History of Ming

"Mingshi" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ming Shilu.

History of Ming
Traditional Chinese	明史
Simplified Chinese	明史
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Míng Shǐ Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bêng-sú Tâi-lô Bîng-sú

The History of Ming, History of the Ming, or The Ming History (Míng Shǐ) is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories of China. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of the Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It was written by a number of officials commissioned by the court of Qing Dynasty, with Zhang Tingyu as the lead editor. The compilation started in the era of the Shunzhi Emperor and was completed in 1739 in the era of the Qianlong Emperor, though most of the volumes were written in the era of the Kangxi Emperor.

The sinologist Endymion Wilkinson writes that the Mingshi, the second longest of the Twenty-Four Histories, after the History of the Song, is "generally reckoned to be one of the best of the Histories and one of the easiest to read."

Background

After Qing Dynasty has entered and hosted the Chinese Central Plain, in the second year of Shunzhi Emperor, The Censor Zhao Jiding (趙繼鼎) was requested to compile the History of Ming On May of the ShunZhi Emperor 2th year, the court of Qing Dynasty established the committee consisted of the Grand Secretary Feng Quan, Li Jiantai, Fan Wencheng, Gang Lin, and Qi Chongge as the presidents to operate the compiling the History of Ming. In the same year, the presidents nominated the vice presidents and compilers, also nominated seven Zhang Guans, ten transcribers of Manchu language, and thirty-six transcribers of Chinese language to lift the curtain on compiling the History of Ming.

Process

Stage 1

The official compiling of History of Ming started on May 2 in the second year of Shunzhi Emperor. At that time, which is the early years that the Qing first entered and hosted the Central Plain. With the obvious purpose of compiling the History of Ming, the Qing dynasty intended to declare the collapse of Ming, however, the court of Hongguang (founded by the Ming imperial clan) with capital of Nanjing was antagonistic to the Qing, and the compiling of History of Ming was the announcement of inexistence of Hongguang Court. On May 15, the Army of Qing broke through Nanjing, and the Hongguang regime was destroyed. Zhu Yujian, the clan relative of Ming founded a new court called Longwu at Fuzhou. Meanwhile, Li Zhicheng, the leader of the peasant uprising army jointed with the Ming’s governor He Tengjiao, and fought against the court of Qing. It was impossible to concentrate a large member of stuffs to compiling the History of Ming in the unstable political and embattled situation. The turbulent situation lasted until the 22nd year of Qing’s Kangxi Emperor, the Kangxi Emperor conquered all opposing states and unified Mainland of China and Taiwan. In the stage 1, the court of Qing was busy on the conquest, so the compiling process basically had no progress.

Stage 2

After the Revolt of the Three Feudatories had calmed down, the court of Qing was able to concentrate manpower to compile the History of Ming formally. Thirty-five years passed since the court of Qing officially announced the compilation of the History of Ming. In the 17th year of Kangxi Emperor, Qing started drafting learned scholars from all of the country, and stage 2 of compiling got into its stride. In the 4th year of Qianlong Emperor (1739), the History of Ming was completed compiling of all it sections. It was the third time that the court of Qing organized staff to modify the manuscript of the History of Ming, and finalized its compiling.

One of the main sources for the History of Ming was Ming Shilu (the Ming Veritable Records), i.e. the records of individual emperors' reigns, each of which was compiled soon after the respective emperor's death, based on the daily records accumulated during the reign.

Formatting

The History of Ming consists of four volumes of table of content, and in total has three hundred and thirty-two volumes.

See also

• History of the Ming Dynasty

References

Sources

• "The Ming History (Mingshi)," Section 9 Edward L. Farmer, Romeyn Taylor, Ann Waltner, Ming History An Introductory Guide To Research (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1994), pp. 71-78.
• Wilkinson, Endymion (2012). Chinese History: A New Manual. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 9780674067158. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Ming History English Translation Project