In the 5th century, the historical text
Records of the Three Kingdoms, originally written by
Chen Shou in the 3rd century, was annotated by
Pei Songzhi (372-451), who was born in present-day
Yuncheng,
Shanxi. After leaving his native land, he became the Gentleman of Texts under the
Liu Song Dynasty, and was given the assignment of editing the book, which was completed in 429. This became the official history of the
Three Kingdoms period, under the title
Sanguozhi zhu (
zhu meaning "notes"). He went about providing detailed explanations to some of the geography and other elements mentioned in the original. More importantly, he made corrections to the work, in consultation with records he collected of the period. In regard to historical events and figures, as well as Chen Shou's opinions, he added his own commentary. From his broad research, he was able to create a history which was relatively complete, without many of the loose ends of the original. Some of the added material was colourful and of questionable authenticity, possibly fictional. All the additional material made the book close to twice the length of the original.