiling of notes mainly includesliving rooms notes, politics records and calender.The living rooms notes is about the recordsof emperor’s words and deeds written by living rooms officials, which is represented by JunJu Bi Shu, where all words and actions of emperor are documented completely, and NorthernSong Dynasty carry on this tradition, where the daily life of total nine emperors from Tai-zuto Qinzong are recorded. Politics records is a records about the discussion of military andpolitical events between rulers and subjects, which starts from the empress of the TangDynasty, carried on in Song Dynasty, even from Tai-zu. The calender includes a generation ofhistorical facts, compiled by the annalistic style and the compilation of it starts from TangDynasty, but not developed widely in this dynasty, while become a custom in Song Dynasty.(2)The national history. The national history of Northern Song Dynasty includes memoir and thehistory of the dynasty. The memoir is compiled on the basis of living room notes, generallyrecorded by officials according to the emperor’s living room notes after his death. In NorthernSong Dynasty, the government especially pay attention to the compilation of memoir, evenone emperor’s memoir could be rewritten many times. The history of the dynasty is compliedon the basis of living room notes and memoir, which is organized many times by thegovernment of Northern Song Dynasty, where the representative work is ThreeDynasties’National History, Two Dynasties’ National History and Four Dynasties’NationalHistory.(3)History of former dynasty mainly have three categories: biographical style,annalistic style and dianzhi style The biographical style mainly ha ve Old History of the Five Dynasties, New History of the Five Dynasties, New Book of Tang’s History. Theannalistic style mainly have Zi Zhi Tong Jian. The dianzhi style mainly have Tang Hui Yaoand Wu Dai Hui Yao.(4) Class book compilation. Mainly class book in Northern SongDynasty is Tai Ping Guang Ji,Tai Ping Yu Lan, Ce Fu Yuan Gui and Wen Yuan YingHua.(5)Geography books compilation. In order to meet the demands of military and levytaxes, Northern Song Dynasty rulers compile Taiping Geographical Record and Zhu Dao TuJing at the beginning of its founding, and even some books are recompiled.4Characteristics of the Northern Song Dynasty historiographer institutionEach dynasty’s historiographer institution has its own personality, the Northern SongDynasty is no exception, which is mainly characterized following aspects:(1)Perfect compilation institutions. In Northern Song Dynasty,the compilationinstitutions is more and more alongside the refined division of labor. Some institutions are setup and abandoned often.(2)Historian tight election. In order to ensure the tight election, the government ofNorthern Song Dynasty take the compilation firmly in his own hand.(3)The evolution of historian responsibilities. It mainly performs in the compilation ofthe history of former dynasty and the national history at the same time, resulting in the genrediversity of history book and the compilation of numerous class book.