| As an administrative unit connecting the province and village, county is fundamental and special in Ming and Qing's administration system which makes the research of local Gazetteers becoming the base of historical study. Administrative division of XiangShan in the Ming and Qing periods was comparatively settled, thus the local Gazetteers are abundant in numbers and complete in types. Most important is that Macau which was still belonged to XiangShan in those two periods had become a special place. Hence, the local Gazetteers of those periods become the focus of this thesis. The main purposes here are through research of the theories, methods and processes in local Gazetteers of Ming and Qing dynasties on the level of county (including "Du" and rural area which belong to county), as well as the enlightenment and thought from them, to find out some regular pattern or theoretical model and offer example for the research and cognizing of local Gazetteers study.This article includes six parts.Chapter one discusses the character of local Gazetteers as well as the relation of local Gazetteers with local history, official history and national history. Although the local Gazetteers are supplement and one of the sources of the latter three, they are not written as the addition of them. The author agrees with the viewpoint of Zhang Xuecheng that "Gazetteers belong to history". Although there are special natures in local Gazetteers of different periods, the local Gazetteers of Qing dynasty should belong to the range of "history". To estimate the nature of local Gazetteers, we could focus on the following characters:the contents, the purpose, the natures of them from the viewpoint of the writers and the aim. Official characters of the local Gazetteers could also provide evidence in nature of them in some degree. The reliable of contents of local Gazetteers can be judged from the sources of historical materials, the knowledge of their writers and the limitation of their periods.Chapter two focus on the history and the synopsis of Xiangshan local Gazetteers. The preface and postscript are both important and indispensable parts as well as important historical materials of local Gazetteers. This chapter analyzes the position, number and writers of Xiangshan local Gazetteers. For the content becomes the most focal parts of the research in which we find that the majority of them focus on the nature, role, purpose and process of the compiling, the evaluation, methods of material collection and compiling, and the leader and staffs. Sub-prefaces of local Gazetteers still have their important roles. They are either the guides or the sub-notes of each category. The purpose of research local Gazetteers are to distinguish the sources of historians and the reasons of compromising. The synopsis of local Gazetteers is indispensible materials. This chapter collected all the synopsis of Xiangshan local Gazetteers which not only record the name, volume number, writers, version and collectors to offer the clue and situation of this local Gazetteers but also research the content of every Gazetteer to figure out the identity of the writer, the background, the origin, the main content along with the feature, value and influence of literature. All of those parts are given explanatory comment which undoubtedly in favor of the comprehensive controlling of the history, merit and demerit in researching the Xiangshan local Gazetteers. Besides, this chapter pays attention on the determination, types, results and purpose of the continued Xiangshan local Gazetteers which contribute to the local Gazetteers of today.Chapter three researches the organization and method of the compiling of Xiangshan local Gazetteers. The author put forward the idea that the quality of a local Gazetteer is decided not only by the time, money or environment but also by the quality and organization method of the writers. Name lists of the writers reflect the trend of more and more careful of the work division as well as the economic development, rise and fall of the scholar honors, and change of the power of clan in " Du" and rural area of Xiangshan. The main leaders and supporters of local Gazetteers are officials of local governments while the main powers are gentries. Before the mid-Qing Dynasty, the political, economic and cultural center of Xiangshan concentrated upon city of Xiangshan and area of Xiaolan. After that, Macau became the third important part and the time of tripartite confrontation came. As different categories of local Gazetteers have different methods to compile, this article will combine the research achievement of Gazetteer scholars since Ming and Qing Dynasties and comparative content in Xiangshan local Gazetteers to make conclusion which is benefit for the further researchers and writers of local Gazetteers. The Xiangshan local Gazetteers of each period have basic compiling methods of compiling or composing. Both the two method have their benefit but neither of them can completely obeyed the principle of detailed today and brief in past, expediently in complex and briefness, not cross the area as well as the principle of no or less degrading.Chapter four focus on the style of Xiangshan local Gazetteers. The official will is expressed through publishing the political of local Gazetteers. Ideas of writers permeate to every word of local Gazetteers through the style. The guide concentrated reflects a local Gazetteer. Of all the Xiangshan local Gazetteers, only that of Qianlong period remained the integrated guide while others are contained in the sequences or dispersed in the beginning of every volume which influences the quality of local Gazetteer to some extent. This article also comments different styles of Xiangshan local Gazetteers which become better and better in total. For scholars have always given different judgment to the eight views and poets, this chapter resettles the poets of eight views and their development and concludes that they are recorded for the love to the hometown of the writers or for their good names. The record of them could not only reflect the change of nature and culture but also contribute to the civilization which does not just to vote to art-crafty.Chapter five discusses the geographical maps in Xiangshan local Gazetteers and compares the different between those maps and "whole maps", the maps from Westerners to find out the principles, idea, merit and demerit of map-drawing in local Gazetteers. We also discuss the six styles and theory of "four boundaries and eight methods" in map-drawing which pays special attention on two different methods for recording the distance in the local Gazetteers. That different is caused by the using of two different methods of "distant by walk" and "distant by bird fly". Then, through the contrast studies of maps in Xiangshan local Gazetteers with Macau maps from Chinese and Westerners, the author finds out that there is either connection or difference in the method, content and ideology of east and west in map-drawing. There is also reflection of the difference between mainland civilization and river-civilization in those local Gazetteers. The author still believes that the general principle of name noting in maps should be "name following the owner".Chapter six summarized the inspiration from the compiling of Xiangshan local Gazetteers as well as the researching thought. In historical research, the local Gazetteers become more and more important. As history and Gazetteers come from the same source, all the history of district or county should be found in local Gazetteers which help historians to clean the clue of historical development, discover the cause and result of it as well as favor to the historical writing and political of today. Through the Ming and Qing local Gazetteers, we can see the organization, choosing of writers, style, etc. which help us in deeper discovering for theory of local Gazetteer. To combine the local Gazetteers with other historical materials is useful in long-term history and natural developing observing as well as regular pattern conclusion. The traditional local Gazetteers have important reference value for Gazetteer writing, political development and national defense of today which reflected particularly in Macau history of Xiangshan local Gazetteers. They are also positively in the cultural exchange and policy of "one country, two systems". In a word, local Gazetteers not only reflect the Confucianism, condense the national spirit, promote the patriotism and love of their own hometown but also fill with the thought of "Putting what is learned into practice" and "Opening eyes to the world". |
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