群书治要

《群书治要》五十卷，唐魏徵等撰。

编写过程

唐贞观元年（公元627年），天下方定，唐太宗“欲览前王得失”，于是命魏徵、虞世南、褚亮、萧德言等编撰群书治要。是书爰自六经，迄于诸子，“上始五帝，下至晋代”，取材自一万四千多部、八万九千多卷古籍。《群书治要》引文多整段钞录，罕有割裂或迳改之痕迹，正文以大字书写，注文以小字注出。贞观五年（631年）《群书治要》书成。唐太宗命人缮写《群书治要》十余部，分赐太子及诸王。

流传情况

此后，《群书治要》逐渐佚失，但在日本却有流传。清朝嘉庆年间，《群书治要》自日本流传回中国，阮元收入《宛委别藏》，然今可见者仅四十七卷，缺卷四《春秋左氏传》上、卷十三《汉书》一、卷二十《汉书》八。

重要性

《群书治要》保留不少古文献之唐前钞本，而且引用典籍每多兼引其注。例如《司马法》一书本无注解，但《治要》所引《司马法》文附有注释。又，房玄龄、褚遂良等重撰《晋书》为贞观二十年之事，《群书治要》所录《晋书》二卷是臧荣绪版《晋书》，并参考十八家晋史。阮元云：“如《晋书》二卷，尚为未修《晋书》以前十八家中之旧本。”王念孙校勘古籍之时，多以《群书治要》为据。除此之外，《群书治要》还保留了大量的失传文献的文字。

近人推广

近代佛教净空法师也推崇《群书治要》并积极推广。曾委托台湾“世界书局”印制一万套，送给许多国家的大学图书馆、学校收藏，以期全世界流通，不至失传。

Qunshu zhiyao (simplified Chinese: 群书治要; traditional Chinese: 群書治要 (also written 羣書治要); Wade–Giles: Ch'ün-shu chih-yao) ("Important matters of governance from all types of literature") is a political encyclopedia from the Tang dynasty, compiled on imperial order by Wei Zheng (580–643), who is also known as the author of the official dynastic history Suishu (Book of Sui). The work is also called Qunshu zhengyao 群書政要 or Qunshu liyao 群書理要.

Structure and content

The originally 50-juan-long Qunshu zhiyao was completed in 631 and approved by Emperor Taizong of Tang. It includes excerpts from:

the Confucian Classics (12 books), historiographical works (8 books), the writings of the “masters and philosophers” (7 books).

The selection of texts focuses on the causes of the rise and fall of states and dynasties. Sources range from works of antiquity to texts from the Jin dynasty (265–420).

Significance

The high textual quality of the sources makes the work an important tool for reconstructing the original wording of pre-Tang texts. The sections on the Jin dynasty preserve otherwise lost works, including the so-called Eighteen History Books of Jin (Shibajia jinshi 十八家晉史) – 18 older official histories of the Jin dynasty – as well as political treatises by Huan Tan 桓譚, Cui Shi 崔實, Zhongchang Tong 仲長統, Yuan Huai 袁淮, Jiang Ji 蔣濟, and Huan Fan 桓范.

Zhang Yuanshan f.e. accounts the Qunshu zhiyao among the classical texts relevant to the Zhuangzi text.

Transmission

The original work was lost during the Northern Song dynasty. A copy was imported from Japan in the 18th century for inclusion in the Siku quanshu 四庫全書; in this version, juan 4, 13, and 20 were missing. Another Japanese edition was printed in 1787. In China, the work is also preserved in the collections Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 and Xuxiu Siku quanshu 續修四庫全書.

The Hanyu da zidian (HYDZD) f.e. uses the Sibu congkan 四部丛刊 photographic reproduction of a Japanese print of the 7th year of the Tenmei era (1787).

Liu Xicheng has recently completed the first full English translation of the work ("The Governing Principles of Ancient China").