Abstract:
Comparing and analyzing historical materials is an old but traditional means and also the most primary and most common means of history study. In editing The Investigation of the Two Capitals of the Tang Dynasty, Xu Song screened and amended historical materials based on related contents of The Chronicles of Chang’an. Moreover, he comparatively rescrutinized all historical materials, making his book a great synthetic work of the kind for study of Chang’an and Luoyang in times of the Sui and the Dynasty and one of the primary sources for study of the history of the Sui and the Tang Dynasty. Xu’s accomplishments benefitted to a great extent from successful use of the means of comparing and analyzing historical materials, whose methodological significance doesn’t fall short of the work itself. This calls for enough attention and affirmation.
