Chapter 22 Section 3 Development of Local Chronicles

Although Zhang Xuecheng in the Qing Dynasty was revered as the founder of local chronicles, for him, local chronicles were only a branch of historiography, not an independent discipline. In 1924, the 18th issue of the 21st volume of the "Oriental Magazine" published by the Commercial Press published Liang Qichao's article "The Total Achievements of Scholars in the Qing Dynasty in Collation of Old Learning - Local Chronicles" (this article is "China's Nearly Three Hundred Years of China" written by Liang Qichao. A chapter in "Academic History"), this is the first time that the subject concept of "local chronicle" was put forward.This article made a systematic summary of traditional local chronicles, demonstrated and established Zhang Xuecheng's position in the history of local chronicles.Since then, local annals as an independent subject has been among the academic forest.

Subsequently, a number of monographs on the theory of local chronicles appeared. Li Taifen's "Local Chronicles", published in early 1935, was the earliest monograph named after "local chronicles".At the end of the same year, "A General Theory of Local Chronicles" by Fu Zhenlun, which systematically expounded the theory of local chronicles, was published.After that, there was Gan Pengyun's "Fang Zhi Shang", which was a compilation of the manuscripts and letters that the author participated in and guided the revision of the local chronicles for many years; It was revised based on the basics, "The content is actually a general presentation of the gist and method of modern new local chronicles...so the title is "Revised Chronicles"" (see the author's preface).There are also Shou Pengfei's "Fang Zhi Tong Yi", Wu Zongci's essay collection "Xiu Zhi Cong Lun" and so on.In addition, some papers on local chronicles were published in magazines at that time.These treatises marked the beginning of the study of local chronicles with scientific methods.

Local chroniclers in the Republic of China highly respected Zhang Xuecheng, and most of them took Zhang Xuecheng's theory as the starting point for their research.However, the times were different after all, and they did not stick to Zhang's theory, and put forward many new insights.For example, Li Taifen tried to explain local chronicles from the perspective of evolution. He believed that the essence of local chronicles is to "record and study the evolution of human beings." Therefore, he advocated that local chronicles should add the evolutionary history of human beings before written records.Some scholars raised objections to "local chronicles belonging to history". Fu Zhenlun said: "local chronicles are books that describe the geography and historical events of a region"; "local chronicles have their own characteristics. They are all different." Li Jinxi also said that local chronicles are "historical and geographical, and they have both", so the compilation of local chronicles should strive to "historicize topography and historical topography."

Local chroniclers of the Republic of China criticized the various ills of the old annals, and believed that the compilation of annals should not be bound by the old genre everywhere, but should reflect the spirit of contemporary democracy and science, and should increase the content related to the national economy and people's livelihood, especially the economic content.For example, Gan Pengyun pointed out that the annals "should be detailed in the civil affairs, and the democratic people should be the most important thing." Shou Pengfei said: "The local annals should be written from the standpoint of the common people, so as to express their sufferings. Gai Zhi was written for the local people, so it For the sake of...it is beneficial to the local customs and people's livelihood." Li Taifen clearly stated: "Social economy should be the backbone of Quanzhi today... at least modern social economy must be fully incorporated." He said that the old annals are important to No consideration is given to the social and economic conditions. If the cultivation of the will is still like this, it is better not to cultivate.Li Taifen also advocated that contemporary chroniclers must have basic knowledge of various disciplines, "be able to explain products with scientific terms, and analyze them in detail with scientific methods." progressing with the times.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the large-scale revision of local chronicles has raised many new and urgent theoretical issues for the local chronicles, such as how to re-evaluate the old local chronicles and old local chronicles under the guidance of Marxism?What must be criticized and what should be inherited?How to compile new local chronicles under the guidance of Marxism?How does the new local chronicle reflect the characteristics of the region and the times?As well as the nature, function, style, category design, compilation method, quality standards, etc. of the new journal.Around these topics, the local chronicles have carried out extensive discussions, and have published thousands of articles and a large number of monographs.For example, Fu Zhenlun rewrote his old book "A General Theory of Chinese Local Chronicles" into "Chinese Local Chronicles", Liu Guanglu's "Outline of Chinese Local Chronicles", Xue Hong's "Introduction to Chinese Local Chronicles", Lin Yanjing's "Summary of Chinese Local Chronicles", and "Introduction to Local Chronicles" edited by Xinxia (a liberal arts textbook jointly compiled by eight colleges and universities), "A Brief History of Chinese Local Chronicles" by Peng Jingzhong, "General Introduction to Local Chronicles" by Cang Xiuliang, "Chinese Local Chronicles" by Wang Deheng, etc. .Also published a collection of papers by Fu Zhenlun, Zhu Shijia and many other contemporary local chroniclers.

In addition, since the 1980s alone, dozens of academic symposiums have been held in the local chronicles circle.And created a local chronicle review activity.After one or a batch of similar chronicles are completed, local leaders, local chronicles editors, scholars and experts sit together to express their opinions and jointly comment on its strengths and weaknesses.There are not only small councils convened for one or two chronicles, but also large and guiding councils like the "National Provincial Chronicles Review Council" and "Ten City and Municipal Chronicles Review Councils".This is a new and effective way to promote the experience of compiling records and discuss the theory of compiling records.

At the same time, the local chronicles of New China have walked out of the study of scholars along with the new local chronicles.Local history has never been as popular as it is today.It has a national professional journal "Chinese Local Chronicles", and each province, city, and autonomous region has one or two professional journals.He edited and published a special dictionary of local chronicles and "A Survey of Chinese Local Chronicles" reflecting the achievements of various aspects of local chronicles in my country from 1949 to 1987.The Beijing Library, which has the largest collection of local chronicles in the country, has established a local chronicle documentation center and opened a specialized reading room for local chronicles, which is open to the public.Research courses, training courses, and workshops are held across the country and in all provinces and regions to impart local annals knowledge and train personnel in rotation.More than a dozen colleges and universities including Nankai University and Renmin University of China have set up local chronicles courses, or set up college courses and advanced courses to train local chronicles and theoretical research talents for the development of local chronicles.

As more and more people read and refer to local chronicles from all walks of life, the pace of sorting out old chronicles must also be accelerated.This endows local annals with a new mission, which is to expand from the study of how to compile local annals to the study of how to make local annals more accessible. In 1935, in his "General Theory of Chinese Local Chronicles", Fu Zhenlun created two special chapters, "The Collection and Arrangement of Local Chronicles", the first and second chapters. Firstly, the meaning and method of sorting out old chronicles were regarded as an important part of local chronicles. Some of them are systematically discussed.At the same time, the field of sorting out old records is also showing an increasingly prosperous scene.

In the sorting out of old chronicles since the Republic of China, the most commendable achievement is the relatively thorough cleaning of the existing local chronicles across the country. Although the local chronicles of our country appeared very early, they were only appendages of geography or history for a long time, not an independent discipline, so the special catalog of local chronicles came into being very late.How many treasures there are in the great treasure house of local chronicles was not clear until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.The earliest surviving monograph recording the collection of local chronicles is Miao Quansun's "Library Local Chronicles of the Ministry of Qing Sciences", which was published in the second volume of "Gu Xue Hui Kan" in 1913.Miao Quansun was a well-known scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and the founder of the Jingshi Library (now the Beijing Library).This list of local chronicles is a catalog of 1,676 volumes in total, which is a catalog of chronicles collected in the Qing cabinet library and handed over to the Beijing Normal University Library.In the following decades, the more important collection units, such as the Forbidden City, Peking Library, Peking University Library, Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion, etc., in response to the needs of the society, have compiled catalogs of their own local chronicles and published them to the world.There are also more and more regional local chronicles.Especially after the 1980s, all provinces, cities, and counties investigated the existing and lost chronicles of the region as thoroughly as possible in order to compile new annals.Most of the provinces have newly compiled or recompiled the catalogs of the local chronicles of the province, which contain many new discoveries in this survey.

A considerable part of the table of contents is accompanied by a synopsis.Compared with the bibliographic catalogs that only introduce the author, volume number, compilation and publication date, they have been more researched and are more favored by users.The earliest summary catalog of local chronicles in modern times is Qu Xuanying's "Category of Local Chronicles" Collection A.It narrates the origin, introduces categories, analysis style, comments on the gains and losses of more than 600 local chronicles of eight provinces in the private collection of Ren Fengbao, the owner of "Tianchun Garden" in Tianjin. What is especially rare is that it also points out the special historical materials in the chronicles.Since then, there have been Zhang Hongting's "Longyou Fangzhilu" (a "Ganningqingfangzhikao", first published in 1932, and revised and republished in 1934), Hong Huanchun's many years of masterpiece "Zhejiang Local Chronicles" (reprinted in 1984 and renamed " "Zhejiang Local Chronicles").In recent years, there are Luo Zhaoping's "Tianyige Local Chronicles", "Hebei Local Chronicles Summary" edited by Lai Xinxia, ​​Wang Guiyun's "Shandong Oriental Chronicles Collection", Zhao Mingqi's "Xuzhou Local Chronicles", and Henan Local Chronicles. The Committee's "Summary of Henan Local Chronicles", "Summary of Guangxi Chronicles" from Guangxi Tongzhi Museum, and "Guangdong Local Chronicles Essential Records" by Li Mo are all useful reference books to assist in reading chronicles.

This large catalog of local chronicles saves people a lot of trouble searching, but they are scattered and partial after all.It is not an easy task to find out how many chronicles there are in the whole country.The pioneer in this area is Zhu Shijia, a local chronicler.He first investigated dozens of book collection units at home and abroad with his own strength, and found out the compilers, compilation time, editions and collection locations of more than 5,800 local chronicles, and compiled the "Comprehensive Records of Chinese Local Chronicles", which was published in 1934.This is the first census of local chronicles in my country's history. In 1958, Zhu Shijia published a supplementary edition of "Comprehensive Records" on the basis of re-investigation.Since then, the Beijing Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has expanded the scope of investigation to 190 units due to the need to sort out astronomical data.Almost at the same time, Taiwan published the "Joint Catalog of Public Collections of Taiwan Chronicles" in 1960; in 1985, it published its updated version "Catalogue of Public Collections of Taiwan Chronicles".Now, according to these two joint catalogs across the Taiwan Strait, we can roughly understand the number of existing local chronicles in China and where they are kept. The ancients studied local chronicles, but because of their lack of knowledge and knowledge, they could only make some textual research or comments on individual chronicles.With these many catalogs, especially the joint catalogue, it is possible for us to make a macroscopic overall analysis of the local chronicles, and it is possible to organize the old chronicles on a large scale in a planned way.Of course, it is much more convenient to find and use local chronicles at ordinary times. After the Revolution of 1911, many scholars are still fond of compiling old annals.According to statistics, there are more than 100 kinds of ancient local chronicles compiled in the period of the Republic of China alone.Since then, there have been "Yuanyi Tongzhi" edited by Zhao Wanli, "Analysis of Jinzhi Collection" by the Rare Book Group of Beijing Library, "Kuodizhi Collection" by He Cijun, and "Shanxi Ancient Fangzhi Collection" published in 1984 by Li Yumin. ", a collection of 236 lost texts of old chronicles in Shanxi Province, all of which are relatively important new works. The most important achievement of the collection of old chronicles in this century is Zhang Guogan's "Ancient Chinese Local Chronicles".This book was first serialized in the "Yu Gong" magazine from 1935 to 1936, and was revised and supplemented by the author. It was not finalized until 1962 and published by Zhonghua Book Company.With 40 years of skill, the author has compiled and recorded all the titles, lost texts, prefaces and postscripts and related comments of all local chronicles that have been seen in ancient books before the Yuan Dynasty, a total of more than 2,000 kinds.This is the first time to clean up all the clues left by ancient Chinese anonymity.At the same time, it is also a bibliography of ancient local chronicles compiled on the basis of compilation.If you look at it together with the "Joint Catalog" which records the existing chronicles, you can have a clear and comprehensive impression of the achievements of my country's local chronicles in the past two thousand years. Collation and reprinting of old records is also an important way to sort out old records.Especially in the past half century, most of the more important chronicles have published new photocopies.For example, Zhonghua Book Company's "Song and Yuan Local Chronicles" compiled all existing Song and Yuan local chronicles at home and abroad; The Continuation of Selected Periodicals of Local Chronicles of the Ming Dynasty in Ge Zang, which photocopied 216 of the 271 Ming Zhis currently stored in Tianyi Pavilion twice; Bibliography and Literature Publishing House, with the assistance of Beijing Library, edited and printed the "Rare Chinese Local Chronicles Series Collected in Japan"; China The Library of the Academy of Sciences selected its collections to compile "Rare Chinese Local Chronicles", which was published by China Bookstore; Published by Literature Publishing House.The "Category Series" of Taiwan Chengwen Publishing House has selected and printed more than 2,000 kinds of local chronicles of the past dynasties; Meet with readers one after another. With the development of printing technology, many other publishing institutions, academic institutions and journal editing institutions have also sorted out and reprinted many old journals.From 1911 to the present, including both sides of the Taiwan Strait, there have been thousands of old chronicles reprinted in various ways such as lithography, photocopying, and typography.Photocopying can maintain the original appearance of old journals to the greatest extent, and many typeset copies have been carefully collated, segmented, and punctuated to make them easier for modern people to read.The reprinting of old annals not only protects ancient books and prevents them from being destroyed and scattered, but also enables many rare books and secret books to get out of the library and get along with ordinary people day and night, which brings great convenience to the research work. In addition, the road of sorting out old annals pioneered by Gu Yanwu has now become a broad road.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many production and research departments compiled various special materials such as astronomy, geography, products, and water conservancy in local chronicles according to the needs of national construction and scientific research, so that local chronicles can be used in my country's economic and cultural construction. play an increasing role.The compilation of thematic materials has become one of the most important ways to develop old journal materials.The results in this area, and the examples of how these compilations have worked in a variety of industries and disciplines, are overwhelming. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, sorting out old annals and compiling new annals were included in the national plan, making it shift from the scattered work of individual scholars and individual units to a planned division of labor and collaboration.Local chroniclers in New China are trying to open up new horizons both in the theory of local annals and in the practice of compiling new chronicles and sorting out old ones.