Establishing Bieshi: The Significance of a New Sub-Category under History in Chinese Traditional Bibliography

Abstract

The use of Chinese traditional bibliographies has in our time been largely limited to guiding readers to source materials produced and preserved in the Chinese historical tradition and at the same time indicating to them which areas of knowledge were considered important in the past. This paper intends to demonstrate their another use: how they can be made to reveal some subtle aspects of the history of Chinese historiography. The paper begins with clarifying the identity of the first person who established the sub-category bieshi 別史 under the general category of history (shibu 史部) in Chinese traditional bibliographies. Then it proceeds to exploring the significance of its establishment, and concludes with critical comments on various misleading definitions and explanations of the term proposed by scholars in the past. The author argues that bieshi can be defined as "privately compiled histories in the form of annals-biographies similar to that in Standard Histories and intended to be their counterpart in terms of historical value". The discussion may also shed light on the historical values of the traditional Chinese bibliographies from a new perspective.

對於中國傳統的學術分類系統， 過去宏觀的論述較多， 微觀的探討不足。 四部中一些子目的性質和源流， 至今仍然含糊不清， 便反映了這種研究上的缺陷。 本文擬對史部的子目之一 “別史” 作微觀研究， 就這個類目的創立原委和流變作詳實的說明， 並辨正前人對這個類目的種種誤詮， 希望能夠為中國史學史和目錄學的研究另闢蹊徑。 論文將盡量以充分的文獻， 說明 “別史” 這個類目始於陳振孫的《直齋書錄解題》， 陳氏創立這個分類， 是為了突顯私家修史的作用。 筆者同時認為《四庫全書總目》對 “別史” 的說明， 最能體察陳氏建類的原意， 可惜後人多未領會其中的細節和隱曲， 才橫生旁議。