ChinaKnowledge.de -
An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History and Literature

Yuanhe xingzuan 元和姓纂

Sep 14, 2010 © Ulrich Theobald

Yuanhe xingzuan 元和姓纂 "The register of the great families from the Yuanhe reign (806-820)" is an imperial register of the empire's powerful families from the Tang period 唐 (618-907). It was compiled on imperial order by Lin Bao 林寶 and was finished in 812. According to the institutional history Tang huiyao 唐會要, the chief compiler was Wang Ya 王涯 (764-835). There is a version with a length of 19 juan, and one with 18 chapters. Lin Bao participated in the compilation of the veritable records (shilu 實錄) of Emperor Dezong 唐德宗 (r. 779-804) and the "Jade family registers" Huang-Tang yudie 皇唐玉牒.

The Yuanhe xingzuan contains the family registers of the mightiest families of the time, beginning with the imperial family of Li 李 (unfortunately, exactly this part of the book is missing). The other families are listed according to a phonetic system (see Guangyun 廣韻). What family was listed at all and how important it was ranked, depended on a kind of lobbying. The main sources for the family registers (jiapu 家譜, jiadie 家牒) were private and are therefore not necessarily reliable historical facts. The Yuanhe xingzuan quotes from older books like Fengsu tong 風俗通, Zuxingji 族姓記, Sanfu juelu 三輔決錄, Baijiapu 百家譜, Yingxianzhuan 英賢傳, Xingyuan yunpu 姓源韻譜, or Xingyuan 姓苑 and was, by itself, also used by the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1104-1162) for the treatise on families in his universal history Tongzhi 通志.

The original book has long since lost, but the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholars Sun Xingyan 孫星衍 (1753-1818) and Hong Ying 洪瑩 extracted quotations surviving in the encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典 from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), as well as the book Gujin xingshi shu bianzheng 古今姓世書辨證 of the Song-period scholar Deng Mingshi 鄧名世.

The version preserved in the encyclopaedia Yongle dadian is not arranged in the same manner as the original version, in which the names were arranged according to the 206 rhyme groups. Yet the fragments were sufficient to obtain a version of 18 juan which is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書. In 1802, a 10-juan version was published, which has been reproduced by the Jinling Studio 金陵書局. The version of the Siku quanshu was incomplete and contained a lot of errors. In 1915, Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 (1866-1940) revised this version and added further fragments. A further version was published by Cen Zhongmian 岑仲勉 (1885-1961) in 1948, the Yuanhe xingzuan si jiaoji 元和姓纂四校記.

Sources:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds.g (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 2035.
Long Chengsong 龍成松 (2019). "Xin chu mu zhi yu Yuanhe xingzuan Houmo Chenshi shixi shuzheng 新出墓志與《元和姓纂》侯莫陳氏世系疏徵", Tangshi luncong 唐史論叢, 28: 228-242.
Lou Jin 樓勁 (2017). "Yunhe xingzuan suo xu Tuoba Zhaochengdi ji qi zishun shishi shizheng 《元和姓纂》所叙拓跋昭成帝及其子孫史事釋證", Shehui kexue zhanxian 社會科學戰線, 2017 (6): 94-109.
Pan Yinsheng 潘寅生, Guo Jiankui 郭建魁, ed. (1993). Zhonghua shehui kexue gongjushu cidian 中華社會科學工具書辭典 (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe), 579.
Qiao Changfu 喬長阜 (2003). "Yuanhe xingzuan 元和姓纂", in Bian Xiaoxuan 卞孝萱, ed. Tangdai wenxue baike cidian 唐代文學百科辭典 (Beijing: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe), 1124.
Wang Liping 王力平 (2001). "Yuanhe xingzuan Dushi jun wang shiliao chuyi 《元和姓纂》杜氏郡望史料芻議", Wenxian 文獻, 2001 (4): 96-103.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. (1987). Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典 (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe), 72.
Zhang Libing 張立兵 (2007). "Kong Yingda shiji kaolüe: Jian Yuanhe xingzuan yu Songshi suo zai Kongshi shixi dingwu 孔穎達世系考略——兼《元和姓纂》與《宋史》所載孔子世系訂誤", Qi-Lu wenhua yanjiu 齊魯文化研究", 2007: 205-207.
Zhang Zhonggang 張忠綱, ed. (2000). Quantangshi da cidian 全唐詩大辭典 (Beijing: Yuwen chubanshe), 1173.
Zhao Hankun 趙含坤 (2005). Zhongguo leishu 中國類書 (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe), 49-50.
Zhao Shouyan 趙守儼 (1992). "Yuanhe xingzuan 元和姓纂", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), Vol. 3, 1455.