The Book of Sui is very important. The Book of Sui is an important book after the ancient Chinese adjusted their "method of writing history," and it is also a book that Li Shimin "personally grasped." Before that, history books were written by historians, by one person. The Book of Sui was created collectively, and the "History Museum" formed a writing team with a division of labor. Why did Li Shimin do this because of the pros and cons of changing from a "historian" to a "history museum"? I will talk about it in the future.

There is a special chapter in "A Study of the Three Regional Literary Scholars of the Tang Dynasty", which discusses the Book of Sui. There are two things worth learning from his method of reading.

The first point is not to show off. Let me read the first half sentence of this chapter: "The Book of Sui was written by historians in the early Tang Dynasty and supervised by important officials of the imperial court. ”

In this half sentence, there are many things hidden and many things avoided.

The Book of Sui was created collectively. Politics, economics, military, astronomy and geography, people's livelihood, folk customs, literature, music, calligraphy and painting should all be presented in detail. The main figures are Wei Zheng, Kong Yingda, Xu Jingzong, Chu Suiliang, Linghu Dedi, Changsun Wuji, etc. According to the method of some scholars writing articles today, when talking about the Book of Sui, we must first talk about these people, these people are all important "talking points". But Mr. Li Hao didn't say a word, and he didn't wear makeup. Why didn't Mr. Li Hao write a word? We can imagine, evaluate, and speculate, but we should not speculate indiscriminately.

Personally, I speculate. The history books before the Tang Dynasty had two purposes, the first was to restrain the words and deeds of the emperor, and the other was to pass them on to future generations. Historians write about national events or the words and deeds of the emperor, and the emperor himself cannot read it, this is a strict rule, it is a heavenly rule. There is a general comment about the Book of Sui, called "The book becomes the emperor, and the writing is strict", and the main reader of the book became the emperor of the current dynasty. Where the reader of a book is oriented determines the direction of the book. "Learning from history to learn from the present" was also put forward by the people of the Tang Dynasty, but how can we learn from it? Mr. Li Hao's half sentence just told us that there are many doors in that house, you can enter by yourself, and I won't say much about the doors, because I don't write doors in this book.

The second point that should be learned is the choice of materials, or the choice of kung fu.

The ingredients used by big chefs and ordinary chefs are similar, and the difference between fish and meat and vegetables lies in the cognition and selection of materials. Knife skills and fire can be trained, but how to recognize and choose requires a little talent.

The Book of Sui is 85 volumes, the Imperial Chronicles are 5 volumes, the Chronicles are 30 volumes, and the Biography is 50 volumes. Mr. Li Hao took "Literary Biography", "Confucian Biography" and "Geographical Chronicles". The Book of Sui is well written throughout the book, and many indicators are very hard. These three parts are prominently written in the Book of Sui, and although they cannot be said to be the best, they show the sentence "strict writing".

The thoughts of these three parts of "writing into the palace" are also not very obvious, and there is no obvious intention to please the leaders.

The title of Mr. Li Hao's chapter is "The Concept of Cultural Geography in the Book of Sui", and these three parts also focus on these contents. In this chapter, I suggest that you pay attention to some of the understandings in "The Difference in Soil and the Migration of Politics and Religion", as well as the second point in the conclusion.