On <i>Jiu Wudai Shi</i> and <i>Xin Wudai Shi</i>
The author exams compositional features of the Jiu Wu-Dai Shi ( Оld History of Five Dynasties, JWDS ) and X in Wu-Dai Shi ( New History of Five Dynasties, X WDS, originally titled Wu-dai Shi-ji, Historical Records of the Five Dynasties ) by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072). Both were recognized further on as official histories ( zheng-shi ) of the Wu-dai shi-guo (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms) era (907-960), though they were composed in quite different political and ideological situations. JWDS - at the time of approval of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), and that forced its compilers, headed by Xue Ju-zheng (912-981) to concentrate on proving the legitimacy of the new regime and its right to possess the august supremacy. Treating obviously the Wu-dai as an “era of murky time”, they approach otherwise to the Northern Dynasties and Southern Kingdoms, representing the first ones as “true imperial” states through which the Heavenly mandate ( tian-ming ) was handed over from Tang Empire (618-907) to the Song founders, while the second - as rebellious regimes and the main perpetrators of political anarchy. Ouyang Xiu, being a witness of sharpening crisis tendencies in the middle of 11th century, tried to understand the collapse mechanisms of an empire. He put the equally responsible on the Northern and Southern states for downfall of the Tang and political chaos. This essential difference between JWDS and XWDS is clearly enshrined in its compositions.