Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1041 It's a coffin for non-merit and demerit

"Your Majesty, compiling history is a major matter. I am afraid that I am not capable enough, and I am not a historian."

Wei Zheng was not surprised that the emperor proposed to revise history at this time.

Throughout the dynasties, the history of previous dynasties will be revised, except for dynasties that are too short-lived to have time to do so.

The superficially important reason for compiling the history of the previous dynasty is that the pre-history is compiled in the belief that the identification of later kings can serve as a reference to history, and it is necessary to find the cardinal who will rule the rise and fall of chaos, so as to consolidate the political needs of the dynasty.

Of course, there is another more important reason, which is generally not stated clearly, but everyone will understand.That is the history of the Yi Dynasty, and it is also a necessary means to prove the legitimacy of the new dynasty's succession.

This is like Luo Cheng destroying the Sui Dynasty and establishing the Qin Dynasty, but there must be someone who embraced the Sui Emperor first, and then the Sui Emperor abdicated. The process is the same, all to prove the legitimacy of the new dynasty's succession.

Of course, later dynasties will inevitably make some revisions to the history of the previous dynasties when revising the history of the previous dynasties.Especially for the last emperor of the former dynasty, there will definitely not be any good words.Appropriate additions and deletions are considered normal, and some even simply fabricate some content that did not exist in order to discredit the previous dynasty.

After all, the new dynasty is a world that was rebelled against by the previous dynasty. If the previous dynasty was so good, wouldn't the new dynasty's rebellion be untenable?
In history, it is even more common to add some oil and vinegar to the founding emperor of the dynasty.

However, Wei Zheng refused, not because he was very upright, but because before the Tang Dynasty, history books were actually compiled by private individuals, and there were no examples of official compilation by the imperial court.

Generally, some well-known historians collect and organize materials, and then compile history books, and some even have a family of fathers and sons, disciples and other generations working together.

Wei Zheng is not a historian.

The emperor shook his head.

"I also know that before this dynasty, most of the history books were private works. Even if some history books were revised by officials ordered by the court, they were mainly based on the opinions of those who wrote the history."

Wei Zheng was stunned for a moment, what did the emperor mean by this sentence, and then shouldn't history books be written by people who write history?

"History compilation is a major event. I think the imperial court should be in charge of the history compilation. The imperial court should set up a special library to officially compile history books, recruit famous historians from all over the world, and then search for comprehensive materials, archives, records, etc. to compile and check, and the prime ministers and scholars Supervise it yourself."

What Luo Cheng meant is that if three or two people write history at random, the information is definitely not comprehensive, and no matter who writes history, they will definitely have their own subjective attitude, inevitably with personal evaluation, and sometimes this evaluation is not necessarily true. objective.

Even Ma Qian of the Taishi Company, who is known as the leader of the history world, still has many personal records and evaluations that are unfair in his history books.

Therefore, Luo Cheng believes that history books must be edited by officials. Firstly, official editors can collect more comprehensive information. Second, they can find the most authoritative and famous history book experts to write. Thirdly, history books are not edited by one person, but by a group of people. Each has their own strengths, and at the same time they supervise each other, and in the end they have to accept the supervision and revision of the ministers.

Of course, the emperor also reminded that before the completion of this history book, the emperor had to make the final draft.

In such a history book, naturally there will be no situation where Cui Hao compiled the history of the country for the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then scolded the people of the Northern Wei Dynasty that their background was worthless.

"Of course, compiling the history of the country is not only about writing records for the emperors of the previous dynasty, nor is it writing biographies for the ministers of the previous dynasty. Culture, etc., should also be recorded and passed on to future generations to watch, so that everyone can know not only the kings and generals in this dynasty, but also the lives of the people of that era. An annals. A history book is generally composed of the emperor’s records, the minister’s biographies, and various geography, customs, service chapters, etc..”

Wei Zheng said, "Your Majesty, if the history is compiled according to this, I'm afraid the project will be huge."

"It doesn't matter, if you want to repair it, you have to make a high-quality repair, and you have to be praised by future generations. It must be fair and just, and you must point out the gains and losses."

The history of the Sui Dynasty is only more than 30 years, so it is not too difficult to repair it. After all, for Wei Zheng and others, many things have been experienced or heard by themselves, and Chang'an, Luoyang and other two capitals still exist. There are a large number of important archives, and there are many government documents in various government offices, all of which can be extracted very well.

"The reason why I asked you to write Daqin Entrepreneurial Living Notes is because I want to record all the experiences of our generation in our generation and leave them for future generations to watch. Our own stories can be recorded in a more comprehensive and true way."

"After these two history books are completed, I will continue to ask the National History Museum to compile the history of Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, and Zhou, and even the history of the South and the North in the future."

Since the late Northern Wei Dynasty, wars have been frequent, and many courts have been short-lived for decades. Therefore, Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Zhou and Sui have not yet come to write history.

Luo Cheng planned to build a special national history museum by Daqin. First, he would compile Sui History and Daqin's Entrepreneurial Daily Notes, and then he would also compile the dynasties that had not compiled histories in the first five dynasties. This history.

"Your Majesty, there is no precedent in history for the imperial court to edit the history books under the supervision of the prime minister. What I am most worried about is that after the history books are compiled, people will say that they are unfair!"

Luo Cheng laughed.

"Old Taoist Wei, do you think that I asked you to supervise the history of the country, just to let you blackmail the previous dynasty and then brag about the current dynasty? No, I am not that kind of person. I hope you can record history fairly and objectively. This should be regarded as a precious historical wealth left to future generations, and nothing else."

The emperor smiled, "Old man, when you write about Daqin's entrepreneurial daily life, when you write about me, don't write about when my mother was pregnant with me, dream about golden dragons and red suns, etc., and don't write about when I was born. The house is full of fire, the god bird flies into these messy things, these poorly written visions are just lies, there is no need to write them."

Wei Zheng chuckled, the visions mentioned by the emperor were just to set off the great identity of the emperor, such as Liu Bang killing the white snake, and the red emperor and white emperor.In the history books, almost every emperor had a vision before his birth.

What mother dreamed of swallowing the red sun and then became pregnant, what dreamed of having intercourse with a god and man and became pregnant, Luo Cheng thought these were all nonsense, people were conceived after the union of a man and a woman and conceived in October, so there was nothing to do It's a dream, you can get pregnant by swallowing some strange fruit.

"As for Yang Guang, I also hope that you can be fair. Objectively speaking, Yang Guang is an emperor full of ideals, great ambitions, hardworking and extremely talented. However, he also has a self-willed side that makes great achievements. I hope that you can write all these things truthfully, such as the Grand Canal opened by Yang Guang, which is a project that benefits the people and the country for thousands of years, and Yang Guang's conquest of Goguryeo, Tuyuhun, Yiwu, Lin Yi, etc., can't be attributed to personal great deeds, one has to analyze his motives and goals from the perspective of the country, and in the end he failed and the country was destroyed, but it can't be attributed to great deeds by putting the cart before the horse."

Wei Zheng stroked his beard, "Your Majesty has a very high opinion of Yang Guang."

"Yang Guang himself is a king like Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi, but Yang Guang did not have the accumulation of several generations of dynasties like Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi, and he did not have an excellent heir and loyal royal clan guards. Although he failed The country is destroyed, but he is not a fool!"

Wei Zheng nodded, and took note of the emperor's evaluation of Yang Guang, the Sui and Ming emperors were not fools.

(End of this chapter)