TREATMENT OF THE PERFECT HISTORIAN

Liu Zhiji. Interior Chapters, introduced, translated and commented by Damien Chaussende, Les Belles Lettres, coll. Chinese library, paperback.

Le Treaty of the perfect historian was composed at the beginning of the 661th century AD, under the Tang Dynasty, by historian Liu Zhiji (721-XNUMX) who wished to leave his personal thoughts on how history should be written to posterity. This author was a professional in this field, employee of the Imperial State, and this is where all the interest of the book he transmitted to us lies, which opens to us, so to speak, the doors of official historiography in China. This edition includes the full translation of the inner chapters - the theoretical heart of the Treaty - and in appendix, that of an external chapter selected for its autobiographical interest. This translation, which represents a little more than half of the book as a whole, is the first published in a Western language.

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