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Chang Qu

Eastern Jin historian from Shu who served the Cheng-Han state and, after its fall, wrote the Huayang Guozhi, a history and gazetteer of the southwest.

Also known as Zi Daojiang · Chang Daojiang

Chang Qu, courtesy name Daojiang, came from a leading family of Jiangyuan in Shu commandery. He served the Cheng-Han state as a cavalier attendant in charge of historical writing. When the Jin general Huan Wen reached Chengdu in 347, the Book of Jin records that Chang Qu and the palace secretary Wang Gu urged the ruler Li Shi to surrender. Under Jin he drew on his earlier writings and local records to compile the Huayang Guozhi, covering the geography, history and notable people of Liang, Yi and Ning provinces from antiquity to 347. It is one of the oldest surviving local histories and a basic source for early Sichuan. His history of the Cheng-Han, the Han zhi shu, is lost.

Life and times

  1. UnknownBornJinCheng-Han cavalier attendant who urged Li Shi to surrender to Jin in 347, then wrote the Huayang Guozhi under Jin (c. 348–354)
  2. UnknownDied

Works

  1. Literature · Prose13
    1. Records of the Lands South of Mount HuaJinChang Qu's Eastern Jin history of Ba, Shu and the southwest, among the oldest gazetteers
    2. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of BaJin
    3. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of HanzhongJin
    4. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of ShuJin
    5. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of NanzhongJin
    6. +8 more
      1. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of Gongsun Shu and the Two Liu GovernorsJin
      2. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of Liu the Former RulerJin
      3. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of Liu the Later RulerJin
      4. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of the Great UnificationJin
      5. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of Li Te, Li Xiong, Li Shou and Li ShiJin
      6. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Eulogies of the Former Worthy Men and WomenJin
      7. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: Records of the Later WorthiesJin
      8. Records of the Lands South of Mount Hua: PostfaceJin
  2. Literature · Sayings1
    1. Seven Captures and Seven Releases of Meng HuoJinIdiom from the Han Jin Chunqiu: Meng Huo, captured and freed seven times, yields at last

Records

Urged Li Shi to surrender and wrote the Record of Huayang

347

The Jin History records that Wang Jia, Director of the Secretariat, and Chang Qu, Cavalier Attendant-in-ordinary, urged Li Shi of Cheng-Han to surrender to Jin. The preface of the Record of Huayang is signed Chang Qu of Jin and says the work ends in the third year of Yonghe (347), in twelve sections, and is titled Record of Huayang.

References (2)