魏略

《魏略》，共50卷，魏郎中鱼豢私撰，为中国三国时代中记载魏国的史书。一般认为《典略》也是此书中的一部分所构成的，《三国志注》多引用《魏略》的内容来注释。

本书原卷数，各史记载相异，如《隋书·经籍志二》载“《典略》（疑《魏略》之误）八十九卷”，《旧唐书·经籍志上》载“《魏略》三十八卷；《典略》五十卷”，《新唐书·艺文志二》载“《魏略》五十卷”。有的学者认为《典略》及《魏略》为同一书，有则认为是二书。

此书久佚，现今仅存佚文。其内容分别由《后汉书》、《翰苑》、《北户录》、《三国志》、《法苑珠林》、《太平御览》等书所引用。清代时史家王仁俊、张鹏一分别为此书作了辑佚工作，其中以张鹏一辑本为佳，辑有25卷并附遗文6条。

概要

内容未对魏国与晋朝的重要人物作出避讳。从魏武帝曹操开始撰写，《史通·古今正史》谓“事止明帝”。但从佚文内容来看，尚记载至魏高贵乡公曹髦被立之时，则知《魏略》记事非止于魏明帝时，而是止于三少帝之时。

本书叙事颇注重品节作风。裴松之《三国志注》引用内容以《魏略》为最多。本书虽已佚，但从裴注中尚可得知其大概。

此书记述魏国与汉末中原群雄相当详细，而对偏方地区的记载较略，甚至与他书的记载不大相同，如有关刘禅被人口贩子出卖，孔明见刘备的史事与《三国志》“三顾茅庐”的内容多不相符。有关外国的记述详细，有对邪马台国和大秦国（罗马帝国）的记载。特别是关于大秦国，是中国方面对罗马帝国的文献中，现存最古老的史料，与中国的皇帝制度有所有差异，如有关元老院的存在等的记述（关于内容请参照《三国志》注引《魏略·西戎传》）。

《魏略》中可知的传名还有〈清介〉、〈苛吏〉、〈纯固〉、〈勇侠〉、〈知足〉、〈游说〉、〈佞幸〉、〈儒宗〉、〈西戎〉等见；志有〈五行〉、〈中外官〉、〈礼〉、〈地理〉等。清代学者钱大昕谓“诸传标目，多与他史异。”；高似孙称“特为有笔力”、“亦一时记载之隽也”。

The Weilüe (Chinese: 魏略; 'A Brief [History] of Wei') was a Chinese historical text written by Yu Huan between 239 and 265. Yu Huan was an official in the state of Cao Wei (220–265) during the Three Kingdoms period. Although not a formal historian, Yu Huan has been held in high regard among Chinese scholars. As per the texts, Roman (known to the Chinese as Daqin) travelers and traders of those times claimed that Roman elites were descendants of immigrants from ancient Chinese nobility and Parthian elites were descendants of ancient North Indian empires.

Content

The original text of the Weilüe, or "Brief Account of Wei", by Yu Huan has been lost, but the chapter on the Xirong people was quoted by Pei Songzhi as an extensive footnote to volume 30 of the Annotated Records of the Three Kingdoms, which was first published in 429. Other than this chapter, only a few isolated quotes remain in other texts.

Yu Huan does not mention his sources in the text that has survived. Some of this new data presumably came to China via traders from the Roman Empire (Daqin). Land communications with the West apparently continued relatively uninterrupted to Cao Wei after the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty.

Yu Huan apparently never left China, but he collected a large amount of information on the countries to the west of China including Parthia, India, and the Roman Empire, and the various routes to them. Some of this information had reached China well before Yu Huan's time, and can also be found in the sections dealing with the 'Western Regions' of the Shiji and the Book of Han. In spite of this repetition of earlier (and sometimes fanciful) information, the Weilüe contains new, unique, and generally trustworthy material, mostly from the late second and early third centuries. It is this new information that makes the Weilüe a valuable historical source. Most of the new information appears to have come from the Eastern Han dynasty, before China was largely cut off from the West by civil wars and unrest along its borders during the late second century.

The Weilüe describes the routes to the Roman Empire and it is quite possible that some, or all, of the new information on the Roman Empire and Parthia came from foreign sailors. One such record which may have been available to Yu Huan is detailed in the Book of Liang of a merchant from the Roman Empire who in 226 arrived in Jiaozhi, near modern Hanoi, and was sent to the court of the Eastern Wu emperor Sun Quan, who asked him for a report on his native country and its people.

Yu Huan also includes a brief description of "Zesan", a vassal state of the Roman Empire. John E. Hill identified "Zesan" with Azania located at the East African coast. However, this is unlikely, since later sources like the New Book of Tang recorded that "Zesan" was located to the northeast of the Roman Empire.

Weilüe mentioned a kingdom named "Panyue" or "Hanyuewang", located to the southeast of India. Hill identified it with Pandya of Tamilakam and gave a translation:

"The kingdom of Panyue (Pandya) is also called Hanyuewang. It is several thousand li to the southeast of Tianzhu (Northern India), and is in contact with Yi Circuit [in modern southern Yunnan]. The inhabitants are small; they are the same height as the Chinese. Traders from Shu (Western Sichuan) travel this far. The Southern Route, after attaining its most westernmost point, turns southeast until it reaches its end."

He believed the phrase "與益部相近" meant "in contact with Yi Circuit". However it could be taken literally as "close to Yi Circuit", and the likely candidate for "Panyue" was Pundravardhana in Bengal.