An Examination of the Reasons of Rewriting The History of the Jin Dynasty in the Early Tang Dynasty

The rewriting of The History of the Jin Dynasty is a large-scale academic project in the early Tang Dynasty (646).There was much controversy over the reasons of this official campaign.CHEN Yin-que thought that the Tang emperor attempted to sancify the imperial family and the origin of his ancestors by falsifying the history of the Jin Dynasty.LI Pei-dong held that a series of political events prompted Tang Taizong,the emperor,to defend himself,admonish the courtiers and at the same time acquire some inner comforts throuth the rewriting of the Jin history.But none of the interpretations are correct.Acrually The History of the Jin Dynasty was written in the early Tang Dynasty mostly because the former versions of theJin history had great deficiencies in contents,format and the selection of data,therefore could not meet the political needs of the early Tang Dynasty.According to the records of a Tang Historian Li Yan-shou,the rewriting of The History of the Jin Dynasty was originally conducted in 641