A Study On "The Ming History": Biographies Of Foreign Nations

Before the Qin Dynasty,the ruling dynasties in the Central Plains called themselves “middle earth” or “central country”,associated the peripheral ethnic groups with “four regions” and “four barbarian nations” in order to emphasize its central position.A systematic recording model was developed in the official history books from the Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty under the influence of “four barbarian nations” consciousness.The model proceeds in an order of Dongyi – Xirong – Nanman – Beidi,which means the Eastern Barbarians – Western Barbarians – Southern Barbarians – Northern Barbarians.Their biographies exhibit a structure of “various biographies first and those on barbarians second”,which embodies a conception of “Xia located in the middle and Barbarians located around.” The New History of The Five Dynasties of Ouyang Xiu pushed the trend to the extreme with “Siyi Appendix” in order to demonstrate the legitimacy of Song Dynasty.After Song and Yuan Dynasties,the author of official history books changed “Biographies of Four Barbarian Nations” into “Biographies of Foreign Nations”,which means consistent civilizations began to replace the only civilized center of Han nationality dynasties.Neither the Siyi Norm nor the Structure of Foreign Nations,“Biographies of Native Chieftain”,“Biographies of Foreign Nations” and “Biographies of Western Regions” of “The Ming History” constitute a situation of tripartite confrontation based on the succession of the great tradition of official history books from Han Dynasty to Ming Dynasty.The thesis makes a detailed comparison about the four different versions of The Biographies of Foreign Nations.There are great differences between You Dong's version and Zhang Tingyu's.With the revision of The Complete Library in Four Divisions,“The Ming History”: Biographies of Foreign Nations had been greatly improved.The differences of versions reflect historiographers' different historical view: You Dong regarded Wufu theory as his guiding ideology,Wan Sitong inherited “Biographies of Four Barbarian Nations” model through which guided his writing of the official history.Wang Hongxu and Zhang Tingyu approved “Biographies of Foreign Nations” structure and recording model of Historical Records and The Book of Former Han.The appearance of Siku version of The Biographies of Foreign Nations took the opportunity of the revision of The Complete Library in Four Divisions,the textual researches contained in it are related to the Qian–jia school.The compiling and revising of The Biographies of Foreign Nations based on sufficient historical materials.The Record of Ming Dynasty,which is written by officials in Ming dynasty,is main source of historical data.In addition,some historical documents written by nonofficial intellectuals are also important resources,such as Record of laws and systems of Ming Dynasty,The Annals of West Asia of Gong Zhen,Description of the Starry Raft of Fei Xin,Ying–Ya Sheng–Lan of Ma Huan,East West Test of Zhang Xie,Western tribute book of Huang Shengzeng.As a specialized official history book about foreign affairs in Ming Dynasty,the biographies had not only historical value but also lots of shortages due to the limitations of the times.This paper corrects the wrong records,according to the textual researches contained in the Siku version of The Biographies of Foreign Nations,Zhang Weihua's Annotations and Explanations of the Histories of Four European Countries in the “Ming History” and The textual researches of “The Ming History” of Huang Yunmei.The research on this biographies about exploring the source historical materials,analyzing the historical value and correcting the wrong records can help scholars truly know the shortages of “The Ming History”: Biographies of Foreign Nations while they conduct some researches about their related fields.