This book describes how the Chinese government, between about 620 and
850, developed an official organization designed to select, process, and
edit material for inclusion in official historical works eventually to
be incorporated in an official history of the dynasty. The first part
gives a detailed account of the establishment of the official apparatus
designed to produce a record of the T'ang dynasty, which would remain
standard for more than a millennium, with some analysis of the
individuals who served in these offices. The second part gives all
available detail about the various works produced by this apparatus,
divided among its various genres, and listing all known titles, their
authorship, and their relationships to one another. The third part shows
the cumulative process by which a dynastic history came into being, and
the way in which we can detect various elements in the completed
history.