The biographical type of historiography (jizhuanti 紀傳體) as well as the chronological type (biannianti 編年體) of historiography both had their advantages and disadvantages. The former - as represented in the official dynastic histories - was concise in the descriptions of a person's life and performance and additionally provided the reader with information about important topics of government in the monographies; on the other side, many events are reported redundantly in several chapters, and the reader does barely learn about the historical circumstances before and after the life of a certain person. The chronological type - e.g. the Zizhi tongjian 資政通鑒 - helped the reader to have an overview of the flux of time and events over a whole period, but it does not provide him with the necessary background knowledge and omitts the interesting encyclopedical part of the monographies of the biographical type of historiography. To know more about the development of factors that lead to a certain event and to learn about the outcome of intrigues, decisions and wars, the Southern Song period 宋 scholar Yuan Shu 袁樞 (1132-1205) rearranged the material of the Zizhi tongjian to create a new type of historiography that he called jishi benmo 紀事本末 "reporting origin and result of historic events". While the Zizhi tongjian hold its position as the father of a new (or rather renewed) type of historiography and the Tongjian gangmu 通鑒綱目 became the orthodox type of moralizing history, the jishi benmo type became the popular style of historiography with dozens of writings, especially during the Qing Dynasty 清. The most important histories of the jishi benmo type are listed in the table below. Yuan Shu's Jishi benmo comprises 142 chapters (juan 卷) that treat more than 1300 separate historic events in their entirety. 書名 Title Composer(s) 三朝北盟會編 Sanchao beimeng huibian (Song) 徐夢莘 Xu Mengxin 蜀鑒 Shujian (Song) 郭允蹈 Guo Yuntao 皇宋通鍳長編紀事本末 * (Huang-Song) Tongjian changbian jishi benmo (Song) 楊仲良 Yang Zhongliang 宋史紀事本末 Songshi jishi benmo (Ming) 馮琦 Feng Qi (comp.); 陳邦瞻 Chen Bangzhan (add.) 元史紀事本末 Yuanshi jishi benmo (Ming) 陳邦瞻 Chen Bangzhan 懷陵流寇始終錄 * Huailing liukou shizhong lu (Qing) 戴笠 Dai Li, 吳殳 Wu Shu 平定三逆方略 Pingding sanni fanglüe (Qing) 勒德洪 Le Dehong (et al.; imp. ord.) 平定准噶爾方略 Pingding Junggar fanglüe (Qing) 傅恆 Fuheng (et al.; imp. ord.) 平定兩金川方略 Pingding liang Jinchuan fanglüe (Qing) 阿桂 Agui (et al.; imp. ord.) 欽定臺灣紀略 (Qinding) Taiwan jilüe (Qing Qianlong 53) Anon. (imp. ord.) 明史紀事本末 Mingshi jishi benmo (Qing) 谷應泰 Gu Yingtai 繹史 Yishi (Qing) 馬蚨 Ma Fu 左傳紀事本末 Zuozhuan jishi benmo (Qing) 高士奇 Gao Shiqi 三蕃記事本末 * Sanfan jishi benmo (Qing) 楊陸榮 Yang Lurong 通鑑前編記事本末 * Tongjian qianbian jishi benmo (Qing) 沈朝陽 Shen Chaoyang 台灣鄭氏始末記 * Taiwan Zhengshi shimo ji (Qing) 沈雲 Shen Yun 籌辦夷務始末 * Chouban yiwu shimo (Qing) 文慶 Wenqing etc. 剿平粵匪方略 * Jiaoping Yuefei fanglüe (Qing) 奕訢 Yixin 中日兵事本末 * Zhong-Ri bingshi benmo (Qing) 羅惇融 Luo Dunrong * not contained in the Siku quanshu Exemplarious translation 10. Wu and Shu on good terms 20th year of the era Jian'an "Establishing peace" of Emperor Han Xiandi. When LIU BEI still resided in Jingzhou (modern Wuhan), ZHOU YUY and GAN NING several times tried to pursue SUN QUAN to conquer Shu (modern Sichuan). SUN QUAN sent a messanger to LIU BEI, telling him: "LIU ZHANG is not fighting and will be unable to protect himself. If CAO CAO conquers Shu, Jiangnan will be in great danger. If somebody would first conquer the territory of LIU ZHANG (modern Sichuan) and then that of ZHANG LU, the whole south would be united, and even ten CAO CAOs would do no harm." LIU BEI answered: "The territory of Yizhou (modern Sichuan) is rich, but not easily accessible [...] Disputing about that matter, you can see that CAO CAO has been defeated at the Red Cliff, and could say that his force has vanished, he is nobody to worry about. But now, CAO CAO possesses already two parts of the three parts of China and wishes to drink his horses in the green sea and to show his soldiers in Wu and the capital Kuaiji. How could we stand this situation and sit there until we grow old? [...]" Translated by Ulrich Theobald