Chapter 22 Section 3 "Ming History Chronicles" and Others

"Ming Shi Ji Shi Ben Mo", edited by Gu Yingtai in the early Qing Dynasty, has 80 volumes, and uses the Ji Shi Ben Mo style to record the history of the Ming Dynasty. ) The demise of the Ming Dynasty is one of the basic historical records for studying the history of the Ming Dynasty.Editor-in-chief Gu Yingtai, styled Gengyu and named Lincang, was born in Fengrun County, Shuntian Prefecture, Zhili (now Fengrun, Hebei).Jinshi was born.In the thirteenth year of Shunzhi (1657 A.D.), he served as the admiral of Zhejiang Province, set up a bookstore by the West Lake, and named it "Gulincang Publishing Office". He invited famous scholars from Zhejiang and Zhejiang to compile the history of Ming Dynasty.In the winter of the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (AD 1659), the book was published.In the past, some sayings were popular, some said that this book was adapted by Gu Yingtai who bought Zhang Dai's "Shikui Collection" with a lot of money, some said it was made by stealing Tan Qian's "Guoyan", and some said that Xu Zhuo thanked Gu Yingtai for it Promoted and rewarded.These statements are all legends and conjectures, lacking factual basis.Most of the books written by bureaucrats in ancient times were their own editors and others were the authors. "The Chronicle of Ming History" is rich in content and precise in structure. It is obviously not something that a busy bureaucrat can complete in two years of spare time.However, the style of the book is thorough, properly edited and consistent from beginning to end, which should include Gu Yingtai's skill and hard work as the editor-in-chief.

When Gu Yingtai presided over the compilation of "The Chronicle of Ming History", it was the time when the chaos in the early years of the Qing Dynasty was uncertain. The official revision of "Ming History" had not yet begun to be compiled, and there were many unofficial historical materials left over from the era. Gu Yingtai was able to collect extensively.In addition to referring to Zhang Dai's "Shikui Collection" and Tan Qian's "Guoyan", there are also many sources such as Gao Dai's "Hongyoulu" and Fan Jingwen's "Zhaodai Wugong Bian".As for the historical facts of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the value of its historical materials is very precious.Since most of the historical materials in this book come from sources other than the official "History of the Ming Dynasty", the evaluation is also higher than that of "The Chronicle of Song History".

Although "Ming History Chronicle" has the imprint of feudal bureaucracy, it summarizes the historical facts of the Ming Dynasty in a concise style, and is a self-contained history of the Ming Dynasty. 80 special topics, outline and key points, describe the major historical events of the Ming Dynasty from the founding to the end of the Ming Dynasty more completely.Regarding the records of peasant uprisings, there are as many as 15 topics in the book, from Tang Saier in Shandong, Miners in Zhejiang and Fujian, and refugees from Yunyun in the early period to Hebei, Central Shu, and Jiangxi in the middle period, and Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the late Ming Dynasty. The uprising has a relatively concentrated record in a special article, which provides valuable historical materials.The monopoly of the eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, the fratricide within the royal family, and the fierce party struggles within the ruling class are all reflected in the book.The records in the book not only include the basic content of the politics, military affairs, and laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, but also involve issues related to the national economy and the people's livelihood such as water transportation, river engineering, mine supervision, and tax envoys.As for the historical facts about the rise of the Manchu nobles in the Northeast and their confrontation with the Ming Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, they are omitted in the book.Shao Yichen said: "The current version lacks six chapters: "Liao Zuo Bing Duan", "Xiong Wang Merit and Crime", "Bringing the Han to the Frontier", "Mao Shuai Dongjiang", "Jinning War Defense", and "Entrance of Eastern Soldiers". Thanks There are old banknotes in the Jinglou." (Volume 5 of "Additional Siku Concise Catalog Notes") According to the judgment of philologist Fu Yili, these six late Ming historical events were also written by Gu Yingtai. It turned out to be a book, because of the relationship When the dynasties changed, I was afraid of offending the Qing rulers, so it was deleted when it was published.Fu later changed the title to "Addendum to the Chronicle of Ming History" and set it to six volumes.In the early Qing Dynasty, the ban on writing became stricter. The lack of historical events in the "Ming History Chronicles" is due to the political pressure environment at that time, not the neglect of the historians.There are 80 chapters in the book, and at the end of the chapters there are comments and praises carefully written in the style of parallel couplets, which are fluent and easy to recite, but the content is uneven and not very exciting.

In addition to the 80 volumes of the original book and six volumes of the "Supplement", the proofread edition of "The Chronicle of Ming Dynasty" published by Zhonghua Book Company in recent years has included five volumes of "Supplement to the Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty" written by Peng Sunyi in the early Qing Dynasty. The materials are complete and the most convenient reader. In addition to "Ming History Jishi Benmo", there are many history books written in the Qing Dynasty in Jishibenmo style, but most of them are mediocre.In order to help readers understand the overview of chronicle history books, here is a brief introduction.

Wei Yuan's "Sheng Wu Ji" provides a general description of military activities before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and the organization is relatively clear, especially the military operations to suppress the previous uprisings against the Qing Dynasty. Although it is based on an official position, the narrative is relatively complete, and its academic value should be affirmed. The history books compiled in the early Qing Dynasty, Gao Shiqi's "Zuo Zhuan Ji Shi Ben Mo" and Ma Su (su Su)'s "Zuo Zhuan Shi Wei" are mainly based on "Zuo Zhuan".Gao's book is centered on the country, and the items are determined within a country. Each item is a volume, with a total of 53 volumes.Ma Shishu is divided into 20 volumes and 108 items in roughly chronological order.In terms of compilation, comparing the two books, the latter is slightly better than the former.Yang Lurong's "Chronicle of the San Francisco Chronicle" has its merits in focusing on the historical events of the Southern Ming Dynasty.In the late Qing Dynasty, Li Youtang's "The Chronicles of the Liao Dynasty", "The Chronicles of the Jin Dynasty" and Zhang Jian's "The Chronicles of the Western Xia Dynasty" all took the form of chapters and wrote the historical events of Liao, Jin and Xixia respectively. A succinct narrative.

Since Yuan Shu created "Tongjian Jishi Benmo", there have been sequels of Jishibenmo style history books, and gradually formed a complete series from ancient times to the Qing Dynasty, which seems to be on a par with official history and chronicles of Jizhuan style.However, most of them are adapted from one or two original books, and only a few are compiled from scratch with historical materials collected by themselves. Therefore, the value of their historical materials should be evaluated separately.Its status in traditional historiography is mainly due to the addition of a genre that is easier for beginners to learn.