往年纪事 (12 世纪)

《往年纪事》（教会斯拉夫语：Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ，罗马化：Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyhŭ lětŭ，俄语：Повесть временных лет，罗马化：Povest' vremennyh let）也称《古史纪年》、《原初编年史》、《古编年纪》、《基辅编年史》，是中世纪基辅罗斯一部描述东斯拉夫人早期历史的著作。本书根据拜占庭的编年史、西、东斯拉夫的文学作品、官方文件以及口头文学等史料汇编而成，现存最早的版本为公元1377年的手稿。一般认为本书的作者为基辅洞窟修道院的僧侣聂斯特，现代有部分学者认为该书是一部综合作品集。本书第一版记载至公元1113年，之后经过了两次增修，分别增补至1116年及1118年。

内容

《往年记事》的内容主要可以简单分成几个部分──

基辅罗斯的起源

罗斯人与希腊人（东罗马帝国）的关系

罗斯公国归信东正教

诸王在罗斯公国的统治

中文译本

王钺，《往年纪事译注》，兰州：甘肃人民出版社，1994，ISBN 7-5421-0273-7

王松亭注释，《古史纪年（古俄语-汉语对照）》，北京：商务印书馆，2010，ISBN 978-7-100-06527-6

[俄]拉夫连季编，朱寰等译，《往年纪事：古罗斯第一部编年史》，北京：商务印书馆，2011，ISBN 978-7-100-05927-5

[台]陈仁姮 译注 科技部经典译注计划 《往年纪事 劳伦特编年史译注》 出版年 2016 ISBN 978-957-08-4669-0

The Primary Chronicle (Old East Slavic: Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, romanized: Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ, lit. 'Tale of Bygone Years'), shortened from the Russian Primary Chronicle, is a chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It was compiled in Kiev in the 1110s. Medieval tradition attributed the work to the monk Nestor the Chronicler (hence Nestor's Chronicle), but modern scholars consider it an anonymous compilation edited by several authors, including Hegumen Sylvester of Kiev in 1116.

The title comes from the opening line of the Laurentian text: "These are the narratives of bygone years regarding the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning". The narrative covers the legendary origins of the Slavs, the calling of the Varangians, the rise of the Rurik dynasty, and the 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus' under Vladimir the Great.

The chronicle is the main written source for the early history of the East Slavs. Its authors drew on oral traditions, legal treaties, and Byzantine chronicles such as those of John Malalas and George Hamartolos. The original manuscript has not survived; the text is known only from later copies, primarily the 1377 Laurentian Codex and the 15th-century Hypatian Codex. Because the surviving manuscripts contain chronological errors, folklore, and political revisions, historians treat its historical accuracy critically.

Authorship and composition

Authorship

The Chronicle was long regarded as the first compilation of the work of a monk named Nestor (c. 1056 – c. 1114), who was also known to have written the Life of the Venerable Theodosius. Writers of the time spoke of the Chronicle of Nestor, and of the author as Nestor "the Chronicler." Based on the 1661 Paterik of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, late 17th-century writers began to assert that Nestor "the Chronicler" wrote many of the surviving Rus' chronicles, including the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Chronicle and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle, even though many of the events they described took place in the 12th and 13th century, long after Nestor's death c. 1114. Another reason given for belief in Nestorian authorship was the word "нестера" in the opening lines of the Khlebnikov Codex (discovered in 1809), which some readers took to refer to Nestor "the Chronicler". According to Donald Ostrowski: "The word нестера was added in the Khlebnikov Codex, and thus cannot be used as evidence for the name of the compiler of the PVL." The word is not found in any of the other five main versions of the Primary Chronicle, and is thus an interpolation inserted into the text by an editor, perhaps guessing at the author's name. From the 1830s to around 1900, there was fierce academic debate about Nestor's authorship, but the question remains unresolved, and belief in Nestorian authorship persists. The internal evidence of the Primary Chronicle and the known works of Nestor often contradict one another, while the contents barely coincide in places where they seemingly should, so modern scholars have concluded that Nestor was not the author.

A more likely candidate for the author of the Chronicle is Sylvester of Kiev, the hegumen (abbot) of the St. Michael's Monastery in Vydubychi, situated near Kiev, who may have compiled several sources in the year 1116. This attribution is based on the fact that the Laurentian text ends on page 286, lines 1 to 7, with the colophon "I wrote down (napisakh) this chronicle", after which he requests the readers to remember him in their prayers. Alternately, the real author may have been some other unnamed monk from the Kiev Monastery of the Caves mentioned in the title, and Sylvester completed his work, or was a very early editor or copyist of the Primary Chronicle.