The Book of Jin is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420[1]. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellorFang Xuanling as the lead editor, drawing mostly from official documents left from earlier archives. A few essays in volumes 1, 3, 54 and 80 were composed by the Tang dynasty's Emperor Taizong himself. However, the contents of the Book of Jin included not only the history of the Jin dynasty, but also that of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, which was contemporaneous with the Eastern Jin dynasty.
^The annals of Sima Yi, Sima Shi and Sima Zhao and the biographies of their contemporaries recorded events from their lifetimes before the Jin era. For some, including Sima Yi and Sima Fu, this includes the end of the Eastern Han dynasty.