A Concise Review of the Non-official Biographies Cited in Interpretations to Chronicles of the Three

Pei Songzhi, a scholar writing when Emperors from the Liu family were on the throne of State of Song in the Southern Dynasties, cited large quantities of nonofficial biographies in interpreting Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, which mirrored contemporary social circumstances in different ways. Formally spearking, these nonofficial biographies were different from historical ones because they were independent of historical works with liberal ideas, short passage and flexible and diverse forms. This only indicates that Chinese classical biography literature ushered into a new era of development in time of the Wei and the Jin dynasty. From a perspective of artistic orgin, these nonofficial biographies succeeded the tradition of historical biography established by Records of the Historian and carried it forward by portraying the image of the biographical figure with details and conduct, with detailed psychological description and with dark color of romance and affection. Thus these nonofficial biographies are of rather high value in history and in literature for they made up for Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms and made those historical figures individualistic.