Nandulu 南渡錄

There are two books with the title.

Nandulu 南渡錄 "Crossing the Yangtze River" is a history of the end of the Northern Song dynasty 北宋 (960-1126) written by the scholar Zhu Decheng 朱得成, and revised by Xin Qiji 辛棄疾 (1140-1207). Zhu Decheng, who changed his name to Ajiti 阿計替 under the Jin dynasty 金 (1115-1234) that ruled over northern China after the conquest of the Northern Song capital, hailed from Lizhou 隸州 in the prefecture of Hebei 河北 (modern Huimin 惠民, Shandong) and was commissioner of manifest virtue (xuandeshi 宣德使) in the prefecture of Jinhua 金滑州 and accompanied Emperor Huizong 宋徽宗 (r. 1100-1125) into his exile at the banks of River Amur.

Zhu's book was finished in 1161 and has a length of 4 juan. The first two juan are called Nanjin jiwen lu 南燼紀聞錄 "Hearsay of the southern disaster", the third part Qiefenlu 竊憤錄 "Resentments among the rapacious officials", and the fourth part Qiefen xulu 竊憤續錄, written as a sequel.

The book covers the time of 35 years and describes how the armies of the Jurchens beleaguered the Song capital Bian 汴 (modern Kaifeng 開封, Henan), captured the emperors Huizong and Qinzong 宋欽宗 (r. 1125-1126), transported them as hostages far into the heart of the Jurchen land, and the end of the two exiled emperors, particularly the murder of Emperor Qinzong by Wanyan Liang 完顏亮, the emperor of the Jin (better known as Prince Hailing 海陵王, r. 1149-1160). A biography of Ajiti is appended to the text.

The book is not only very important as a historiographical source that was written by an eye-wittness and companion of the mischievous fate of the last emperors of the Northern Song, but also because of its detailed description of the geography of northern China, the homeland of the Jurchens, the grasslands that were later to become Mongolia, as well as Korea and eastern Siberia. The text gives information about the administrative division of the Jin empire, the customs and habits of its inhabitants and situation of their cities and villages. It is therefore a very important source for the history of the Jin empire and its relations with the Song.

The first modern print was published in 1906. The text is included in several series, often under different titles. In the Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 it is called Nandulu dalüe 南渡錄大略. The chapters Qiefenlu and Nanjin jiwen lu are separately to be found in the Biji xiaoshuo daguan 筆記小說大觀 and Xuehai leibian 學海類編.

A book with the same title deals with the flight of the last Ming 明 (1368-1644) princes to the south after Beijing had been occupied by the rebel Li Zicheng 李自成 (1606-1645) and then by the Manchus. This book was written by Li Qing 李清 (1602-1683), who also wrote the book Sanyuan biji 三垣筆記. It begins with the flight of the Prince of Fu 福王 from Huai'an 淮安 to Nanjing 南京 and his proclamation of the Hongguang reign 弘光 (1645), and ends with the enthronement of the Prince of Tang 唐王 in Fuzhou 福州, who proclaimed the Longwu reign 隆武 (1645-1646).

The book is written in a the so-called gangmu 綱目 style, using the "guidelines" (gangmu) as a kind of headline, the details of which are displayed in the "meshes" (mu) of the text. Because Li Qing served in the southern capital Nanjing his book is much more detailed than any other reports on the Hongguang reign.

The text is transmitted in two different versions, one arranged in 2 juan and called Nandu jishi 南渡記事, and one in a 5-juan manuscript under the title Jiashen riji 甲申日記. The latter version is also known with the titles Sheng'an pairi shiji 聖安排日事跡 or Pian’an pairi shiji 偏安排日事跡. In 1911 the text was first published in a modern edition by the Guangyi Shuju Press 廣益書局.