The compilation of "Shih-lu of the Emperor Shên-tsung" of the Sung dynasty, a Court diary, was first completed in the sixth year of Yüan-yu (元祐) of the Emperor Chê-tsung (哲宗) (1091). A new version with the section "Daily Records of Wang An-shih" (王安石日錄) added was produced in the first year of the Shao-shêng (紹聖) period of the same reign. In the fourth year of the Shao-hsing (紹興) period of the Emperor Kao-tsung (高宗) of the Southern Sung (1134) this diary was again re-written. Because of the opposing political affiliations of the historians who wrote these diaries, particularly those between the "Reformers" (新黨) and the "Conservatives" (舊黨) the various versions of the "Shih-lu of the Emperor Shên-tsung" were inevitably coloured with these partisan views. The Shao-shêng version is the worst of the three as it was produced at a time when the "Reformers" were once more in power. Thus, as well as the denunciation of the authors of the Yüan-yu version, some facts were deliberately omitted in the interest of the "Reform" (新法). That the "Records" was written for a third time during the Shao-hsing period was mainly to point out these defects. It is regrettable that the "Shih-lu of the Emperor Shên-tsung" is no longer extant. Fortunately some of this source material is preserved in the commentaries on Li T'ao's (李燾) Hsü tzu-chih-t'ung-chien ch'ang-pien (續資治通鑑長編). Based principally on the latter work and supplemented by references from other historical texts, this article discusses the relationship between the compilations during the Sung of the "Shih-lu of the Emperor Shên-tsung" and the political climates of the times and comments on the defects of the Shao-shêng version.