Chapter 3 Section 3 The third feature of local chronicles: informativeness

The main task of local chronicles is to record facts and accumulate data.Many local chronicles are written by famous writers, and they are written in a moving manner.But it is different from literature.Local chronicles must accurately reflect the facts and never allow imagination and fiction.For example, "(Tongzhi) Zhuxi County Chronicles" (Hubei Zhuxi) Volume 16 Records of an aurora in 1862, this is a beautiful prose, and the location, time, orientation, process, and situation are very specific: "On the night of August 19th in the first year of Tongzhi, there was a star in the northeast that was as big as the moon and its color was like furnace iron. People couldn't look up. When it first came out, the sound was mournful and the light was shining. After a while, it fell to the north for several feet. It was about to fall and stop again. It shakes until it is in mid-air. Suddenly the silver vase breaks, and thousands of pearls are poured out. The sky is filled with colorful colors, and it is about a foot away from the ground before it disappears. After it disappears, I still feel that the rosy clouds are scattered, and the roof tiles are all bright."

Local chronicles only answer "what", not "why". Its task is not to expound theories or explore laws, which is its difference from general scientific works.Of course, it is impossible for people who write local chronicles not to have their own views on people and things.From the lines in the local chronicles, the editor's standpoint can be seen everywhere.For example, putting the emperor's instructions at the beginning of the volume, or describing a large number of women's "unmarried martyrdom" and so on, obviously intends to promote the feudal ethics, but its views are all run through in the selection of materials or the description of facts. It is rare for editors to stand up and make comments.Some rigorous editors also indicate the sources of the materials one by one for future generations to check.General scientific treatises organize materials and arrange chapters around one or two themes or central themes.The local chronicles are basically similar to the above-mentioned "Shandong Tongzhi", "Taiping County Chronicles", and "Chaoyi County Chronicles", which are divided into several categories, each category is relatively independent, and there is no central point running through them.Its layout principle is easy to find, which is the characteristic of information books.

Those who participated in compiling the local chronicles were all people who were familiar with the local conditions, just as Zhang Shu of the Qing Dynasty said: "The book compiled by the people of one township is more accurate and the theory is more detailed." 》) Due to the support of the government, the official revision of local chronicles can make use of official documents and archives that are not accessible to ordinary people, and can mobilize more manpower to carry out field investigations.Therefore, many records in local chronicles are based on first-hand information not found in other books, which are credible and have high data value.