Nanhanji 南漢紀

Nanhanji 南漢紀 in a book on the Southern Han dynasty 南漢 (917-971), one of the Ten States 十國 (902~979), written by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wu Lanxiu 吳蘭修 (1789-1839), original name Shijie 詩捷, courtesy name Shihua 石華. He hailed from Jiaying嘉應 (today's Meixian 梅縣, Guangdong), and was assistant instructor (xundao 訓導) of Xinyi 信宜, director of the Xuehai Academy 學海堂, and supervisor of the Yuexiu Academy 粵秀書院. Apart from the 5-juan long Nanhanji he wrote a book on ink stones, Duanxi yanshi 端溪硯史, and an historical critique called Songshi dili zhi buzheng 宋史地理志補正.

There is not much information found on the Southern Han in official dynastic histories, and therefore Wu's research took more than ten years and resulted in this valuable book. His main sources were Jiutangshu 舊唐書, Xintangshu 新唐書, Songshi 宋史, Jiu wudaishi 舊五代史, Xin wudaishi 新五代史, Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒, the book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieji 書錄解題, the encyclopaedias Cefu yuangui 冊府元龜, Wenxian tongkao 文獻通考 and Yongle dadian 永樂大典, as well as the biographical collection Guangzhou renwu zhuan 廣州人物傳. Wu was able to correct some errors in more famous texts like Shiguo chunqiu 十國春秋. The Nanhanji is included in the series Lingnan yishu 嶺南遺書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.