Shoku Nihongi

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The Shoku Nihongi (続日本紀?) is an imperially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the Six National Histories, coming directly after the Nihon Shoki and followed by Nihon Kōki. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as the primary editors. It is one of the most important primary historical sources for information about Japan's Nara period.

The work covers the 95-year period from the beginning of Emperor Mommu's reign in 697 until the 10th year of Emperor Kammu's reign in 791 spanning nine imperial reigns. It was completed in 797 AD.[1]

The text is forty volumes in length. It is primarily written in kanbun, a Japanese form of classical Chinese, as was normal for formal Japanese texts at the time.[2] However, a number of "senmyō" 宣命 or "imperial edicts" contained within the text are written in a script known as "senmyō-gaki" which preserves particles and verb endings phonographically.[3]


  1. ^ Bender, Ross. "Performative Loci of Shoku Nihongi Edicts, 749-770". Retrieved 2008-05-25. 
  2. ^ Rikkokushi (『六国史』), by Tarō Sakamoto (坂本太郎) (Yoshikawa Kobunkan (吉川弘文館), 1970, republished 1994)
  3. ^ Motosawa, Masafumi (2007-03-28). "Senmyō". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2012-02-27. 

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