Research On The Corpora Compilation Of Memorials To The Emperors In Ming Dynasty

Memorials to emperors,hereinafter referred to as memorials,are documents written and reported by officials to the emperors in Chinese ancient time.Compiling a corpus of memorials is a process of collecting such memorials together.The memorial corpus compilation can be traced back to a very early time and plays an important role in the compilation of historical classics in ancient China.In Ming Dynasty,the number of memorial corpora increases dramatically,with an increase in the officials participating in compiling the memorial corpora.Compared with previous dynasties,there sprung up some changes in the types of memorial corpora and method of compiling the memorial corpora in Ming Dynasty.At that time,the compilation of memorial corpora is a major activity of history book compilation,which is also a method of compiling the personal works of officials.Therefore,researching the compilation of the memorial corpora is an integral part of researching the historical materials of Ming Dynasty and is essential to the research on the compilation ofChinese ancient archival documents.This dissertation contains three parts.The first part,namely Chapter One,provides an overview of the memorial corpora compilation in Ming Dynasty.This part contains statistics on the memorial corpora that are mentioned in the chronicles and book catalogues of Ming Dynasty.This part also sorts out the existing memorial corpora of Ming Dynasty.The second part is the major part of this dissertation.It consists of Chapter Two and Chapter Three.The memorial corpora can be categorized into two types:general memorial corpora and personal memorial corpora.Chapter Two mainly researches the compilation of general memorial corpora,including classification of the memorial corpora,compilation purposes,material resources,and arrangement methods,as well as some typical general memorial corpora.Based on their content,the general memorial corpora can be divided into comprehensive memorial corpora and theme memorial corpora.comprehensive memorial corpora can either involve multiple dynasties or be dedicated to only one dynasty.This part researches the social education and humanistic pragmatism purposes for which the general memorial corpora were compiled,as well as the economical,political,and historical values of the general memorial corpora.In addition,this part researches the memorial resources,mainly including history books,collected works,Dibao(official gazette),and government-collected or privately-owned memorials.These memorials are arranged in order of event type,time,person,or department.This part focuses on the memorial arrangement method that is most commonly used in Ming Dynasty,that is,arranging the memorials based on the event type.It also researches different types of catelogues of memorial corpora and finally studies some typical memorial corpora.Chapter Three concentrates on the compilation of personal memorial corpora.Similar to Chapter Two,which focuses on the general memorial corpora,this chapter researches the classifying and naming rules of personal memorial corpora and purposes of compiling personal memorial corpora,as well as the material resources and arrangement method of the personal memorial corpora.Based on the content,the personal memorial corpora are classified into three types:the first is the memorial corpora for all official positions of an individual person;the other is the memorial corpora for only one official position of an individual person,and the third is the memorial corpora of a special theme.By researching the relationships between the writer of memorials and the writer of the memorial corpora,this chapter analyzes the compilation purposes of different memorial corpora.It also investigates the scope of material resources for the memorials and studies different methods of arranging the memorials,for example,by means of time,official position,and event type,as well as the hybrid method.The third part,Chapter Four,studies the historical importance of memorial corpora in Ming Dynasty by sorting out the memorial corpora in various dynasties.Then,it compares the compilation of some memorial corpora in Ming Dynasty with the compilation of similar or the same types of memorial corpora in Song Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.In this way,it illustrates how the memorial corpora in Ming Dynasty inherit the characteristics of the memorial corpora in Song Dynasty and inspire the development of the memorial corpora in Qing Dynasty.This dissertation systematically describes the compilation of memorial corpora in Ming Dynasty,researches the writing methods of general memorial corpora and personal memorial corpora,and determines the status of the memorial corpora compilation of Ming Dynasty in Chinese history.This dissertation is intended to contribute to the research on the compilation of memorial corpora in ancient China and research on historical materials of Ming Dynasty.In addition,this dissertation can provide references for the research on the corpora of memorials to emperors,research on Ming Dynasty,and research on the compilation of historical materials as well as archival documents.