The Study On Zhili Local Chronicles Of The Qing Dynasty

Zhili in the Qing Dynasty used to be a culturally prosperous region where the chorography thrived with many excellent works produced. Zhili local chronicles outnumbered many other regions, representing the highest level of chorography. Previous scholarship on Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty stopped at the superficial level without making an in-depth or comprehensive study. Most of the research papers and books attempted to give a general and chronological picture of Zhili chorography in which the local Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty is only a part, but failed to make an in-depth study of the specific historical value and innovation of Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, there are still a lot of room for improvement in terms of the documentary compilation of Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty. The limitation is manifested by the fact that Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty entering the relevant books are inexhaustible and unrepresentative.This dissertation attempts to explore the overall administrative divisions of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty, the origin and transformation of Zhili Chronicles, the organization for compilation and the funding support. It also studies the genre of the local Chronicles, its theory, types, main content as well as the general picture upgrading. As well as the causes for its prosperity and its far-reaching impact on the later generations. The innovation of the dissertation lies in the fact that it fills in the blanks of the comprehensive study of Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty. The innovation can be summed up as:A large amount of reference documents about local Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty are employed for the comprehensive study on Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty, including their organization, financial support, genre setting, upgrading, content, causes for prosperity and the consequences they bring about. The focus is the in-depth analysis in combination of the official history of the Ming and Qing dynasty, and of some collected works and notes. Zhili Chronicles of this period is thus characterized by the combination of its didactic function and education about social reality. Therefore, with the gradual transformation of the society, the Western concept of evolution began to take roots in people's consciousness. The development of economy and industry is also considered an effective way to save the nation. The concept of the Chronicles compilers began to shift to "reform" and "develop industry," with the aim of awakening the whole society to the country's survival, redressing the long-established social evils and recuing the country. These important viewpoints have far transcended the shackles of the past local Chronicles which overemphasized the political assistance, subjects exhortation and material offering, thus marking the important distillation of the basic function of local Chronicles.Chronicles showed signs of innovation and development in terms of style and content.To be more specific, new contents and categories were added. Economically, the newly set up contents included railway transportation postal, telegraph, mining and so on. Second Opium War, how the western powers imposed "leased territories" on Tianjin, and the "New Deal"(including police policy) implemented by the Qing Government from the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. As far as education is concerned, the establishment of all new kinds of schools found its place in Zhili Chronicles. To these content and style absent in the old Chronicles complication, this dissertation will pay special attention.At present, there are many academic texts about Zhili Chronicles of the Qing dynasty, but they disagree on the number of Zhili Chronicles and they are also different in the density of information covered. The recognized authority books include "The Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Local Chronicles",edited by the Beijing Observatory and published by Chinese Academy in January of 1985,"The Catalogue of the Successive Local Chronicles of Hebei Province",edited by Annals Research Department of Hebei University,published by Hebei People's Publishing House in May of 1989, and "Synopsis of Chinese Local Chronicles " with Jinen Hui and Hu Shuzhao as the chief editors, Chinese Taipei, the United States Book Co., published in December 1995. According to "The Catalogue of the Successive Local Chronicles of Hebei Province", the number of the extant Chronicles in Zhili of the Qing dynasty is up to 477, and that of the lost Chronicles is 48. The statistics by "The Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Local Chronicles "shows that there are 430 Zhili Chronicles in existence, and that born in "Synopsis of Chinese Local Chronicles "shows 440. These important documents are inadequate in terms of number, volumes, editor information and versions of Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty. Research by the candidate shows that the figure is bigger than that in the past documents, roughly 519 kinds of Zhili Chronicles documents, in addition to the lost 72 Chronicles.In summary, the realization of the historical status of Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty is of great significance. Zhili Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty marks is both the peak of chorography of ancient China, providing a valuable evidence for the study on Chronicles compilation of ancient China, and the beginning of chronicle compilation of modern China. The transformation of chorography of the late Qing dynasty, including Zhili chronicle, paves the way for the further development of chronicle study of China, which is evidenced by the great achievements of The Republic of China.