The Eastern Wei (東魏) dynasty was ruled by the military officers of the Hsien-pi (鮮卑) tribe, led by Kao Huan (高歡) who had won a battle at the end of the Northern Wei (北魏) dynasty and supported the puppet emperor of the Wei. When Kao Cho'ng (高澄), son of Kao Huan's, got to rise to a high rank, and made peace with the Liang (梁) after the war, the political situation of the dynasty entred on its new phase. Under the young emperor Kao Cho'ng, advised by Tsui Hsien (崔暹), member of a noble family in Po-ting (博陵), Chinese noblemen were picked out to go on a goodwill mission to the Liang. This mission was rewarded with good fruits. The Hsien-pi tribe wielded much power during Kao Huan's lifetime, while Chinese influence had begun to reassert itself by supporting two brothers, Kao Ch'eng and Kao Yang (高洋). As soon as his sons came into power after Kao Huan's death, Chinese aristocrats took the chance of making their sons succeed to the throne one after another, and at last they succeeded in establishing a new dynasty of Northern Chi (北斎) in A. D. 550. They tried to take the helm of new dynasty, expelling the military officers of the Hsien-pi tribe from the court. As one of the policies of the new goverment the Wei-shu (魏書) was compiled in 554 by one of hese officials named Wai Shou (魏收) under the patronage of emperor Wen-hsuan (文宣帝). The close examination on the circumstances of the formation of the Wei-shu and the construciton of the Biographies (魏書列傳) will throw some light on the political situation of the early years of the Northern Chi dynasty.