"Sushui Jiwen" is a collection of quotation notes compiled by Sima Guang, a historian in the Northern Song Dynasty. It is named because the author was a native of Sushui Township, Xia County, Shaanxi Province (known as "Mr. Sushui" in the world). This book is not a complete manuscript. It was originally a compilation of historical materials accumulated by Sima Guang in order to write the "Postscript of Zizhi Tongjian" (a continuation of "Zi Zhi Tongjian" Historical Events of the Song Dynasty). It was later compiled, named and circulated by people in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The content of the book begins with Taizu of the Song Dynasty and ends with Shenzong of the Song Dynasty. It mainly records national affairs and court regulations, occasionally touches on personal anecdotes, and covers the military and political gains and losses and social features of the Six Dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty. Its most distinctive feature is rigorous textual research, with each record indicating the source of the information. If the source is occasionally forgotten, it is marked "don't remember what was passed down", which embodies the historian's scholarly attitude of "belief and evidence".
This book is of extremely high historical value. It was heavily used when compiling "Records of Shenzong" during the Yuanyou period. Li Tao's "Xu Zi Zhi Tong Jian Chang Bian" and other later historical books also quoted a large number of its contents. Although some records have caused controversy (for example, the descendants of the Lu family once begged to destroy the edition), and the number of volumes is different (there are versions of 2 volumes, 10 volumes, 16 volumes, etc.), It has always been regarded as one of the core documents for studying the history of the Northern Song Dynasty. The revised version compiled by Chung Hwa Book Company in 1989 was based on the 16-volume version, with missing articles appended, and became the current version.
