The Writing Of Preface And Comments Of The Official History Of The Ming Dynasty Compiled By The Qing Government

The Qing government compiled the Official History of the Ming Dynasty(????),following the traditions of compiling the former-dynasty history.At present,scholars have done a lot of researches on the compilation process,the relationship between the early Qing emperors and compilation,the suggestions and achievements of the historiographers,and the source and course analysis of the historical versions.This paper focuses on the writing of preface and comments of the Official History of the Ming Dynasty,including investigating the writing process,and comparing the differences between the official version which was published in the Hall of Martial Valor(???)and others,widely distributed among officials at different levels,to explore the criteria for commenting on Ming dynasty and value orientation of the Qing Government,to reflect the academic and political interaction during the Early Qing.The writing process of preface and comments of the Official History of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into four stages according to the space to comment on Ming dynasty.At the first stage,Emperor Kangxi(???)refused to authorize the history,leaving a relatively loose political atmosphere for historiographers.Wang Wan(??),You Dong(??),Ni Can(??),Mao Qiling(???),Jiang Chenying(???),Shen Heng(??),Wang Yuan(??),Pan Lei(??)all left behind the achievements of preface and comments.At the second stage,Kangxi Emperor had influence on the comments of the historiographers,but Wan Sitong(???),Xiong Cilv(???)and Wang Hong-xu(???),the successive persons-in-charge of adjudication,still wrote preface and comments with their own characteristics.At the third stage,Wang Youdun(???),Lu Kuixun(???),Tao Zhenyi(???),Jin Menzhao(???),Wan Bangrong(???),all wrote some volumes of preface and comments during the Yongzheng(??)Period.The preface and comments of the Official History of the Ming Dynasty,which was widely distributed in the fourth year of Qianlong(??),emphasized Emperor Kangxi's views of the Ming Dynasty.At the fourth stage,in the name of authorization,Emperor Qianlong revised the preface and comments of the version included in the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature(??????).The power of the historiographers is entirely subservient to the power of the monarch.This paper takes the preface and comments of the Official History of the Ming Dynasty as the core,and makes a comparative study with the ones of Comments of Compiling Biographies of the Five Dynasties(?????????)compiled by Pan Lei,313 volumes of the Biographic Sketches of Emperors and Biographies of Ming History(??????)collected by the National Library of China,416 volumes of the version included in the Continuation of the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature(????????),310 volumes of the version compiled by Wang Hongxu,and the version included in the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature.In this paper,we can find out the succession relationship and changes among the versions formed in the writing process of preface and comments,as well as the differences of the criteria for commenting and value orientation.In terms of commenting on the important events of the Ming dynasty,the preface and comments reflect the most obvious changes in the writing of important events such as Ming Taizu(???)killing civil servants and military generals,Jingnan Event(??),the Great Ritual Controversy(???),and the perdition of Ming Dynasty.In terms of commenting on the gains and losses of the political system of Ming Government,the Qing government also reversed the judgments on the major institutional changes that Ming Taizu enfeoffed his sons and abolished the prime minister.In terms of passing judgment,the evaluation of the emperors and the officials of the Ming dynasty changed.In terms of commenting on the academic and moral aspects,there have been controversies about the writing of the Scholars'Circle(??)and the selection of loyal figures.In addition,the disaster of the palace eunuch in Ming dynasty was fierce.The attribution of responsibility for the disaster has been changed in the course of compiling the Official History of the Ming Dynasty.Throughout the compilation process,we can find that historiographers had some space to express themselves during the Kangxi period,while during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods,they could only comment on history in the light of emperors,and their points of view were finally dissolved in the tone chosen by the emperors.The Qing government focused on maintaining the authority of the monarch,and they were increasingly critical of their ministers.Meanwhile,the Qing government insisted on the statement that“The Ming dynasty actually fell from the Ming Shenzong(???)”.They highlighted the social crisis from Wanli(??)period,in order to build the rationality of the Qing dynasty replacing the Ming dynasty.In addition,the Qing government respected Neo-Confucianism(??)as the orthodox of Confucianism,emphasized the academic and political combination,and highlighted moral education in the preface and comments.The so-called"All History Is Contemporary History"was fully demonstrated in the process of writing the preface and comments of the Official History of the Ming Dynasty compiled by the Qing government.