The ''Book of Zhou'' (''Zhōu Shū'') records the official history of the

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...

-led

Western Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Western Wei (), was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei. One of the Northern dynasties during the era of the Northern and Southern dynasties, it ruled the weste ...

and

Northern Zhou Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern dynasties of China's Northern and Southern dynasties period, it succeeded the Western Wei dynasty a ...

dynasties of China, and ranks among the official

Twenty-Four Histories The ''Twenty-Four Histories'' (), also known as the ''Orthodox Histories'' (), are the Chinese official dynastic histories covering from the earliest dynasty in 3000 BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century. The Han dynasty official Sima Qia ...

of imperial China. Compiled by the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

historian

Linghu Defen Linghu () is a Chinese compound surname. During the Zhou Dynasty, a general, Wei Ke ( 魏顆) scored many victories for Zhou and was granted the city of Linghu. All his descendants took the compound surname Linghu. Notable people * Bruce Linghu ...

, the work was completed in 636 CE and consists of 50 chapters, some of which have been lost and replaced from other sources. The book was criticised by

Liu Zhiji Liu Zhiji (; 661–721), courtesy name Zixuan (), was a Chinese historian and politician of the Tang dynasty. Well known as the author of ''Shitong'', he was born in present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu, during the Tang dynasty. Liu's father Liu Zangqi and ...

for its attempt to glorify the ancestors of Tang dynasty officials of the time.

Sources

Compilation began with Liu Qiu 柳虯 (502-555) in the Western Wei, who was Vice-Director of the Palace Library. Liu Qiu was assigned to compile the imperial diary in 550. Liu Qiu was succeeded by Niu Hong 牛弘 (545-610) who also worked on the imperial diary and later became Director of the Palace Library. Niu Hong compiled an incomplete history of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou. In 629 Emperor Taizong of Tang appointed a team headed by Linghu Defen to work on compiling the ''Book of Zhou''. The other team members were Cen Weben and Cui Renshi.

Translations

Two partial translations have been published. Dien provides a translation of volume 11 on the biography of Yuwen Hu. Miller provides a partial translation of volume 50 on accounts of Western nations.

Annals (帝紀)

Biographies (列傳)

References

Footnotes

Works cited

* * *

External links

* Text of the ''Book of Zhou'', available fro
National Sun Yat-sen University

Chinese text with matching English vocabulary Twenty-Four Histories 7th-century history books Northern Zhou History books about the Northern and Southern dynasties Tang dynasty literature 7th-century Chinese books {{China-hist-book-stub