Notes of Wang Wenzheng

A short notebook from the early Song court. Wang Su, son of the famous chief minister Wang Dan, posthumously called Wenzheng, set down what he had heard and seen of the first reigns of the Song dynasty: the founding emperor Taizu, the court of Taizong and Zhenzong, the habits of great ministers, edicts and ceremonies, appointments and rivalries, and small revealing anecdotes about men who shaped the dynasty. Brief, informal and first-hand, it is the kind of source historians love and general readers rarely see. This complete new English translation gives the whole notebook in clear modern English. Names are given in modern pinyin, offices and titles are rendered plainly, and the narrative runs as continuous English prose, so the book can be read straight through by anyone curious about China's past, not only by specialists.