3 - Li Xinchuan and the Chronological Record

Summary

This chapter focuses on the career and works of Li Xinchuan (1167–1244), compiler of the Chronological Record of Major Events since 1127, a year-by-year history of China from 1127 through 1162, and Li Tao’s successor in the practice of a distinctive school of Sichuan historiography. The chapter analyzes the historiographical methodology of the Chronological Record into three interrelated processes: verification of facts, narrative construction, and political messaging. It posits this methodology as an advance on that pioneered by Li Tao. The chapter also examines Li Xinchuan’s other surviving works, most importantly the Diverse Notes on Court and Province since 1127, which is best understood as a thematically organized companion volume to the Chronological Record, and among the most important surviving accounts of Song government institutions and practices. The chapter concludes with a synopsis of Hartman’s earlier detailed study of the Record of the Way and Its Fate (Daoming lu), demonstrating that the present text was rewritten in the Yuan, and that Li Xinchuan’s original version presented a rather pessimistic assessment of the historical role of the daoxue teachings and their ability to affect positive political reform.