Wu Zhen (historian)

Wu Zhen
Traditional Chinese	吳縝
Simplified Chinese	吴缜
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wú Zhěn Wade–Giles Wu2 Chên3
Wu Tingzhen
Traditional Chinese	吳廷珍
Simplified Chinese	吴廷珍
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wú Tíngzhēn Wade–Giles Wu2 T'ing2-chên1

In this Chinese name, the family name is Wu.

Wu Zhen (fl. 11th century), courtesy name Tingzhen, was a Song dynasty historian from Chengdu who wrote 2 books enumerating mistakes found in New Book of Tang and Historical Records of the Five Dynasties, both history books by Ouyang Xiu (Ouyang had several co-authors with New Book of Tang). As pointed out in the 18th-century Siku Quanshu, Wu Zhen was "inclined to criticise for the sake of criticism".

Works

Although he apparently wrote other works (including a monograph on the Five Dynasties period Later Liang dynasty), Wu Zhen's only 2 surviving books are:

• Xin Tang Shu Jiumiu (新唐書紏謬; "Correcting Mistakes in the New Book of Tang"), published in 1089, in 20 chapters. It enumerated 400 mistakes of the New Book of Tang.
• Wudai Shiji Zuanwu (五代史記纂誤; "Compendium of Errors in the Historical Records of the Five Dynasties"), published c. 1090, in 3 chapters, later lost but partly recovered in the 18th century. It enumerated 200 mistakes of the Historical Records of the Five Dynasties, but the recovered version only contained 112.

Both were published after Ouyang Xiu's death in 1072. In the first book's preface, Wu Zhen blasted the New Book of Tang as the worst official history book ever written.