青史

Japanese

Kanji in this term
青	史

Noun

青史 (hiragana せいし, romaji seishi)

1. a history book

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
青史

Etymology

青 (green) + 史 (history)

In ancient times, bamboo strips were sewn together to form books. The books were used to record events. Each strip would contain a single column of characters. The "green" in the word refers to the fact that the bamboo strips are green before they are cured and sewn into books. Later on, this word simply came to refer generically to history books.

Noun

青史 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin qīngshǐ)

1. annals of history; history books
2. (archaic) bamboo books which were used to record historical events

An example of a bamboo book

Derived terms

• trad. 青史傳名, simpl. 青史传名

References

• Bamboo#Bamboo_slip on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Bamboo#Bamboo_slip
• (Can we date this quote?) Guanzhong Luo, Annotated Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Chapter 9, page 116, note 3 (in Mandarin), ISBN 957911305X:
• "青史" (in Mandarin), Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典). URL accessed on 2008-12-22.
• 2007, Hanyu Da Cidian 3.0 (in Mandarin), Hong Kong: Commercial Press, ISBN 9789620702778:
• 1985, Jingrong (ed.) Wu, The Pinyin CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY (in Mandarin/English), Beijing, Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, ISBN 0471867969:
• "青史" (in Mandarin/English), Dr. eye. URL accessed on 2008-12-22.