Selections from the Annals: Sui and Tang

Scope and method

This selection takes the Sui and Tang entries of the annalistic volume, from the abolition of Danyang Commandery and the establishment of Jiangzhou in 589 to the camping of Sun Ru's army at Lishui in 891. Throughout the Sui entries the two names Liyang and Lishui alternate; the text is reproduced as it stands and is not corrected to the later name.

The method is that of "Selections from the Annals: Pre-Qin to the Six Dynasties": a list of entries first, then six reproduced in full with notes. The compilers' textual notes and variant readings are reproduced without alteration.

List of entries

Date	Subject
9th year of the Kaihuang era (589)	Danyang Commandery abolished and Jiangzhou established; Liyang under it
11th year of the Kaihuang era (591)	The northwestern part of Liyang and the former lands of Danyang detached to form Lishui County, still under Jiangzhou. The beginning of the county
18th year of the Kaihuang era (598)	Liyang absorbed into Lishui
4th year of the Daye era (608)	Jiangzhou converted into Danyang Commandery; Lishui under it
3rd year of the Wude era (620)	Yangzhou established out of Lishui and Jiangning; the eastern part of Lishui detached as Liyang; Du Fuwei sends Fu Gongshi to take Danyang and camp at Lishui
7th year of the Wude era (624)	Jiangzhou restored; Lishui under it
8th year of the Wude era (625)	Yangzhou restored; Lishui remains under it
9th year of the Wude era (626)	Yangzhou moved to Jiangdu; Lishui transferred to Xuanzhou
1st year of the Tianbao era (742)	Xuanzhou renamed Xuancheng Commandery; Lishui under it as before
2nd year of the Zhide era (757)	Jiangning Commandery established out of Jiangning County; Lishui under it
1st year of the Qianyuan era (758)	Jiangning Commandery renamed Shengzhou; Lishui remains under it
2nd year of the Shangyuan era (761)	Shengzhou abolished; Lishui transferred back to Xuanzhou
1st year of the Dashun era (890)	Shengzhou restored; Lishui under it
2nd year of the Dashun era (891)	Sun Ru attacks Xuanzhou and camps at Lishui; Yang Xingmi sends Li Fu by night against Sun's army and defeats it

The quotations and notes

9th year of the Kaihuang era (589): Danyang Commandery abolished

隋高祖开皇九年己酉，废丹阳郡置蒋州，溧［阳］隶之。

Translated: In the ninth year of the Kaihuang era of Emperor Gao of the Sui, jiyou, Danyang Commandery was abolished and Jiangzhou established; Liyang was under it.

Note. This entry records the reorganisation of prefectures and commanderies in this region after the Sui conquest of the Chen. In the original, the compilers have supplied the character yang in square brackets after Li, making clear that the unit under Jiangzhou was Liyang County and not Lishui County, which did not yet exist. This selection keeps the square brackets rather than silently correcting the text.

11th year of the Kaihuang era (591): Lishui County established

十一年辛亥，析溧阳西北境及丹阳故地置溧水县，仍隶蒋州。县之始。

Translated: In the eleventh year, xinhai, the northwestern part of Liyang and the former lands of Danyang were detached and Lishui County was established, still under Jiangzhou. The beginning of the county.

Note. This is the founding of Lishui as a county. At the end of the entry the compilers add the three characters 县之始, "the beginning of the county", a summary note of a kind rare in this gazetteer. Two sources of territory are given: the northwestern part of Liyang and the former lands of Danyang; the latter, by the gazetteer's own account elsewhere, is the neighbourhood of present-day Xiaodanyang in Jiangning. The district government's "Historical Development" page agrees on the year, and the two corroborate each other.

18th year of the Kaihuang era (598): Liyang absorbed into Lishui

十八年戊午，并溧阳入溧水。

Translated: In the eighteenth year, wuwu, Liyang was absorbed into Lishui.

Note. This records the absorption of Liyang County seven years after Lishui was founded. The name Liyang then disappears for a time and is detached again from the eastern part of Lishui only in 620. This absorption and that later detachment are the two largest changes to the county's territory in the Sui and Tang, and the two entries should be read together.

4th year of the Daye era (608): Jiangzhou converted into a commandery

炀帝大业四年戊辰，以蒋州置丹阳郡，溧水隶之。

Translated: In the fourth year of the Daye era of Emperor Yang, chen, Jiangzhou was converted into Danyang Commandery, and Lishui was under it.

Note. This records Emperor Yang's conversion of prefectures into commanderies. Jiangzhou and Danyang Commandery are the names, at different dates, of the two levels of administration in one and the same region; the gazetteer enters them under the ninth year of Kaihuang and the fourth year of Daye separately, and this selection keeps them separate rather than merging them.

3rd year of the Wude era (620): Yangzhou established and Liyang re-established

唐高祖武德三年庚辰，以溧水、江宁二县置扬州。县不废，仍隶之，等为上。又析溧水东境为溧阳。

Translated: In the third year of the Wude era of Emperor Gao of the Tang, gengchen, Yangzhou was established out of the two counties of Lishui and Jiangning. The county was not abolished but remained under it, of the upper rank. The eastern part of Lishui was also detached as Liyang.

Note. This records the establishment of a prefecture out of two counties in the early Tang and, at the same time, the detachment of Liyang from the eastern part of Lishui. The words "the county was not abolished but remained under it, of the upper rank" mean that Lishui County was not dissolved when the prefecture was created, and that the county was ranked as an upper county. Under the same entry the gazetteer also records that Du Fuwei sent Fu Gongshi to take Danyang and camp at Lishui, adding that "south of the present county there is Ducheng Mountain and an old battlefield, said by tradition to be the place where the army camped". The words 相传, "by tradition", are the gazetteer's own; this selection keeps them and does not turn the story into fact.

2nd year of the Dashun era (891): Sun Ru camps at Lishui

二年辛亥，孙孺攻宣州，军屯溧水。时杨行密领宁国军，遣将李福拒之，夜袭孺军，胜之。

Translated: In the second year, xinhai, Sun Ru attacked Xuanzhou and his army camped at Lishui. Yang Xingmi, then in command of the Ningguo army, sent his general Li Fu to oppose him, who attacked Sun's army by night and defeated it.

Note. This records fighting in the lower Yangtze region at the end of the Tang, with the field of battle inside Lishui. In the same year the gazetteer has another entry, "Shengzhou restored, Lishui under it", with a note that "the old gazetteer says that of Ningguo, the Junji records only that Xuanzhou was renamed the Ningguo army in this year and does not say that Lishui was transferred to Shengzhou". That is the gazetteer's own comment on an incomplete record in the Junji; this selection reproduces it without altering its sense.

Choices and uncertainties

First, where the gazetteer's dates disagree with the Junji, the compilers usually state their reason for preferring one reading in a note, as in "the Junji is wrong in saying that Danyang and Liyang alone were under Xuanzhou". Notes of this kind are primary evidence for the relationship between the editions, and this selection reproduces them all.

Second, the entries for 620, 624 and 625 show the name of the prefecture changing back and forth. Under 625 the gazetteer notes that "the Sui came to an end in this year, and so the style of the record differs from what precedes" — its usage follows where legitimate authority lay rather than recording administrative fact alone. This selection makes no judgement and only draws the reader's attention to it.

Third, between the end of the Tang and the Five Dynasties the region saw further changes under Wu and the Southern Tang — Shengzhou renamed Jinling Prefecture in the second year of the Wuyi era, and Xu Zhigao founding the state of Qi at Jinling in the third year of the Tianzuo era. Those entries fall outside this selection and outside the "Pre-Qin and Six Dynasties" one, and are treated in the relevant entries elsewhere.