Twenty-Four Histories

The Twenty-Four Histories (Chinese: 二十四史; pinyin: Èrshísì Shǐ; Wade–Giles: Erhshihszu Shih) is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture.

Typically, after collecting credible sources, these canonical history records were produced in the next dynasty by officially organized editing, revising, and collating. Every factual error left in the published records is officially considered to be a failure by the responsible officer.

Contents

Books of the Twenty-Four Histories

Inheritance works

These works were begun by one historian and completed by an heir, usually in the next generation.

Related works

Modern editions

In China, the Zhonghua Shuju have edited a number of these Histories. These sets (or editions) are appreciated because they have been carefully collated and edited (punctuated) by the Chinese specialists. Therefore, these editions are believed to be relatively reliable, and easy to read and understand.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
  2. ^ Xu Elina-Qian, p.23
  3. ^ Xu Elina-Qian, p.19

External links

Twenty-Four Histories