CHENG CH'IAO

born 1108, P'u-t'ien, Fukien Province, China died 1166, P'u-t'ien Pinyin Zheng Qiao great historian of the Sung period (960-1279). He wrote the T'ung chih ("General Treatises"), a famous institutional history of China from its beginnings down through the T'ang dynasty (618-907). In this work he discussed subjects such as philology, phonetics, and the development of families and clans, none of which had been systematically explored before. Cheng's method and style served as a model for many later historians.