History of Liao

The Liao Shi (History of Liao, Dynastic History of the Khitan Liao Dynasty) is an Chinese historical book compiled officially in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), under the direction of the great historian Tuotuo, and finalized in 1343.^[1] Based on Khitan's primary sources and other previous official Chinese records, it expose the Khitan people, Khitan's tribal life and traditions, and Liao Dynasty's official history.^[1]

This Mongolian version of 1343 was compiled using older sources, mainly :

the Shilu (Veritable Records), completed in the Khitan Liao Dynasty (907-1125) under Yelü Yan direction
the Liao Shi, completed in the Jurchen Jin Dynasty under Chen Daren's direction,
ans several other sources such as the Zizhi Tongjian (1080's), Qidan Guozhi and other descriptions of the Khitans in the previous dynastic histories (Wei Shu, Sui Shu, ...).

The Liao Shu contains 116 volumes^[1] such as : 30 volumes of Imperial Annals, 32 volumes of Records of Institutions, 8 volumes of Tables, 48 volumes of Biographies and Descriptions, and 1 volume of Glossary of National Language.

Some Chinese scholars of the time argued that Khitans being formerly non-Chinese and barbarians, they didn't deserved to get a compiled standard official history.^[1] That's why the Liao Shi was not launch nor completed until 1342-1343. By this time, the Mongol regime was already in decadence and in a precarious situation^[2] : the compilation of the Liao Shi was achieve in one year^[1], by highly skilled imperial historians, but without elaborate proofreading and textual criticism.^[1] Because of this double time and support lacking context, the Liao Shi is renowned for its inferiority, technical errors, naiveness, lack of precision, over-lapsing and self-contradictions. The Liao Shi's editors had not the suitable context to provide a deep analysis, and audacious comments.^[1]

Nevertheless, the Liao Shi still provide a large and valuable amount of knowledge on Khitan's tribal life and traditions. Since the Yelü Yan's Shilu and the Chen Daren's old Liao Shi are no more available^[1], the Tuotuo's Liao Shi is the only know historical book that systematically and largely records Khitans-relate facts, and focused only on this issue.

The work of collation and punctuation have been done several times,^[3] by example in the Qianlong edition, the Nanjian edition, the Beijian edition, Baina edition and the Daoguang edition.
The nowadays commonly use edition is the Zhonghua Shuju Press edited Liao Shi, under direction of the Khitan studies' specialists Feng Jiasheng and Chen Shu, and based on the Baina edition. This Zhonghua Shuju Press version and its annotations also refer to other historical sources such as the Cefu Yuangui, Zizhi Tongjian, Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian, Jiu & Xin Tangshu, Jiu & Xin Wudai Shi, Song Shi, Jin Shi, Qidan Guizhi and Liao Wenhui.^[3]^[4]

Source

Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005. 273 pages. 2.1 Introduction to the Sources on the Pre-dynastic Khitan (pp.19-23) > The Liao shi, p.22-23
Liao Shi (LS) 遼史 (Dynastic History of the Khitan Liao Dynasty): Tuotuo 脱脱 et al. eds. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju 中华书局, 1974

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Xu Elina-Qian, p.22
^ The Yuan dynasty will formally finish in 1368, 25 years later. But the collapsing process had already begun.
^ ^a ^b Xu Elina-Qian, pp.22-23
^ 遼史, 脱脱, 中华书局, 1974.

[Xu_Elina-Qian,_p.22-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Xu Elina-Qian, p.22

[2] The Yuan dynasty will formally finish in 1368, 25 years later. But the collapsing process had already begun.

[Xu_Elina-Qian,_pp.22-23-3] Xu Elina-Qian, pp.22-23

[LS,_1974-4] 遼史, 脱脱, 中华书局, 1974.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]