"Wei Shu" consists of 114 chapters, which were previously divided into 130 volumes. It was written by Wei Shou, the Right Minister of the Ministry of Rites of the Northern Qi dynasty. The book includes twelve annals, ninety-two biographies, and ten treatises. Initially, historians Deng Yuan, Cui Hao, and Gao Yun of the Wei kingdom had written chronological histories, but many events were omitted, with only about three out of every ten recorded. During the Taihe era, Li Biao and Cui Guang began to divide historical books into annals, biographies, tables, and records. During the reign of Emperor Xuanwu, Xing Luan wrote "Annotations on the Rise of the Founding Emperor," which was continued by Cui Hong and Wang Zunye all the way to Emperor Ming's reign. Later on, Wen Zisheng wrote three volumes of "Annals of Emperor Zhuang," and Prince Huiye of Jiyin wrote thirty volumes of "Records of the Royal Lineage." In the later years of the Wei dynasty, a man named Shan Wei, who was close to the powerful officials Yuan Tianmu and Erzhu Shilong, collaborated with Qi Jun to control the compilation of national historical records. After more than twenty years of their involvement, many events were left unrecorded, with barely one in ten being documented. In the second year of the Tianbao reign of Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi dynasty, Wei Shou was tasked with compiling the history of the Wei dynasty. Wei Shou thoroughly gathered various materials, consulted various genealogies and scattered historical records, and strived to comprehensively and completely present the rise and fall of the Wei dynasty. The historians chosen by Wei Shou were not as skilled as he was, so individuals like Fang Yanyou, Xin Yuanzhi, Sui Zhongrang, Diao Rou, Pei Angzhi, and Gao Xiaogan were not very proficient in writing historical books. Therefore, the thirty-five biographies, twenty-five prefaces, ninety-four discussions and praises, as well as the two tables and one memorial presented before and after, were largely completed by Wei Shou himself. Five years later, Wei Shou submitted the revised "Wei Shu." He also commanded the destruction of the old histories compiled by Cui Hong and Li Biao.
Wei Shou, being from the state of Qi, deliberately downplayed the Wei dynasty in his writing of the "Book of Wei," arbitrarily praising and criticizing its merits and faults, which many people at the time felt was unfair. Emperor Wenxuan ordered Wei Shou to confront over a hundred descendants of officials from the Wei dynasty in the Ministry of Personnel, allowing them to comment on the veracity of his writings. Initially, Wei Shou could defend himself, but eventually he could not withstand the criticism. Lu Fei from Fanyang, Li Shu from Dunqiu, and Wang Songnian from Taiyuan faced punishment for criticizing Wei Shou's historical work, receiving lashes and then being exiled to Jiafang, with some even dying as a result. Public anger was boiling, and people referred to the "Book of Wei" as "filthy history."
At that time, the powerful ministers Yang Yan and Gao Dezhi were in power, and Wei Shou specially wrote biographies for them. These two men strongly supported Wei Shou, stifling further discussion on the issue, so the "Book of Wei" was never officially promulgated. When Emperor Xiaozhao ascended to the throne and changed the era name to Jianzhong, he ordered Wei Shou to review and revise the "Book of Wei." Wei Shou requested to transcribe two copies, one to be submitted to the various departments of the court and the other to be kept in the city of Ye, so that anyone who wanted to could copy it. As a result, court officials began to criticize Wei Shou's historical work, highlighting its inaccuracies. Emperor Wucheng then ordered Wei Shou to revise and correct it again. Wei Shou offended many people through his writing of the "Book of Wei," and in the year of the fall of Northern Qi, his tomb was robbed, and his remains were left abandoned outside.
Emperor Wen of Sui felt that the content of Wei Shou's "Book of Wei" was untrustworthy and poorly structured, so he had Wei Dan, Yan Zhitui, and Xin Deyuan rewrite it, totaling ninety-two volumes. This new "Book of Wei" regarded Western Wei as the legitimate dynasty and Eastern Wei as a false dynasty, written in a concise and clear manner, thoroughly correcting Wei Shou's errors, which greatly pleased Emperor Wen. Later, Emperor Yang of Sui felt that Wei Dan's version was still lacking and had Yang Su, Pan Hui, Chu Liang, and Ouyang Xun revise the "Book of Wei" again. Sadly, Yang Su passed away before he could complete it.
In the fifth year of the Wude era under Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, he ordered Chen Shuda and seventeen others to write the history of the Six Dynasties of Wei, Northern Qi, Zhou, Sui, Liang, and Chen together, but it dragged on for many years and was never finished. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, upon the suggestion of the Secretariat, they simply decided to abandon the revision of the "Book of Wei" and instead only write the history of the Five Dynasties. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Wei Keji, the grandson of Wei Dan, the governor of Tongzhou, continued the work with ten volumes and fifteen chapters, incorporating the original content written by Wei Dan. The "Later Wei History" recorded in the "Book of Tang: Arts and Literature" noted one hundred volumes by Zhang Dasu and thirty volumes by Pei Anshi of the "Yuan Wei Book," but these works have since been lost. Therefore, the history of the Wei Dynasty we recognize today largely relies on the "Book of Wei" authored by Wei Shou.
Confucius once said: "Quality surpasses mere elegance, and elegance surpasses mere quality in history." During the Three Dynasties period, the finest writings came from the Zhou Dynasty. Although the Eastern Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties experienced wars and turmoil, the rich ancient traditions and customs were not entirely lost. The achievements and virtues of wise monarchs and loyal ministers were remarkable. Talented scholars astounded people with their writings, discussions, counsel, debates, and strategies, influencing social customs and becoming examples for future generations. Outstanding historians like Zuo Qiuming, Sima Qian, and Ban Gu were well-versed and adept at storytelling, neither exaggerating nor concealing, which is why their works have been passed down for over a thousand years without being erased.
During the Eastern Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties, the gap between the era of sages and the present widened, and the talent of historians declined. During the Yongxing period, political corruption and the invasion of the northern tribes caused the benevolence bestowed by the previous kings to fade away.
The Tuoba family took advantage of the decline of Later Yan, gradually annexed Bingzhou and Jizhou, fought for over thirty years, and finally achieved basic unification of the Central Plains. In the beginning, many of the court ministers and local officials were former leaders of the tribes. Although some nobles from the Zhao and Wei states were also used, mutual suspicion led to frequent infighting. Official positions were available, but salaries were low, which led to widespread corruption among officials; the strict laws led to frequent violence among the common people; values like propriety, righteousness, integrity, and honor were neglected, resulting in a lack of integrity among scholars; bribery was rampant, and the social atmosphere deteriorated, with the common people all wanting to take advantage.
It wasn't until after the capital was moved to Luoyang that the Xia dynasty's ritual system began to be gradually adopted. Emperor Xuanwu was relatively weak, Emperor Xiaoming was young, state laws were lax, and the social atmosphere became increasingly bad, with deception between the upper and lower classes, and national discipline disintegrated. The Empress Dowager caused chaos in the palace, and various bandits caused trouble outside. The chaos originated in the Six Garrisons and finally erupted completely because of Erzhu Rong, splitting the country in half and eventually leading to its downfall. Although Northern Wei existed for more than a hundred years, its system of laws and customs, both internal and external, were similar to those of the previous regimes such as Liu Yao, Shi Le, the Murong clan, Fu Jian, and Yao Chang. The brutality of Emperors Daowu and Taiwu surpassed even that of Cao Cao and Sima Yan; the power of Emperor Xiaowen also did not surpass that of Fu Jian.
As for the literature and Confucianism of Northern Wei, there is little of note; the strategists, debaters, generals, and famous generals were also not as good as those of the previous dynasties. Moreover, Northern Wei historians employed crude language, made improper selections, produced poorly written accounts, and recorded inaccurate facts. Their books were long-winded, full of official positions, names of prefectures and counties, and many trivial and boring matters, rendering them tedious to read and easily forgotten. Scholars also found them uninteresting and were unwilling to study. Therefore, for hundreds of years, the historical records of Northern Wei have been largely lost or incomplete, with at least thirty volumes missing. We have now compiled the catalogs for each volume.
However, the history of Northern Wei, which succeeded the Wei and Jin Dynasties and had an impact on the Zhou, Qi, Sui, and Tang Dynasties, is essential to understanding the overall narrative of its rise and fall over 160 years. In light of this, we, Chen Ban, Chen Shu, Chen Tao, and Chen Zuyu, respectfully submit this directory, risking our lives to do so.
