Antiquities of Themiclesia

Antiquities of Themiclesia (震旦故事記, tjerh-tanh-kas-dzrje′-kjeh) is a history of Themiclesia written by Nem-njing Kah (南仁顧) and Gje, Baron of Mjen (閔侯忌), presented to the Sungh court in 432. The work purports to recount the founding of Themiclesia and its history up to the end of the Tsjinh dynasty. However, the modern edition of the book seems to have been redacted several times, by editors with different objectives.

Name

The title of the book, tjerh-tanh-kas-dzrje′-kjeh (震旦故事記) or Antiquities of Themiclesia, is frequently shortened to kas-dzrje′-kjeh (故事記) or Antiquities.

Contents

In most editions, Antiquities is divided into 216 volumes, of which 200 are devoted to biographies and the remainder to family trees, lists, chronicles, and miscellaneous texts.

Analysis

Name

It is generally accepted that the term tjerh-tanh here refers to the geographic region that Maverican priests defined as north of Norfeld, even though it is a corrupted transliteration of "Tsjinh", the city and polity that ruled southern Themiclesian for many centuries; according to this view, the title should be understood to indicate the history of the region called Themiclesia, rather than that of a country called Themiclesia. Historians agree that the title of the book openly refers to the Gosagi, a Menghean work that may partly date to the 8th c. BCE. The Gosagi describes the mythical origins of the world, providing that nature and humanity were created by deities and purporting to record their histories up to the 8th century.

See also

• Themiclesia