Liuchao shiji bianlei 六朝事跡編類 "Categorized records of remants of the Southern Dynasties" is a history of Nanjing 南京 (in old times called Jinling 金陵, Jianye 建業 or Jiankang 建康), Jiangsu, during the Southern Dynasties period 南朝 (420~589). The book was written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Zhang Dunyi 張敦頤 xxx, courtesy name Yangzheng 養正.
Zhang hailed from Wuyuan 婺源, Anhui and was a teacher in the prefecture of Nanjian 南劍州 and prefect (zhizhou 知州) of Shuzhou 舒州 and Hengzhou 衡州. He also wrote the book Liuji yinbian 柳集音辨.
The 14-juan long book Liuchao shiji bianlei is a revised history of the capital region of the Southern Dynasties. Zhang Dunyi felt that older records were too defective and scattered to provide a coherent overview of the history of Nanjing. He therefore relied not only on official dynastic histories like the Wuzhi 吳志 (part of the Sanguozhi 三國志), Jinshu 晉書 and the histories of the Liu-Song 劉宋 (420-479), Southern Qi 南齊 (479-502), Liang 梁 (502-557) and Chen 陳 (557-589) dynasties, but also on tomb inscriptions, stone slabs and private writings like the Jinling tujing 金陵圖經, Ningjiang tujing 江寧圖經, Jinling diji 金陵地記 or Jiankang shilu 建康實錄.
His book was finished in 1160. It is divided into 14 chapters reporting geography, the cityscape, event history, monastries, shrines and temples, canals, hills, city gates, stone steles, and the mansions of famous persons like Lu Ji 陸機 (261-303) or Shen Yue 沈約 (441-513). It is very worth mentioning that the description of the ancient city of Nanjing provides highly valuable information because the city of Nanjing was totally destroyed in the 19th century in the aftermath of the Taiping rebellion.
There is a print from 1887 published by Li Bin 李濱.
1. | 總叙 | Introduction |
2. | 形勢 | Topography |
3. | 城闕 | Citywall and towers |
4. | 樓臺 | Halls and terraces |
5. | 江河 | Rivers and creeks |
6. | 山崗 | Mountains and hills |
7. | 宅舍 | Mansions and studies |
8. | 讖記 | Apocryphal occurencies |
9. | 靈異 | Strange events |
10. | 神仙 | Immortals |
11. | 寺院 | Buddhist monasteries |
12. | 廟宇 | Temples and shrines |
13. | 墳陵 | Tombs and mounds |
14. | 碑刻 | Stone inscriptions |