Shiben
| Shiben | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shiben title page in Small Seal Script
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 世本 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Generation Origins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 世本 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 세본 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 世本 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | せほん | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Shìběn |
| Wade–Giles | Shih-pen |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Sai3bun5 |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | Sìpún |
| Middle Chinese | |
| Middle Chinese | Syejpwon |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter-Sagart | Ḷap-spˤə[n]ʔ |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| McCune–Reischauer | Sepon |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Hepburn | Sehon |
The (2nd century BCE) Shiben 世本 or Book of Origins was the earliest Chinese encyclopedia of origins, which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period (771-476 BCE), explanations of the origin of clan names, and records of legendary and historical inventors.
The title combines the common Chinese words shì "generation; epoch; hereditary; world" and běn "root; stem; origin; fundament; wooden tablet".
The personal name of Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 627-650) was Shimin 世民, and owing to the strict naming taboo against writing an emperor's name, the Shiben 世本 title was changed to Xiben 系本 or Daiben 代本 (with the shi near-synonyms of xi 系 "system; series; family" and dai 代 "substitute; generation; dynasty").
Although this Chinese title is usually transliterated Shiben, Shih-pen, etc., English translations include Book of Origins (Needham and Wang 1954: 51; Hume 1955: 279) and Generational Records (Theobald 2010).
The origins of the Shiben text are obscure. The earliest references to it date from the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). The (111 CE) Book of Han bibliography section (Yiwenzhi ) has a list of Warring States period (475-221 BCE) texts including the Shiben in 15 volumes (pian). The (5th century) Book of the Later Han says Sima Qian used the text as a source for his (109 BCE) Records of the Grand Historian (Needham and Wang 1954: 52). Several Han scholars wrote commentaries to the Shiben, namely Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE), Song Jun 宋均 (d. 76 CE), Ying Shao (140-206), and Song Zhong 宋衷 (fl. 192-210), which was the most widely copied in later editions.
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