In fact, unofficial history is not the fabricated historical materials that many people imagine, but the anecdotes of some historical figures, and in the eyes of many historians, unofficial history's research on history is helpful. You know, when the official history is insufficient, unofficial history can make up for it. Do you know what Confucius said in those days? Spring and autumn? How is this modified?
For example, the book Miscellanies of the Government and the People since Yan Jian is a very famous unofficial history, but although this book is said to be unofficial history, his credibility is the highest among all historical materials at that time, surpassing the so-called official history. Therefore, whether the historical materials are unofficial history or not lies not in its credibility, but in whether the historical materials were written by the government or those great scholars.
You know, throughout the ages, there are many things in the official history that are afraid to write, but unofficial history has no such worry. The most typical one is the history of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. At that time, many historians of Nanming, which was established after the demise of the Ming Dynasty, dared not describe it truly. Therefore, if we want to study this history in detail, we can only rely on unofficial history.
Moreover, what is the basis of most of China's so-called ancient history? Official history? Mainly, most of them refer to those ancient historians. Because those ancient historians have always been biased against unofficial history, but the actual situation is that the so-called official history is not very correct, and unofficial history is not very wild.
For example, Li Shimin tampered with history. Because his throne was robbed, he adapted something that influenced him. So unofficial history is not so unreliable. Many times, unofficial history is more reliable than the official history.