The Book of Song also called "The History of the Song," is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty

Liu Song Dynasty

The Liu Song Dynasty , also known as Song Dynasty , Former Song , or Southern Song , was first of the four Southern Dynasties in China, succeeding the Eastern Jin Dynasty and followed by the Southern Qi Dynasty....

 of the Southern Dynasties

Southern dynasties

The Southern dynasties comprise the Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty, whose capital were at Jiankang , and Emperor Yuan of Liang, as well as the later Western Liang emperors , also set their...

 of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It covers history from 420

420

Year 420 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Constantius...

 to 479

479

Year 479 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Zeno without colleague...

, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories

Twenty-Four Histories

The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...

, a traditional collection of historical records. It was authored by Shen Yue

Shen Yue

Shen Yue , courtesy name Xiuwen , was a poet, statesman, and historian born in Huzhou, Zhejiang. He served emperors under the Liu Song Dynasty, the Southern Qi Dynasty, and the Liang Dynasty....

 from the Liang Dynasty

Liang Dynasty

The Liang Dynasty , also known as the Southern Liang Dynasty , was the third of the Southern dynasties in China and was followed by the Chen Dynasty...

 (502

502

Year 502 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avienus and Probus...

-557

557

Year 557 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 557 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Asia :* The Northern Zhou Dynasty begins in northern...

) and contained 100 volumes at the time that it was written. By the time of the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

, some volumes were already missing. Later editors reconstructed those volumes by taking material from the History of the Southern Dynasties, plus a few works such as the Historiette of Gao by Gao Jun, though many of those volumes were no longer in their original condition. Modern historians believe that there are serious problems with the text; one of them being that the book is often very unclear and is biased against the surrounding ethnic groups, including the ruling elites of Northern Wei

Northern Wei

The Northern Wei Dynasty , also known as the Tuoba Wei , Later Wei , or Yuan Wei , was a dynasty which ruled northern China from 386 to 534 . It has been described as "part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change"...

.

See also

• Twenty-Four Histories
  Twenty-Four Histories
  The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...