Early Tang historian and official who first proposed the official histories of the preceding dynasties and led the compilation of the History of Zhou.
Mural guide
In an archive hall, tall wooden shelves hold scrolls and bound books with small tags, and one person climbs a ladder with their back turned; a long table in front holds an unrolled river map, a bronze lamp and a copper jug, with a city wall seen through the window.
Linghu Defen, a native of Huayuan in Yizhou, entered Tang service at the dynasty's founding and rose to Vice Minister of Rites and concurrent historiographer, enfeoffed first as baron and later as duke of Pengyang. He urged Emperor Gaozu to collect lost books and compile histories of the preceding dynasties; when Taizong renewed the order in 629 he and Cen Wenben took charge of the history of the Northern Zhou, the present History of Zhou, while he coordinated work on the Liang, Chen, Qi and Sui histories. He later headed the eighteen compilers of the History of Jin and, under Gaozong, supervised the national history and the Treatises of the Five Dynasties. He died in 666 aged 84, posthumously named Xian.
Court diarist, vice minister of rites and Rector of the Imperial Academy
From 618 to 666, Tang
The Old Tang History says Linghu Defen was made a court diarist in 618 and later held posts including palace library secretary, vice minister of rites, vice director of the Palace Library, Rector of the Imperial Academy and minister of imperial sacrifices. He was sent out as prefect of Yazhou and removed over an official matter. He was first enfeoffed as Baron of Pengyang and gradually raised to duke. He retired in 662 and died at home in 666, aged eighty-four, with the posthumous name Xian.
The Old Tang History says Linghu Defen told Emperor Gaozu that after the turmoil of the Zhou and Sui the written records were incomplete and asked that histories of the earlier dynasties be compiled, which was approved. In 629 Emperor Taizong again ordered histories compiled, and he wrote the Book of Zhou with the palace librarian Cen Wenben. Fang Xuanling then asked that he take up the Book of Jin; of the eighteen who worked on it, all put him first, and its conventions were mostly set by him. In the Yonghui years, as vice minister of rites and scholar of the Hongwen Institute, he oversaw the national history and the Treatises of the Five Dynasties.
Northern and Southern
Sui
Tang
Literature · Prose