《資治通鑑》的史料價值

A Evaluation Historical Material on Which the Zizhi Tongjian Is Based

嚴耕望(Yen Keng-wang)

《中國文化研究所學報》 新1期 (1992/01) Pp. 33-43

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.199201_(1).0003

並列摘要

Generally speaking, scholars accord a high place in history to the Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑, but not to its use of historical material. This is because the work seems mainly to be a stringing up of extracts from previous historical books. In fact the Tongjian, besides using material from the so-called zhengshi 正史 (dynastic history), used material from more than two hundred other works, including the shilu 實錄 of individual reigns. It is worth pointing out that most of the source material of the Tongjian is no longer extant. Moreover, the record of an event in the Tongjian is always more detailed than that of the same event in the zhengshi. It can thus be seen that the historical material used in the Tongjian is of a very high value. There is also a large fund of historical material in the Tongjian kaoyi 通鑑考異 and Hu Sanxing's 胡三省 commentary to the Tongjian not to be found in other extant works. This article is an attempt to single out instances where the historical material of value had been incorporated in the Tongjian and Hu's commentaries. It also points out cases where the authors had misunderstood earlier sources.