A Study Of Local Chronicles In Northern Shaanxi In Ming And Qing Dynasties

Local chronicles,are informative documents that record the history and current situation of a certain region.It is generally believed that local chronicles are the fusion of ancient geography books,ancient history books,ancient map scriptures and so on in the process of historical development.According to the different administrative regions,the local chronicles of northern Shaanxi in Ming and Qing Dynasties can be divided into official chronicles,prefectural chronicles,County chronicles,town chronicles and local chronicles.The excavation and application of the existing local chronicles in Northern Shaanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is the first-hand information for the study of the history and social customs of Northern Shaanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,and also has reference value for the current economic and cultural construction in Northern Shaanxi.There are no local chronicles in northern Shaanxi before the Ming Dynasty.According to the quotation of other books,it can be inferred that Northern Shaanxi may have compiled local chronicles during Song and Yuan Dynasties.The economic recovery and social stability of northern Shaanxi,the emperor’s edicts and the attention of central and local governments at all levels,the political responsibility of local officials and the excessive pressure of border military forces jointly promoted the compilation of local chronicles in northern Shaanxi during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The compilation of local chronicles in northern Shaanxi mainly concentrated in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,especially in the Wanli Period.There were three compilation climaxes in the Qing Dynasty,namely,the Qianlong Period,the Daoguang Period and the Guangxu Period.Local governments in northern Shaanxi organize local officials,local gentry and other personnel to repair local chronicles according to the principles of honest books,detailed and simple,and brief and complete.Among them,there are many local scholars.According to the specific division of labor,there are qualifications,repairs,examinations,interviews,transcripts and revisions.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,most of the local chronicles in northern Shaanxi were compiled by official organizations.Government funds were the basic support for their activities.Officials made donations and advocated donations by themselves,gentry raised donations and other sources of funds for the revision of local chronicles.After the completion of the local chronicles,the governments at all levels in northern Shaanxi will print and publish them as far as they can,making them widely circulated.The compiled local chronicles of northern Shaanxi have also been circulated to this day only in transcripts or manuscripts due to lack of funds.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the central government issued relevant decrees,which stipulated the compilation style,entries and contents of local chronicles,such as the General Rules of Compiling Chronicles in Ming Yongle 10 years,the General Rules of Compiling Chronicles in Ming Yongle 16 years,and the Local Chronicles in Guangxu 31 years,etc.On the basis of the above-mentioned document requirements,the governments at all levels in northern Shaanxi have adjusted the style and entries of local chronicles accordingly according to their own conditions,such as lack of documents,old age,lack of talents,lack of funds and other factors,which makes local chronicles show certain characteristics,but the defects are also very obvious.The phenomenon of incomplete style and compiler’s willfulness also has a negative impact on the compilation of chronicles to a certain extent.Comparing the content of chronicles in similar areas is an important method to understand the content characteristics of local chronicles in northern Shaanxi.By comparing the political,economic and cultural contents of the Northern Shaanxi Local Chronicles with those of the Qianlong Xi’an Fuzhi and the military contents of Datong County Chronicles by Daoguang,it is found that the contents of the Northern Shaanxi Local Chronicles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties reflect the characteristics of emphasizing humanities over economy,Painting with a strong military color,emphasizing the integration of National cultures,and emphasizing economic crop exchanges between North and South.The peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty originated in northern Shaanxi.Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were important figures in the uprising.Therefore,the local documents in northern Shaanxi were compared with the peasant uprising events in the late Ming Dynasty,the biographies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong recorded in the History of Ming Dynasty.Tongzhi Rebellion was an important event in northern Shaanxi in Qing Dynasty.Therefore,it can better reflect the historical value of the local chronicles in northern Shaanxi by comparing with the records of the Revolution in Northern Shaanxi in the early Qing Dynasty in the Historical Manuscripts of Qing Dynasty.Starting from the special materials about customs,property and characters in the local chronicles of northern Shaanxi,we can better discuss the value of the local chronicles of northern Shaanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The contents of economy,culture,folklore and military recorded in the local chronicles of northern Shaanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties not only played a role in the local governance of northern Shaanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,but also had a high reference value in the current tourism,economic and cultural construction of northern Shaanxi.