| Village Chronicles,a branch of local Chronicles,is one of the most important materials to study the countryside.Compared with the records of prefecture and county annals,there are few extents of old Village Chronicles in China,which are seldom paid attention to and published.According to the materials the author has at present,there are 5 Village Chronicles in Shanxi during the Republic of China,which namely "Xichenjiazhuang Xiangtuzhi" "Daning Township small Chronicle" "Shucun Zhi" "Xihedicun four-word of joint Chronicle" and "Huangqiying Zhicun Zhi".Among the Five Village Chronicles,except "Huangqiying Zhicun Zhi" is the official supervision,the other four Village Chronicles are all privately writed,and their authors were mainly teachers or literati engaged in the education industry,which reflected the fact that local literati loved their hometown and made contributions to the education and culture of their hometown.The author’s own quality or personal experience has an important influence on the compilation of Village Chronicles.The author’s purpose of preserving history and collecting examination as well as his affection for mulberry is the main reason for the compilation of the Five Village Chronicles.At the same time,the official compilation of County Chronicles and "Shanxi village self-rule" in the Republic of China also promoted the compilation of Village Records.In addition,during the Republic of China,there were official activities to supervise and write the Village Chronicles.The Five Villages Chronicles roughly follows the style of County Chronicles,but compared with the complete style of prefectures and counties,Villages Chronicles are a little less normative.Due to the small range of Village Chronicles,its phylum setting is more flexible,and the content is more micro and specific.The selection of the content has a strong personal color of the author,with a unique humanistic care.The compilation of the Five Village Chronicles emphasizes field investigation and textual research.In addition,there are also defects in the Five Village Chronicles of Shanxi Province in the Republic of China,such as incorrect quoting of historical materials,words derived from different sources,distorted characters,and inaccurate contents,etc.,which should be paid more attention to and discriminated when using.The Five Village Chronicles are of great literature value.On the one hand,the five villages have preserved rich historical materials,among which the records of mountains,rivers and other natural geographical scenery as well as cultural and historical sites are not only precious materials for historical geography research,but also important tourism resources.The practice of rural autonomy in rural areas in the Republic of China recorded in the village annals is the primary data for studying shanxi village governance that cannot be ignored.Five kinds of village records are recorded for the merchants and commercial conditions of each village,which can reflect the obvious regional differences of merchants in south and central Shanxi Province.The records of village annals on the school education of each village are more detailed,and some authors of village annals also put forward many suggestions on the development of education in the annals,which to some extent reflects the process of modernization of rural education.On the other hand,some lost inscriptions are recorded in the village annals,which has important reference value for the study of local temples,religious development and folk beliefs.In the preface,postscript and general works of the village Chronicles,there are the discussion of the compilation theory of local Chronicles by the compilers of the village Chronicles,such as "Chronicles is a tributary of history" and "village Chronicles is the basis of county Chronicles",which reflects the purport of the compilers of the village Chronicles and also witnesses the development of the theory of local Chronicles during the Republic of China. |
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