Chapter 13 Section 6: "Drafts of Qing History" with Changing Situation and Old Standpoint

"Drafts of Qing History", written by Zhao Erxun and others.The book has 529 volumes (536 volumes in the first printed version), including 25 volumes of Benji, 135 volumes of Chronicles (142 volumes in the first printed version), 53 volumes of tables, and 316 volumes of biography.Based on rich historical materials, the book comprehensively and detailedly describes the characters, historical events, and regulations of the Qing Dynasty. After the Revolution of 1911, the Qing government was forced to abdicate. In 1914, the Beijing government established the Museum of Qing History, appointing Zhao Erxun as the director and Miao Quansun as the chief editor. Miao died in 1919 and was succeeded by Ke Shaomin.Under it, there are editors, assistant editors and recruiters, and there are 80 or 90 scholars who participated in the history writing.At that time, the warlords were fighting, the political situation was changing, funds were insufficient, and the progress of the compilation work was sluggish, so it was always difficult to finalize the book.Later, deterred by the rapid development of the revolutionary situation, with the support of the Beiyang warlords, Yuan Jinkai presided over the publication, and Jin Liang served as the proofreader. In 1927, the undecided draft was hurriedly printed.

"Drafts of Qing History" is based on a lot of historical materials.For example, "Records of Qing Dynasty", Jiang Liangqi's "Donghua Record", Wang Xianqian's "Donghua Record", Zhu Shoupeng's "Guangxu Donghua Record" and "Xuantong Zhengji" are the basis for writing this record. "Da Qing Hui Dian", "Da Qing Hui Dian Cases", "Tong Kao of Qing Documents" and Liu Jinzao's "Tong Kao of Qing Xu Wen Wen" are the basis for writing the chronicles. "Biography of Qing History", "Leizheng of Southern Qi", "Biography of Stele", "Biography of Continued Stele" and various essay collections are the basis for writing biographies.Most of these documents and materials on which the history was compiled in those years are still intact today, and can be read cross-referenced with the "Drafts of Qing History".In comparison, the "Drafts of Qing History" has been sorted and refined after all, and is the most concise.

Due to the centralized compilation of important historical materials of the Qing Dynasty, the "Manuscripts of Qing History" is still a basic reference book for studying or studying Qing history.However, its errors and shortcomings are also very serious.Although this book was compiled during the period of the Republic of China, most of its authors were old men of the Qing Dynasty. They had serious restoration ideas and stubbornly stood on the position of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. Anti-Qing figures and historical events are all denigrated. For example, all descendants and survivors of the Ming Dynasty who fought against the Qing Dynasty are called "bandits" in the book, and even the national hero Zheng Chenggong is also called a "sea bandit".In particular, they wantonly slandered the Revolution of 1911 and the Peasant Uprising, slandered the Wuchang Uprising as "rebellion by the revolutionary party" and "rebellion by soldiers and bandits", attacked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan, and said that "China's peril is a sign of this".For those who died in the early years of the Republic of China, the survivors of the Qing Dynasty only wrote about Jiazi in the books, and did not use the records of the Republic of China. The mistakes in their standpoints and viewpoints were very serious. Another serious flaw in the "Drafts of Qing History" is that it is ignorant of the general trend of world development and talks about history in an isolated and one-sided way. other information.Restricted by the editor's stubbornly conservative political stance and narrow vision, the whole book turns a blind eye to, and does not reflect, the changes in the international situation and the vigorous rise of domestic progressive forces.The deeds of the ruling group in the Qing Dynasty were also concealed as much as possible, which damaged the authenticity and comprehensiveness of historical materials.As for technical problems such as repetitive and confusing notes, lack of context, etc., there are many places in the book, and it is difficult to list them one by one.

The book is also worthy of recognition, mainly because its style is not restricted by old historical conventions, adapts to the social development of the Qing Dynasty, and adds new examples.For example, "Tongjiaozhi" and "Bangjiaozhi" were not found in previous histories. "Tongzhi" also includes new things such as railways, ships, telegraphs, and postal services that appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. The "New Election" article is listed in "Election Chronicles", which is also a newly added article to adapt to the characteristics of the times.The chronology of various ministers in the book, the "Chronology of the Fan Department" and "Chronology of Engagement" are also compiled in a practical and convenient manner. As far as the analysis of the various parts of the "Drafts of Qing History" is concerned, Zhi and Table are more useful, while the Chronicle is brief, and Biographies are the worst.

"Drafts of Qing History" began to be printed in August 1927, and it was completely printed in the summer of 1928, with a total of 1,100 copies printed.People in the history museum found that the printed book was inconsistent with the original manuscript, and it turned out that it was secretly changed by Jin Liang before going to press.Generally speaking, most of the biographies that have been secretly edited are from the Guangxu and Xuantong dynasties, and most of the contents are from "The Scholars" and "Wenyuan".What is especially important is that for Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei, the Museum of History originally planned not to publish biographies for the time being, but Jin Liang combined the manuscripts of their biographies into one volume and compiled them into Biography Volume 260, and attached the story of Zhang Biao to the biography of Zhang Xun , and the biographies of Lao Naixuan and Shen Zengzhi originally placed in this volume were merged into the previous volume.In addition, the "Preface to Yiwenzhi" was cut and divided, which lost its original meaning.After discovering the problem, the History Museum replaced the more important ones, corrected the job title list at the beginning of the volume, and deleted the "School Records" privately written by Jin Liang, so that the problem of plagiarism can be slightly corrected.However, Jin Liang had already smuggled 400 copies of the printed books to Shenyang, and the "Drafts of Qing History" was concerned with the difference between the internal version and the external version.Later, under the auspices of the Japanese imperialists and the puppet Manchukuo, Jin Liang reprinted the book based on the outside of the customs, adding the biographies of Chen Hongju, Zhu Yun, and Weng Fanggang, and deleting the eight-line logarithmic table in "Shi Xian Zhi". , reduced by seven volumes, this is the second edition outside the customs.The above is the origin of the three old editions of "Drafts of Qing History".Because there are many biographies in the second edition of Guanwai, Zhonghua Book Company used the second edition of Guanwai as the base when proofreading this book, annotated other texts, and published a new version that is relatively complete and easy to read.