Editions
The earliest extant copy of Records of the Grand Historian, handwritten, was made during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420 – 589 AD). The earliest printed edition, called Shiji jijie (史記集解, literally Records of the Grand Historian, Collected Annotations), was published during the Northern Song Dynasty. Huang Shanfu's edition, printed under the Southern Song dynasty, is the earliest collection of the Sanjiazhu commentaries on Records of the Grand Historian (三家注, literally: The Combined Annotations of the Three Experts).
In modern times, the Zhonghua Book Company (simp. 中华书局 trad. 中華書局) in Beijing has published the book in both simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese editions. The 1959 (2nd ed., 1982) Sanjiazhu edition (based upon the Jinling Publishing House edition, vide infra) contains commentaries interspersed among the main text and is considered to be an authoritative modern edition.
The most well known editions of the Shiji are:
| Year | Publisher | Printing technique | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279) | Shan-fu | Block-printed | Abbreviated as the Huang Shanfu edition (黄善夫本) |
| Ming Dynasty, between the times of the Jiajing and Wanli Emperors (between 1521 and 1620) | The Northern and Southern Imperial Academy | Block-printed | published in 21 Shi. Abbreviated as the Jian edition (监本) |
| Ming Dynasty | Publisher: the bibliophile Mao Jin (毛晋), 1599 – 1659) and his studio Ji Gu Ge (汲古閣 or the Drawing from Ancient Times Studio) | Block-printed | Published in 17 Shi. Abbreviated as the Mao Ke edition (毛刻本) or the Ji Gu Ge edition (汲古閣本) |
| Qing Dynasty, in the time of the Qianlong Emperor (1711 – 1799) | Wu Yingdian | Block-printed | Published in the Twenty-Four Histories, abbreviated as the Wu Yingdian edition (武英殿本) |
| Qing Dynasty, in the time of the Tongzhi Emperor (1856 – 1875) | Jinling Publishing House (in Nanjing) | Block-printed | Proofreading and copy editing done by Zhang Wenhu. Published with the Sanjiazhu commentaries, 130 volumes in total. Abbreviated as the Jinling Ju or Jinling Publishing edition (金陵局本) |
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Famous quotes containing the word editions:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)