''A New Account of the Tales of the World'', also known as ''Shishuo Xinyu'' (), was compiled and edited by Liu Yiqing (Liu I-ching; 劉義慶; 403–444) during the

Liu Song dynasty Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

(420–479) of the

Northern and Southern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

(420–589). It is a historical compilation of many Chinese scholars, musicians, and artists during the 2nd-4th centuries.

Content

The book contains around 1,130 historical anecdotes and character sketches of around 600 literati, musicians and painters who lived in the

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

and

Wei Wei or WEI may refer to: States * Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), Wei in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger Wei of the Warring States * Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring States per ...

– Jin periods (2nd-4th centuries). Chapter 19, for instance, has 32 stories about outstanding women. It is thus both a biographical source and a record of colloquial language. The original text of the book was divided into eight volumes of ''juan'' (卷 "scroll"), though current editions generally span ten volumes.Endymion Wilkinson. ''Chinese History: A New Manual''. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series New Edition; Second, Revised printing March 2013, ), p. 732.

Historical accuracy

Although most of the anecdotes and personalities are attested in other sources, traditional Chinese bibliographers did not classify ''Shishuo Xinyu'' as history but as a novel / "minor talk" (小说 ''xiao shuo''), a term that was later used to refer to

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

. Some attribute this to its use of colloquial language as well as how it did not follow the historical conventions of the

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 Qian ...

. The mixture of literary and vernacular styles set the scene for the later tradition of informal Chinese literature. The 20th-century Chinese novelist

Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. W ...

also spoke highly of the book's aesthetic merits.

Translations

The text has been translated in full into English, with the Liang dynasty (502–557) commentary by Liu Xiaobiao (劉孝標), in

Richard B. Mather Richard Burroughs Mather (November 11, 1913 – November 28, 2014) was an American Sinologist who was a professor of Chinese at the University of Minnesota for 35 years. Life and career Richard Burroughs Mather was born on November 11, 191 ...

, ''Shih-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World''.Yiqing Liu, Jun Liu and Richard B. Mather. ''A New Account of Tales of the World (Shih-Shuo Hsin-Yü).'' (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, 2002). .

Extant versions

Manuscript: *Hand-written fragments from the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(618–907) (唐寫本殘卷)

Woodblock prints Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...

: *Dong Fen edition, 1138 (8th year of the Shaoxing

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Buddhism, N ...

of the

Southern Song The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. ...

); original kept in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(南宋紹興八年董弅刊本，原本存於日本) *Edition by

Lu You Lu You (; 1125–1210) was a Chinese historian and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). Career Early life and marriage Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, November 13, 1125. At the time of his b ...

, 1188 (15th year of the Chunxi reign of the Southern Song; 南宋淳熙十五年陸游刻本) *Edition from

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, 1189 (16th year of Chunxi) (淳熙十六年湘中刻本)中国哲学书电子化计划
(Chinese Philosophy Digitalization Project)

Content

Historical accuracy

Translations

Extant versions

Categories

References and notes

Further reading