Wu Shu (Chronicle)
Wu Shu ( Chinese 吳 书 ) is the title of a chronicle of the Chinese Wu dynasty . It has only survived in fragments, and information on its original length varies from 25 to 50 chapters.
Emergence
The Wu Shu was commissioned as the official chronicle of the state by the Emperor Sun Quan (probably around the year 250 AD). Official Hua He reported this to Emperor Sun Hao in a letter dated 273. According to him, officials Xiang Ju and Ding Fu were entrusted with the task, although neither of them were historians. After Sun Quan's death in 252, a new Chronicle Commission was established under the reign of his successor, Sun Liang , headed by scholars Wei Zhao , Zhou Zhao, Xie Ying , Liang Gu, and Hua He.
Around the year 272, Emperor Sun Hao commissioned Wei Zhao to dedicate a separate chapter to his father Sun He instead of just a biography in the chronicle. Wei Zhao declined because Sun He had only received posthumous imperial dignity and had died as crown prince. Sun Hao was dissatisfied and soon afterwards used an excuse to execute Wei Zhao and send his family into exile. As a chronicler, he called the educated General Xie Ying back to court, who had been in exile for several years because of a military failure. However, it did not last long there. The emperor dismissed Hua He in 275, and a little later Xie Ying fell victim to a conspiracy and was exiled again. So the chronicle was never completed.
literature
- Rafe de Crespigny : An Essay on the Sources for the History of Wu , in: Generals of the South. The foundation and early history of the Three Kingdoms state of Wu ( Memento of April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Sydney 1990. ISBN 0-7315-0901-3