Compared with the old Tang books, the new Tang books do have their own characteristics and advantages. Because the Song Dynasty generally inherited the system of the Tang Dynasty, in order to summarize the system of the Tang Dynasty for the reference of the Song Dynasty, the New Book of the Tang Dynasty paid special attention to chronology, adding Yi Wei Zhi, Selected Records and Military Records, which were not available in the old books of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, Bing Zhi is the first book of the New Tang Dynasty. "Selected Records" and "Military Records" systematically sorted out the evolution data of the imperial examination system and military system in the Tang Dynasty. The Shihuozhi has increased to five volumes, which is not only larger than the Old Tang Book, but also systematically and methodically preserves a large number of social and economic history materials. Geographical Records focuses on the geographical evolution of the Tang Dynasty, and records the establishment of military houses, the distribution of property, the rise and fall of water conservancy and so on. , and added a lot of materials that were not available in the geography of the old Tang Dynasty. Tian Wenzhi and Li Zhi are more than three times longer than Old Tang Shu, and they record seven popular calendars in Tang Dynasty, especially Li Yi, which occupies an important position in history and reflects the level and development height of calendar theory in Tang Dynasty. Yiwenzhi is much more than Jiutangshu Jingjizhi, especially the works of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty after Kaiyuan. For example, some works by Li Bai and Liu Zongyuan were not included in Old Tang Shu. People in the Northern Song Dynasty thought the New Tang Book was better than the Old Tang Book. They severely criticized the Book of Old Tang Dynasty, saying that the Book of Old Tang Dynasty "can't record the time, the details are lost, the literary talent is unknown, and the facts are scattered" (Ceng Gongliang entered the Book of New Tang Dynasty), and that the Book of New Tang Dynasty is perfect in style, tailoring and literary talent. Ceng Gongliang, the editor-in-chief of the New Book of Tang Dynasty, once appeared on the list of emperors, and proudly said, "Things are added before, and literature is saved after", which is considered to be a great advantage over the Old Book of Tang Dynasty. Indeed, Tang's new books are better than Bitang's old books in literary talent and compilation. First, its main authors, Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu, were literary scholars and famous writers in the Northern Song Dynasty. Song Qi and his brother Song Yao were called "the second Song Dynasty" at that time. The Song Dynasty's Dong Xuanlu said that Song Qi was "well-read"; Ouyang Xiu is one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, and prose is his specialty. Of course, their kung fu is different. Other authors who participated in the compilation of the Book of the New Tang Dynasty were also famous masters of the Northern Song Dynasty. Fan Zhen, Wang Chou, Song, Liu Xizuo and others listed in Ceng Gongliang's Book of Entering the New Tang Dynasty during the Jiayou period in Song Renzong were all famous figures in the literary world at that time. Fan Zhen used to be a bachelor of Hanlin, and his writing was fluent. The Chronicle of Dongzhai, etc. 100 volumes have been circulated in the world. Wang Chou's words are strict and beautiful, which has always been known to the world. Song Qiu Min, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, has a rich collection of books. He compiled Tang Zhao Ji and Chang An Zhi, and he was very familiar with Tang Shi. Liu Xicuo was a famous astronomer, and later helped Sima Guang compile Zi Tongzhi Jian. It is these people who wrote The Book of the New Tang Dynasty, which is naturally brilliant in literary talent and rigorous in writing style. On the other hand, Song, Ou and others also took a serious attitude when compiling the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. Ouyang Xiu was responsible for biographies, chronologies and tables, and wrote them for six or seven years. Song Qi's biography is even longer, lasting more than ten years. He used to be the magistrate of Bozhou, and he carried this manuscript "inside and outside". When I was a magistrate in Chengdu, I opened the door and lit candles after dinner every day, and almost always worked late into the night. This serious and cautious attitude makes the New Book of Tang Dynasty really better than the Old Book of Tang Dynasty in many aspects. Due to the hasty writing time, some traces of national history copied from the Tang Dynasty have not been erased, and there are many words such as "Datang", "Benchao" and "Shanxi Merchants". Song Qi and others cut off these nondescript words when they were newly renovated. The New Tang Book is much more complete and rigorous than the Old Tang Book in style, brushwork and style. In addition, The Book of the New Tang Dynasty also summarizes the titles of biographies, such as merging minority officials and generals in the Tang Dynasty into the biographies of generals in various countries; Write the provinces where the regime is divided together and so on. In this way, the eyebrows are clearer. These are the advantages of new books over old books in writing and editing. Usually, the circulation of new books and old books is 6 1, increasing by 33 1, but there are different views on its original basis. Some people say that it is "Wen Zhiming's Preface to Re-engraving Old Tang Books", and some people quote that it is "pointed out by Ma Duanlin in the Literature General Examination". Many people also saw Ma Duanlin quote Chen's description in Solving the Problem of Supporting Villages: "Where 6 1 is abolished, 33 1 is added." There were other statistics in Qian Daxin in Qing Dynasty, which were also considered as "missing a lot". In recent years, Huang Yongnian said that the new book * * * added 3 15 biographies, of which "only one or two sentences are extremely brief" and excluded "2 12 princesses recorded in the biographies of the emperor and the princess" [8]. In fact, the "only one or two sentences" traced back to the ancestors of the Tang Dynasty, as a "name index", the more detailed it is, the better it is for readers, but it can never be regarded as a biography or a new biography, and the two should not be confused. In fact, the editors of New Tang Book have their own statistical standards and figures on the obsolescence of new books. Reading in County Zhai is recorded in Volume 7, and the historical review is recorded in Volume 7. Lu wrote Notes on New Cases of Tang Books, Volume 4, Volume 65438 +0, "It was clear when I was in the bookstore". Among them, "Notes on New Cases of Tang Books" records that "new books increase or decrease records, biographies and their total number compared with old books". This tells people that as an editor, Lu had statistics at that time. Although there is no specific figure of "the increase and decrease of records, biographies and their total numbers" in the account of Yue Jun Zhai Zhi, this statistic will undoubtedly be stored in bookstores and memorized by editors. According to Yu Hai Volume 46 Jia You Tang Xin Shu, the National History Cloud is quoted: Ji, 50, biography of One Happy and Fifty. Add 6 1 volume of Old Useless Stories and 33 1 volume of New Stories, with three records and four tables, with a total of 225 volumes. (Old history1900,000 words, new history 1.75930 words. The so-called national history records refer to the artistic and literary records in the national history of the Northern Song Dynasty. The History of the Three Dynasties in the Northern Song Dynasty was compiled by Renzong Tiansheng for eight years, by Emperor Taizong and Zhenzong for five years, and by Southern Song Renzong and Yingzong for thirteen years, and by Xiaozong Xichun. Among them, Ren and Ying participated in the compilation of History of the Two Dynasties (120), Ji (5), Zhi (45) and Biography (70), and Song and others participated in the compilation as historical museums. Therefore, the description of Jia Youshu in History of the Two Dynasties and Records of Arts and Literature must be based on the statistics of the publishing houses of that year, not to mention that Song was one of the six editors of the New Tang Book of that year. Accordingly, the Records of Reading in County Zhai recorded "about 1.9 million old books and 1.74 million new books", and the Records of Reading in Zhi Zhai recorded "61 books were abolished, 311 books were added, and three records and four tables were cited by scholars such as Wen Zhiming. The author takes the figures in each volume of the two books of the Tang Dynasty as the statistical basis. Excluding their respective repetitions, the figures added (including the true biography and the attached biography) and discarded (only referring to the true biography) are very close to the figures in the National Historical Records quoted above (princesses are not included in the statistics), which proves that "Old Biography 6 1, New Biography 33 1" is indeed a new book of the Tang Dynasty. When quoting this figure again in the future, don't mistake it for someone outside the bookstore, please distinguish the specific situation of its increase or decrease.

Second, in terms of historical materials, due to the peace of the Northern Song Dynasty, many historical materials that were difficult to collect during the war were collected and sorted out in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. According to experts' estimation, Sima Guang referred to as many as 300 kinds of historical materials when compiling Zi Tong Zhi Jian, and the compilation of Xin Tang Shu was similar to Tong Jian. What Sima Guang saw must have been seen by the Song Dynasty and Europe. For example, the Biography of Li Ji, supplemented by the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, records the attitude of struggle after the establishment of the army and Fang's theory on the difficulty of persistence, which is beyond the reach of the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and other books. The food records in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty also add other materials such as wasteland reclamation, river fire, mining and metallurgy in the Tang Dynasty. Geographical Records records the irrigation situation of rivers, canals and weirs and the local products of each state, which is also a rare and precious historical material in his book. Ouyang Xiu was also a master of epigraphy at that time. He has a good knowledge of ancient epigraphy. He once wrote Qijialu, and used the records of stone carvings in the Jin Dynasty to research historical facts. The most famous example is that he used the inscription of Confucius to prove that this outstanding scholar in the early Tang Dynasty was a historian. All these make the New Tang Book slightly better than the old Tang Book in some historical textual research. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty also preserved some historical materials that the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty did not have. Since the Anshi Rebellion, a lot of historical materials have been lost, and there is no official record below Tang Muzong. Therefore, Song Qi used a lot of novels, notes, biographies, epitaphs, genealogy, unofficial history and other materials in his biographies of late Tang Dynasty. At the same time, there are many biographies of late Tang people. The New Book of Tang Dynasty records the nationalities and tribes in more detail than the Old Book of Tang Dynasty. According to Zhao Yi's Notes on the Twenty-second History of the New Tang Dynasty, there are hundreds of historical events recorded in the New Tang Dynasty, which were not seen in the compilation of the Book of the Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties. "For reference, smug. People who learned well in the early Song Dynasty have their own stories. All these provide useful information for the revision of Tang books. Many biographies use novels, anthologies, epitaphs, anecdotes and political books. In addition to the use of "old books" materials, local chronicles have also been expanded. Documentaries, political books, anecdotes, anthologies, epitaphs, novels and other documents are all selected. Third, The Book of the New Tang Dynasty wrote military records and selected records for the first time, systematically discussing the military system and imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty. This is a great creation of China's official history books, which was followed by the later History of the Song Dynasty and preserved many precious historical materials of China's military system and employment system. The list of prime ministers' towns in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty also provides clues for readers to understand the rise and fall of prime ministers' clans (aristocratic families) and the rise and fall of buffer forces in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Mingsheng, a famous historian, said in On the Seventeenth History: "The best new book is ambition and words". This is a fair evaluation. From Sima Qian's creation of discipline, expressiveness, ambition and biography history books to the Wei, Jin and Five Dynasties, the compilation of history books and the omission of expressiveness restored the integrity of this style in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. This system will be used in the history books of past dynasties. This is also a great contribution of New Tang Book in the history of Chinese historiography. In addition, because Ouyang Xiu overemphasized that writing history served the ruling class at that time, he deliberately avoided some historical facts. For example, there was a general named Han Tong the following week. He was loyal to the Zhou Dynasty and opposed Zhao Kuangyin's Chen Qiao mutiny, so Ouyang Xiu didn't give him a biography. This was discussed by colleagues at that time. According to Qi Dong unofficial history, a historian (who participated in Zi) asked Jiao Ganzhi, a disciple of Ouyang Xiu, whether the History of the Five Dynasties had been completed or not, and Jiao Gan's theory was about to be completed. Liu asked again, "Have you written a biography of Han (Han Tong's nickname)?" ? Jiao said no and said with a smile, "So, it's also a second-class ear." This story shows that Ouyang Xiu was not completely faithful to history. This is the brand left by the times to Ouyang Xiu, and can't be said to be the defect of the New History of the Five Dynasties. The New Tang Book also has obvious shortcomings, and the most important point is that feudal orthodoxy is more serious. Writers criticized the peasant uprising in the late Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Biography of Huang Chao is preceded by the word "rebellion": at the end of Sui Dynasty, Dou Jiande and other peasant troops used extremely vicious words such as "courageously protecting Mao", "gnashing one's teeth and shaking poison" and "evil spirits are blazing". Wu Zetian was falsely accused of "killing the king and usurping the country", and claimed that the purpose of writing "Biography of Wuhou" was to "write his great evil" for liquidation and so on. And so on, it can be seen that the new Tang book is superior to the old Tang book in orthodoxy. As far as writing is concerned, the new books in the Tang Dynasty are not as good as the old ones in the Tang Dynasty. For example, some subjects are too simple, and even unreasonably deleted. Wang Mingsheng, a historical critic in Qing Dynasty, once mentioned in On the Seventeen Histories that the edition of New Tang Book is nearly 67% less than that of old books. According to some statistics, there are nearly 300,000 words in Old Tang Book, only 90,000 words in New Tang Book, about 1.3 million words in Old Book and about 1000 words in New Book. This simplified way of writing makes the Book of the New Tang Dynasty lose many important historical materials. Also, Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu did not hesitate to delete many important plots, such as Biography of Feng Changqing and Biography of Gao Xianzhi, which were very vivid and tragic in Old Tang Book until the new book was cut. In particular, due to the prejudice of rejecting Buddhism, Xuanzang and his party were not included in the New Tang Book, which led to the failure of these two great translators and scientists to be reflected in the New Tang Book. Because the new Tang books have always occupied an orthodox position from the Song, Yuan, Ming and early Qing dynasties, most people only read the new Tang books but not the old ones, so the versions of the new Tang books since the Song Dynasty are far more than the old ones. The main versions that have been passed down to this day are: (1) the Southern Song Dynasty edition, which is a 14-line remnant edition and an old collection. The same supplementary version of line 14 is kept in Beijing Library; Beijing Library also has sixteen lines of 124; Zhong Wei, Jianyang Bookstore, immediately lost his copy and collected Jiayetang. (2) Yuan engraving printing, which was restored and printed by imperial academy in Ming Dynasty according to Yuan engraving. (3) There are three versions in the Ming Dynasty, namely, the version of imperial academy in Chenghua period (1465~ 1487), the version of the 21st history of imperial academy in Wanli period (1573- 1620), and the version of the 17th history of Ji Gu Museum in the late Ming Dynasty. (4) There are many kinds of clear editions, which were printed in Wuyingdian in the fourth year of Qianlong (1739), and Song Dongchong translated 25 volumes of Tang books. There are all kinds of reprint, shadow edition, typographic edition, reduced edition, five-bureau combined edition, enlightened twenty-five history edition and so on. (5) The patchwork edition of the Commercial Press is mainly Jingjiatang edition, which is better than the temple edition, with the collection of Beitu, Shuangjianlou and Jiayetang, retaining the original features of the old version of New Tang Book. (6) Punctuated edition of Zhonghua Book Company, version 1975, with imposition as the bottom edition. In 2000, Zhonghua Book Company launched a simplified horizontal version. There are many works to correct and discriminate the fallacies in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, the most important of which is: (1) Zhen Wu's Correcting the Fallacies in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, which has 20 volumes, 20 chapters and more than 400 articles. It was written in the 4th year of Song Dynasty (1089) and the 4th year of Shao Sheng (65438+). (2) Wang's Biography and Tang Shubian, a total of 20 volumes, specifically discuss the shortcomings of New Tang Shuzhuan. (3) Wang Ruoxu's New Tang Dynasty Book Discrimination, Volume 3, see Yinan Legacy Collection. (4) Chen Huangzhong "New Tang Book Publication Error" Volume 3. (5) Anonymous "New Tang Book Errors" (copy of Jirui Building Bibliography). (6) Luo Zhenchang's Nan Jian Ben Tang Xin Yi Shu 1 Volume, 1936 Shanghai Shi Yinben.