Xi Xia shu shi 西夏書事 [Recorded Events of the Western Xia]

Eight vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, orig. stitching. [Beijing]: Wengui tang 文圭堂, 1935.




Facsimile reprint of a history of the Tangut state. "Western Xia, also referred to as Xixia or the Tangut Empire, was an important dynastic regime in medieval China, its population composed mainly of the Dangxiang-Qiangic people, and ruled by as many as ten emperors throughout its 190 years of recorded history" (Shi, Tangut Language and Manuscripts, 1-6). There was no "standard history" compiled for the Tangut state, so later historians had to piece together a history based on Chinese documents found in other corpora not specifically dedicated to the topic. One of "two major nineteenth-century works" that were printed and still survive, our book "remain[s] important to modern historians" (Twitchett & Franke, 675).


It was "written by Wu Guangcheng (courtesy name Xizhai 西齋) of the Qing period. Wu was from Qingpu in Jiangsu (present-day Shanghai) and lived during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods (1796-1850). Wu broadly excerpted records pertaining to the Western Xia from the various histories of the Tang, Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan, as well as from the literary collections from a considerable number of famous individuals and from unofficial histories. He modeled Recorded Events from the Western Xia on the annalistic format of Tongjian gangmu 通鑒綱目 [Outline and Details Based on the "Comprehensive Mirror"]. The book was finished in 1825 (Daoguang 5). The records begin in 881...and continue down through 1231. In total, the history spans roughly 350 years, with a focus on the latter part of Western Xia history. It contains a lot of material that can fill lacunae in other historical sources" (Hong Shuyun 洪書雲 in Lao, Zhonghua yeshi cidian, 383).


The publisher of our book, Wengui tang, was located by Longfu temple 龍福寺, one of the centers for the book trade in Qing-era Beijing.


Fine set, preserved in a hantao.



References


Lao Tie 老铁. Zhonghua yeshi cidian 中华野史辞典. Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe, 1998.


Shi Jinbo. Tangut Language and Manuscripts: An Introduction. Translated by Li Hansong. Leiden: Brill, 2020.


Twitchett, Denis, & Herbert Franke. "Bibliographical Essays." In The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 665-726. Edited by Denis Twitchett & Herbert Franke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.