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The Jiutangshu 舊唐書 "Old book of the Tang" is the first official dynastic history of the Tang dynasty 唐 (618-907). It was compiled under the direction of Liu Xu 劉昫 and Zhang Zhaoyuan 張昭遠 during the Later Jin period 後晉 (936-946). The most important sources for the compilation of the 200 juan "scrolls" long Tangshu (that obtained its name of "Old history" only after the publication of the Xintangshu 新唐書 "New history of the Tang") was the history of the Tang (Tangshu 唐書) by Wu Jing 吳兢, which was extended by Wei Shu 韋述 and Liu Fang 柳芳, a book in 65 resp. 98 juan that is now lost and only that covered the history until the reign of emperor Tang Wuzong 唐武宗 (r. 840-846). Therefore Jia Wei 賈緯 collected sources that served to compile a history for the missing part, in 65 juan, called Tang nian bulu 唐年補錄 "Supplement to the annals of the Tang". Emperor Gaozu of the Later Jin 晉高祖 (r. 936-942) was the first to order the compilation of an official history for the Tang dynasty. The redaction did not critically alter their sources, and therefore much original material has been preserved. For the last part of the Tang period the available material has been adopted without any changes, which led to great differences in the quality of the particular biographies and treatises, sometimes presenting detailed reports, and sometimes only circumscribing general outlines. This contributes to the hetergenous character of the Jiutangshu chapters. But as much originial sources are preserved it is nevertheless a very important book when studying the history of the Tang period. Especially noteworthy are the many treatises (zhi 志) that cover all aspects of the Tang dynasty administration and political practice, as well as social and economical conditions.
After the Xintangshu had been published, the (Jiu-)Tangshu has been neglected largely and for a while dropped out of the canon of the official dynastic histories. It was only given back its original status when the canon was revised the Qing period 清 (1644-1911). At that time only 67 scrolls of the original text were preserved. The others had to be reconstructed from quotations in different sources.
Source: Zhang Zexian 張澤咸 (1992). "Jiutangshu 舊唐書", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 1, pp. 499 f. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe./span>
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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