Twenty-Four Histories
twenty-four Chinese official historical books
The Twenty-Four Histories, also known as the Orthodox Histories (正史; Zhèngshǐ), are a collection of official histories detailing the dynasties of China, from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century.
The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian established many conventions of the genre, though its form was not standardized until much later. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records, partly in order to establish its own link to the earliest times. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3,213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture.
The title Twenty-Four Histories dates from 1775, which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, the History of Ming was reworked and a complete set of the histories was produced.
History
The idea of compiling a collection of Chinese official histories have existed as the Three Kingdoms era, when the Three Histories consisted of Shiji, Book of Han, and Dongguan Hanji. Book of the Later Han would later gradually replace the Dongguan Hanji. After the Records of the Three Kingdoms appeared, it was soon tacked on to produce the Early Four Historiographies (前四史).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Twenty-Four Histories” is twenty-four Chinese official historical books. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Twenty-Four, Histories and twenty-four, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “twenty-four Chinese official historical books” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q175077. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1775.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Twenty-Four Histories” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.