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Weilüe 魏略

Oct 21, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Weilüe 魏略 "Concise History of Wei" was a history of the of the early Wei period 曹魏 (220-265) written by Yu Huan 魚豢. Yu hailed from the ancient metropolitan region Jingzhao 京兆 (modern Xi'an 西安, Shaanxi) and was a gentleman-attendant (langzhong 郎中) under the Wei dynasty.

The 50-juan long text was written an biographic style, but the headlines differed from those of the standard histories, for instance, Ruzong 儒宗 for the Confucian scholars, Qingjie 清介 for "upright servants", or Yongxia 勇俠 for "errand knights". The book was a rich source of historiographical material and was therefore often used by Chen Shou 陳壽 (233-297), author of the official dynastic history Sanguozhi 三國志.

The original text was lost, but numerous fragments have survived in Pei Songzhi's 裴松之 (372-451) commentary on the Sanguozhi. Collections of these fragments were made by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wang Renjun 王仁俊 (1866-1913) and the modern scholar Zhang Pengyi 張鵬一 (1867-1943).

Source:
Yuan Mingren 袁明仁 et al. (ed. 1992), Sanqin lishi wenhua cidian 三秦歷史文化辭典 (Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin jiaoyu chubanshe), p. 132.