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Tongjian dawen 通鑒答問

Mar 18, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald

Tongjian dawen 通鑒答問 (通鑑答問) "Answering questions to the Comprehensive Mirror" is an historical critique of Zhu Xi's 朱熹 (1130-1200) history Tongjian gangmu 通鑒綱目 (通鑑綱目). It was written by the late Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223-1296), who was also the author of the encyclopaedia Yuhai 玉海, the commentary Tongjian dili bushi 通鑒地理補釋, the book Kunxue jiwen 困學紀聞. His collected works are called Shenningji 深寧集.

The 5-juan long Tongjian dawen was published as an appendix to the encyclopaedia Yuhai and is actually only a draft covering the time from King Weilie 周威烈王 (r. 425-402 BCE) of the Zhou dynasty 周 (11th. cent.-221 BC) to Emperor Yuan 漢元帝 (r. 49-33 BCE) of the late Former Han dynasty 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE), and so only corresponds to a part of Zhu Xi's Tongjian gangmu.

The Tongjian dawen is also included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 1519.