Tongdian

The "Tongdian" (zh-cwl|c=通典|w=T'ung-tien|l=Comprehensive Institutions) is an important Chinese institutional history and encyclopedia text. It covers a panoply of topics from high antiquity through the year 756, whereas a quarter of the book focuses on the Tang Dynasty. The book was written by Du You from 766 to 801. It contains 200 volumes and about 1.7 million words, and is at times regarded as the most representative contemporary texts of the Tang Dynasty. Du You also incorporated many materials from other sources, including a book written by his nephew, Du Huan, who was taken captive in the famous battle at the Talas River between Tang and the Arabs in 751 and did not return to China until ten years later. It became a model for works by scholar Zheng Qiao and Ma Duanlin centuries later. [Zhang Xiuping et al, "100 Books That Influenced China", p.232-237]

Robert G. Hoyland relates that the "Tongdian" 's first draft was a "history of human institutions from earliest times down to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang", and was subsequently revised as matters continued to evolve. [Hoyland, "Seeing Islam as Others Saw It", p. 244] It incorporates parts of the "Zhengdian" of Liu Zhi and the "Great Tang Ritual Regulations of the Kaiyuan Era" compiled by Xiao Song, and others in 732. [Twitchett, "Official History under the T'ang", 104-7] The "Tongdian" was never included in the canon of the "Twenty-Four Histories." It was however quoted extensively in several books which were, starting with the "Book of Tang."

Notes

References

*
*Wu, Fen and Zeng, Yifen, [http://203.72.198.245/web/Content.asp?ID=52618&Query=1 "Tongdian" ("Comprehensive Institutions")] . "Encyclopedia of China", 1st ed.