From The Ming Archives To The Complete Lists Oft He Archives Of The Ming Dynasty Of China

Archives are the various records formed directly in the practical actions of thesocial organization or individuals and kept for checking, which mainly exist intranscripts, pictures and audio-video products. Before the establishment, the founderof the Ming Dynasty had paid much attention on the secretarial documents and set upits managing system, which was embodied in two respects. One was to build thespecial managing organization of the secretarial documents and the storehouse and theother was to regulate the classifying and settling methods, which changed constantlyaccording to the practical needs.Since the appearance of the modern history, the archives, being the most originaland direct records, has attracted the scholars attention. In the end of the Qing Dynasty,the Archives of Ming-Qing Cabinet Big Storehouse, one of the three importantdiscoveries in China’s modern academic history, was discovered and it formed thebeginning of these archives’ setbacks because these archives faced the dangeroussituations of being damaged for several times and it was up to the protection, themanagement and the research of the far-sighted scholars such as Luo Zhenyu, FuSinian and so on and the academic research organizations such as Beijing University,the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica, the database of the PalaceMuseum that these archives exists until today and keep widely used by the academy.At the beginning of1949, the department of Cultural Relics of Northeast CulturalRelics Conservation Council found Xinpai Archives and Screen Archives. The formerare the official files of the Ming Dynasty kept in the Xinpai coverings of the earlyQing (including the Late Jin Period) and was attained from the office of thesupervisory censor of Shandong who actually lived in Liaoyang to supervise the localwork when Liaoyang city was captured by the Late Jin’s assault. The Screen Archiveswere the official files of the Ming Dynasty taken off from the screens of the ImperialPalace of Shenyang and were carried by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming whenthey rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and surrendered to the Late Jin.The Archives in the Big Storehouse includes the Ming Archives and the QingArchives, the academic field has made full use of the latter and made little use of theformer because the existing Ming Archives were little, old, scattered, disordered anddecayed and thus it is difficult to make full use of them. Hence, in order to help the academy to make fuller use of these Ming archives, First Historic Archives of Chinaand Historic Archives of Liaoning Province cooperated and published the Mingarchives stored in both of them, the result of which is the Complete Lists of theArchives of the Ming Dynasty of China published by the publishing house of GuangxiNormal University in2001and including101volumes and three parts such as officialand personal transcripts, accounts and books.The official and personal transcripts and accounting books in the Complete Listsof the Archives of the Ming Dynasty of China has high historic values. The CompleteLists of the Archives of the Ming Dynasty of China has4710pieces of official andpersonal transcripts,4623pieces are the official transcripts and87pieces are personaldocuments.In the respect of the content, these documents are related to the officialcontrol, the economy, the military, the judiciary, the imperial examination, theetiquette, the diplomatic relations, the public security, people’s livelihood, therelatives and the natural disasters. The author has sorted out950pieces according tothe key words.In the respect of the official position, these documents are related to themilitary and political officers and officials both in the central and local governments,with the central departments including the cabinet, the Six Departments, the FiveArmy Governing House, the supervision department, the inner prison and so on, andthe local government including Zongdu, Xunfu, Xunan, Zongbing and so on. Theauthor has sorted out1635pieces according to the key words.In the respect of thefigure, these documents are related to1796people, among which some were of greatsignificance, such as Chen Xinjia, Yuan Chonghuan, Yang Sichang, Hong Chengchouand so on. In the respect of the region, these documents are related to Zhili, Shuntian,the thirteen Chief Secretaries, part of the Fu, Zhou, county and the garrison station,covering almost all the Ming territory. The author has sorted out1050piecesaccording to the key words.In the respect of the time, except for Jianwen andHongxi’s reign, these documents are related to all the other emperors’ reign, especiallyTianqi and Chongzhen’s reign, which covers more than84%. These documents havehigh value to the study of the Ming history, especially to the late part of the MingDynasty. Besides, this collection can complement the Ming and Qing HistoricDocuments. Its personal documents are related to the trades of the house, the land andthe hills and appeared in Hongwu, Zhengde, Jiajing, Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, orChongzhen, which makes it highly valuable for the study of the economic history ofthe Ming Dynasty. The accounting books include The Selecting Book of the MilitaryOfficers, whose historic value is much higher, and other books.The Selecting Book of the Military Officers records the adoption, selection, replacement and replenishmentof the officers in the garrison stations, is related to these officers’ birth place, thereasons of their joining the army, the time and reasons of their forefathers’ joining thearmy, their promotions, demotions and transferences, their military exploits,punishments and rewards and has13446recorded people altogether, which makes ituseful for the study of the military system, the military selection, other social historyor the related historic events.In it Huaiyang Mixed Records has its own specialhistoric value, which is useful for the study of the administration, the official control,the taxes and forced labor, the salt system, the culture education, the judiciary, thenatural disaster and the customs of Jiajing and Wanli’s reign.However, for more than10years, due to various reasons, the academic field hasnot paid enough attention to the use of the Complete Lists of the Archives of the MingDynasty of China, and therefore the author has sorted out this collection and madeclassified indexes so that the academic field can make better use of it.