Shitong

thumb|page=252|A page from a Ming dynasty printed edition of Shitong thumb|page=518|Pages from a copy of Shitong located in the Shanghai Library The Shitong (; lit. "Generality of Historiography" or "All about Historiography"), also translated into English as A Thorough Exploration in Historiography, is one of the first Chinese-language works specifically about the theories of history and a detailed examination of historiography. It is deemed to be "the first comprehensive work on historical criticism in any language." The text was compiled by Liu Zhiji between 708 and 710 during the Tang dyna