A universal guide for China studies

Chinese Literature - Historiography

Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Location: HOME > Literature > Annals and Chronicles > Qianhanji][bottom]


Qianhanji 前漢紀 "Records of the Former Han Dynasty" by Xun Yue 荀悅

Literature by A to Z
Literature by time
Literature by theme
Literature by the 4 Categories
Xun Yue (d. 209 AD) was a Late Han time official that tried to pursue the emperor to follow a renewed style of government, combining Confucian system with the good performing legist approach. Unlike the Daoist oriented scholars, he did not retire government, but actively tried to support the weak governmental system. Among his few writings, we find the political book Shenjian r modern historians or people who do not understand old Mongolian, a word-by-word translation in Chinese characters is written alongside of the Mongol main text (pangyi 旁譯), and a prose translation is added as an appendix (zongyi 總譯). The Secret History was written by a courtier of Chinggis' grandson Ögedei Qaghan named "Daorun Tibu" 道潤梯步 in the thirties of the 13th century.
The text below shall give an example of the appearance of a page of the Secret History. The bold characters are the Mongol main text in Chinese characters, the small characters on top is the word-by-word translation into Chinese; the small characters below are pronunciation signs, namely 中 "middle" for a guttural [q] (written "kh") instead of [h] or [x]; and 舌 "(tip of the) tongue" for the rolling [r] instead of [l].
Compound text of the Secret History:
Xiang Yu and the future Emperor of Han.
2.高祖皇帝紀卷第二
...荀悅曰。夫立策決勝之術。其要有三。一曰形。二曰勢。三曰情...故策同事等而功殊者何。三術不同也。
初,張耳、陳餘說陳涉以復六國。自為樹黨。酈生亦說漢王。所以說者同。而得失異者。陳涉之起也,天下皆欲亡秦。而楚漢之分,未有所定。時天下未必欲亡項也。且項羽率從六國。攻滅彊秦之時勢則不能矣。故立六國於陳涉。所謂多己之黨。而益秦之敵也。且陳涉未能專天下之地也。所謂取非其有以與人行虛惠而獲實福也。立六國于漢王。所謂割己之有以資敵。設虛名而受實禍也。此同事而異形也。
Emperor Han Gaozu II (On historical situations):
Xun Yue says:
The method of planning successful strategies consists of the comprehension of three important factors: first, the general conditions, second, the specific situation, thirs, the conditions of men [...] The same strategy adopted in similar tasks may produce different results. Why? This is because in each case any of the three factors involved may be different.
Previous to the foundation of the empire of Han in 204 BC, Zhang Er and Chen Yü (supporting Chen She's uprising against the empire of Qin in 209 BC) had advised Chen She to revive the six feudal states in order to establish more allies against Qin. Now Master Li advised the King of Han, Liu Bang, the later Emperor Han Gaozu, to do the same. Since the two sets of advice contained the same argument, why would one be good and one bad? The reason is that when Chen She staged the uprising in 209 BC, all men under Heaven wished to destroy the Qin Dynasty regime; but when the kingdoms of Chu and Han, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang fought against each other in the divided realm, all men under Heaven did not necessarily with to destroy Xiang Yu. Furthermore, before Xiang Yu led the six resurgent states to attack and destroy the powerful Qin regime, she specific condition of Chen She was incapable of accomplishing the task to destroy Qin. Therefore, Chen She's revival of the six former feudal states meant increasing the number of his allies and multiplying the opponents of Qin. Besides, at that time Chen She did not control the whole realm which was still ruled by the Qin Dynasty. What he did was to claim those areas which were not actually his and to give them as fief to others. This is to give unreal benevolence in order to beget real benefit. Now, for the King of Han to reestablish the six feudal states would have been to concede what he had already possessed to the enemy. This is to set up a titular institution of authority and to suffer real reverses it. These two cases constitute what I call similar tasks in different general conditions.

Translated by Ch'en Ch'i-Yün, "Hsün Yüeh and the Mind of Late Han China", published by Princeton University Press

[HOME][top]