Sanguozhi 三國志

Sanguozhi 三國志 "Records of the Three Empires" is one of the official dynastic histories (zhengshi 正史). Together with its predecessors Shiji 史記, Hanshu 漢書 and Houhanshu 後漢書 it is one of the "Four [Great] Histories" (sishi 四史) of ancient China. It describes separately the history of each of the so-called Three Empires 三國 (220~280 CE; instead of this traditional translation, the term "Three Empires" would be more appropriate). The book is compiled in a biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti 紀傳體).

The author was Chen Shou 陳壽 (233–297, courtesy name Yongzuo 承祚) and the first commentator Pei Songzhi 裴松之 (372–451, courtesy name Shiqi 世期).

The Weishu 魏書 "Book of Wei" (sometimes also called Weizhi 魏志 "Records of Wei"—this part of the Sanguozhi must not be confounded with the official history of the Northern Wei dynasty 北魏, 386-534, also called Weishu 魏書), with a length of 30 juan, contains the imperial and normal biographies of the empire of Wei 曹魏 (220-265) that was ruled by the family Cao 曹, the Shushu 蜀書 "Book of Shu" (Shuzhi 蜀志), 15-juan long, that of the empire of Shu 蜀漢 (221-263), ruled by the family Liu 劉 that claimed to be the rightful successors of the Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), and the Wushu 吳書 "Book of Wu" (Wuzhi 吳志), with a length of 20 juan, that of the southeastern empire of Wu 吳 (222-280) that was ruled by the family Sun 孫.

All three parts make for a total book length of 65 juan.

Chen Shou was originally a high official at the court of Shu before he entered the service of the Jin dynasty 晉 (265-420). It is not known when he completed his history of the Three Empires period. The Shuzhi was the first history of the Liu-Shu dynasty in Sichuan, but for the other two empires there existed already two histories, on which Chen certainly relied. These were Wang Chen's 王沈 (d. 266) Weishu (48-juan) and Yu Huan's 魚豢 Weilüe 魏略 "A concise [history] of Wei".

The bibliographic chapter Jingji zhi 經籍志 in the dynastic history Suishu 隋書 lists a few more history books of the Three Empires: Wushu 吳書 (25 juan, originally 55) by Wei Zhao 韋昭 (who also commented the old history book Guoyu 國語), a book of which only fragments were surviving into the early Tang period 唐 (618-907), Wuji 吳紀 (9 juan) by Huan Ji 環濟, and Wulu 吳錄 (30 juan) by Zhang Bo 張勃 (already lost in the 7th cent.).

From the Jiutangshu 舊唐書 bibliography on these texts are sorted into the chronicles section (Biannian 編年). The chronicles section in the Suishu bibliography includes three texts on the Three Empires period, namely Weishi chunqiu 魏氏春秋 "Spring and Autumn of the Wei dynasty" (20 juan, in the Xintangshu 新唐書 called Wei-Wu chunqiu 魏武春秋) by Sun Sheng 孫盛 (author of the chronicle Jinyang qiu 晉陽秋), Weiji 魏紀 (12 juan) by Yin Dan 陰澹, and Han-Wei chunqiu 漢魏春秋 (9 juan) by Kong Shuyuan 孔舒元. The bibliography in the Jiutangshu knows two more chronicles on the Three Empires period, namely Liang Zuo's 梁祚 Guoji 國紀 (10 juan; the title shows that it was written when the Wei dynasty still ruled; in the Xintangshu called Weishu guoji 魏書國紀), and a 3(4)-juan long book (anonymous) of imperial annals of Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220), Wei Wu benji 魏武本紀.

The concurrent existence of three empires on Chinese soil posed a problem for historians: Which one was the righteous dynasty to which Heaven had bestowed the so-called Heavenly Mandate? The answer to this question was of far-reaching consequences for the calendar and and the claim of legitimation for the subsequent dynasties. In the eyes of the Jin dynasty the Cao-Wei family was accepted as the legitimate rulers, first because they ruled in the ancient cultural and political centre of China, the Yellow River plain, and secondly, because the founder of the Jin dynasty had been regent for the Wei emperor, and "inherited" the latter's claim for the throne.

The events in the states of Shu and Wu are not dated with their own calendar but with the calendar of Wei, using the reign mottos of Wei.

The lords of the two other empires, therefore, could not be called "emperor" (di 帝) but were only given the title of "ruler" (zhu 主). Chen Shou therefore speaks of "emperor" Wei Wudi 魏武帝 (i.e. Cao Cao), but only of the "Former" and the "Later Ruler" (Xianzhu 先主, Houzhu 後主) of Shu and the "Ruler" of Wu. The last ruler of Wu submitted to the Jin dynasty and could therefore not be called "emperor": Sun Hao 孫皓 (r. 264–280) is only called sizhu 嗣主 "the heir-ruler".

Similarly, the wives of the rulers of Wei are called houfei "empresses and consorts", while that of the others are called feizi 妃子 resp. feibin 妃嬪 "consorts".

Of the three parts of the Sanguozhi, the first can be seen as the central one, with the Wei dynasty as the rightful successor of the Han. It therefore also includes all collective biographies, namely one of magicians and diviners (29 Fangji 方技), and one on foreign peoples and countries (30). The last part of chapter 30 has often attracted attention because it is the earliest extant description of Korea and Japan (the latter informally called /Wajin den 倭人傳). For the imperial consorts, collective biographies are provided in all three parts of the Sanguozhi (5 Houfei 后妃 [Wei], 34 Erzhu feizi 二主妃子 [Shu], 50 Feibin 妃嬪 [Wu]), similarly for the imperial houses (19-20 [Wei], 34 [Shu], and 51 and 59 [Wu]).

There was unsubstantiated criticism against Chen Shou to have omitted a biography for Ding Yí 丁儀 and his son Ding Yì 丁廙 from Shu, and to have written only a very short biography for Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (181–234), Counsellor-in-chief of Shu and successful military leader. The latter is indeed true but the biography (35) contains a lot of praise for Zhuge Liang.

Yet what is surely not appropriate is Chen's overt praise for the founders of the Jin dynasty, the family Sima 司馬. Compared to the other three of the "Four Histories" the Sanguozhi is rather short and lacks substance, especially in those matters going beyond the purely biographical accounts. Treatises, for example, are totally missing.

The commentary of Pei Songzhi tried to solve some of the problems. He added missing information from more than 140 other sources, of which far the largest part is lost today, and corrected errors.

The Republican period scholar Lu Bi 盧弼 (1876–1967) collected all surviving commentaries to the Sanguozhi, added his own remarks and published it as Sanguozhi jijie 三國志集解. The collection Ershiwushi bubian 二十五史補編 contains a few supplementary chapters to the Sanguozhi, mainly tables, imperial genealogies, and treatises (geography and literature).