Crying For Innocence:

In 1644(the 17th year of Emperor Chongzhen's reign),when the troops led by Li Zicheng entered Beijing,the Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty hung himself in Mount.Mei,signifying the end of the Ming Dynasty.This incident is undoubtedly a catastrophic change for the Ming Dynasty's subjects.That year is Jiashen Year on the Chinese Lunar Calendar,so it is known as the"Jiashen National Calamity".Because of the haste of the incident,most of the officials in the Ming Dynasty were trapped in the city.These trapped officials became the witnesses of the"Jiashen National Calamity".They witnessed and experienced a series of dramatic changes in the subsequent scenes.For various purposes,these scholars later recalled and recorded their own experiences.One of them was Yang Shicong,then the official of Zuo Yude(then grand tutor of crown prince).He was trapped in the city and held by the Peasant Troops.During this period,his wife and concubines committed suicide,his young daughter threw herself into the well,and he was rescued from a drug suicide.Later,by chance,he fled to the south of the Yangtze River.At that time,Nanjing had already be reined by the Fuwang regime.After a long and arduous journey to Nanjing,he arrived in Nanjing.However,he felt the criticism of the Southern Ming Dynasty against the officials and gentry who went down to the south from Beijing.For this reason,Yang Shicong wrote the book Sketch of Jiashen Truth,sharing his own experiences,recording the stories and helplessness of the trapped sergeants and all kinds of hardships on the Southward Road,to justify himself and appeal for the innocence of the trapped intellectuals.Sharing the same experiences with Yang Shicong,Zhao Shijin,director of the Ministry of Construction,also felt the pressure of the Southern Ming Dynasty and wrote a book called Jiashen Chronicle to prove his innocence.Yang Shicong and Zhao Shijin could represent the scholars in this special situation at that time:on the one hand,they were unwilling to surrender to the Peasant Troops,on the other hand,they were not accepted by the Southern Ming Dynasty.They were wrapped in the torrents of the times and became a group of people struggling in the society.They were deeply influenced by the traditional concept of reputation and integrity.They could not bear the false accusation of their reputations by others.It is their strong sense of reputation and integrity that drives them to write what we called the two books of self certificate.When they went south,it was also the time when the "Shun Case" of the scholars from the North was fiercely carried out in the Southern Ming Dynasty,which led a group of officials from the former Ming Dynasty to turn back and surrender to the Qing Army,thus enriching the strength of the Qing Dynasty.History can't assume,but we might as well assume that in the face of national calamity,if the Southern Ming government did not criticize them,but united them against the enemy,perhaps the Southern Ming itself would not collapse so soon.Yang Shicong and Zhao Shijin's experiences have highly concentrated the complexity and chaos of the times,as well as their personal helplessness and struggle.Through the investigation of the two books,Sketch of Jiashen Truth and Jiashen Chronicle,this paper analyses and summarizes the historical background,text characteristics and author groups of this kind of historical materials,i.e.,Books of Self Certificate,which reflected their difficult choices and the consequent difficulties in the period of the Great Revolution,enriching people's understanding of the turbulent era.In addition,the two books deal with such historical facts as the end of the Ming Dynasty and Li Zicheng's peasant troops' actions after capturing the city.Most of them are about the authors' personal experiences,which are of high authenticity,can not only correct historical facts,but also make up for historical deficiencies.