Analysis on the Credibility of Materials Provided by Local Chronicle in Ancient Feudalism China

Abstract

Local chronicle is the popular in ancient classics of China, which amounts for the tenth of the total Chinese ancient classics. The editors of the local chronicle asserted that the local chronicle was reliable. Besides, the editing process of local chronicle need huge funds, and it was also regarded as one important achievement of the local officials, which stimulated the local officials to edit the contemporary local chronicle and reedit the previous local chronicle, so the local chronicle in the different regions often seems successive. Many researches were based on the local chronicles. However, the reliability of local chronicle is doubtful in the content and writing style. The paper investigates the editing process of local chronicle, in order to discover the shortcomings of the local chronicle and provide some warning for the researchers who use the local chronicle as the researching materials.