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御批歷代通鑑輯覽

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Text ID
KR2b0037
Date
1767–1768
Dynasty
清

Yù pī lìdài tōng jiàn jí lǎn 御批歷代通鑑輯覽

Imperially Criticised Comprehensive Mirror of Successive Ages imperial criticism (pī 批) by 高宗弘曆 (Qiánlóng emperor, 1711–1799); compiled (fèng chì 奉敕撰) by 傅恒 (Fù Héng, c. 1722–1770) et al.; with appended Míng TángGuì èr wáng běn mò 明唐桂二王本末 in 3 juǎn

About the work

A 116-juan (plus 3-juan appendix) imperially-commissioned annalistic chronicle from the Yellow Thearch through the close of the Míng, with personal zhūbǐ 朱筆 (vermilion-pen) judgments by the Qiánlóng emperor throughout. Compiled in Qiánlóng 32 / 1767. The principal Qing imperially-sponsored biānnián universal history, intended to supersede all earlier Tōngjiàn and Gāngmù recensions.

Tiyao

Yù pī tōng jiàn jí lǎn, 116 juǎn; appended: Míng TángGuì èr wáng běn mò, 3 juǎn. Qiánlóng 32 (1767), composed under imperial commission. The book arranges affairs of all successive ages, beginning at Yellow Thearch, ending at the Míng. Year-set chronicled, gāng and mù mutually following. What the mù does not cover, separately as fēnzhù below; phonetic-cuts and gloss-explanations, classical references and event-substance — anything bearing on kǎozhèng — also detailed.

The Imperial Palace formerly held the Tōng jiàn zuǎn yào 通鑑纂要 by Lǐ Dōngyáng et al. of Zhèngdé (Míng). The Imperial Sovereign during leisure hours examined it; finding its bāo biǎn (praise-and-blame) ill-fitting and its narrative chaotic and incomplete — not adequate for yǐ lǎn (the imperial reading) — he commanded a re-compilation. Setting the fán, raising the lì — all received imperial deliberation. As each juan was completed, the manuscript was promptly presented for imperial inspection; instructions on the shū fǎ (writing-method) were given, all aligned with the Línjīng (i.e. the Chūnqiū). Further, with personal vermilion-brush, full critical píng duàn was added — subtle words and great meanings, brilliant as sun and stars. All the special-brush enlightenments are at the extreme of natural-principle and human-feeling — not only could the cí chén (literary officials) holding the brush not see the depth, even Sùshuǐ (Sīmǎ Guāng) and Zǐyáng (Zhū Xī) could not gain a glimpse of one in ten thousand. So-called “from the beginning to the essential end, pushing seeing to the most hidden” — the words run to several myriads, the indications to several thousand; impossible to thread one by one. And especially in the system-of-succession (xì tǒng) and year-noting, the great purport of bǐ xuē (cutting and erasing) is clear — yǔ duó jìn tuì (giving and depriving, advancing and retreating), all precisely impartial. So at Dàyè the head of the hào — the meaning is equal to “preserving Chén”; at Zhìzhèng the noting of years — the purport is the same as “in Yùn.” Knowing Jǐngyán and Xiángxīng did not constitute Sòng — only after which the fugitive-and-disordered abandoners-of-state cannot illegitimately steal an empty name. Knowing Tàidìng and Tiānshùn successively were rulers — only after which the riding-of-the-breach usurpers-of-house cannot fraudulently dare the great tǒng.

All previously-disputed quarrels never decided — once illuminated, none not finding their settlement. Used to repudiate that biased-private and to set as a clear instruction. We respectfully see the Sage’s mind — like a mirror clear, like a balance level. The Sage’s zhì zuò — like Heaven’s bestowal and Earth’s setting. Only following the natural principle, and the millennium’s settled judgment is fixed — leaving no further room for raising-or-lowering, high-or-low. Truly, as the Sage Instruction says: “this is not the book of one age but the book of all ten-thousand ages.”

At the close of the Míng, with the Northern Capital fallen and the great Mandate already overthrown, Fúwáng (the Hóngguāng emperor) usurped the title in Jiāngdōng — only one year. The Imperial Sovereign with Heaven-like sage-magnanimity, saying “still has territory to rely on,” specially commanded sub-noting his year, following the Jiànyán nán dù precedent. Further, on the Táng and Guì two Wángs (the Lóngwǔ and Yǒnglì emperors), traces same as Bǐng and Yì (the Sòng Èrwáng): although their false hào are repudiated, his pity reaches their leftover subjects; further by edict, beginning-and-end separately examined, attached at the back of the book — to keep them from being lost without transmission. Great is the imperial word — measure equal to Heaven and Earth. Especially not what we ministers can presume to add a word.

Abstract

The Yù pī tōng jiàn jí lǎn is the great Qing imperially-sponsored biānnián universal history, intended to supersede all earlier Tōng jiàn and Gāngmù recensions. Its compositional history is set out in the Sìkù tíyào: the Qiánlóng emperor, finding the existing Imperial Palace copy of the Míng Tōng jiàn zuǎn yào (compiled in Zhèngdé by Lǐ Dōngyáng et al.) inadequate, ordered a re-compilation. The compositional team was led by Fù Héng 傅恒 (the emperor’s brother-in-law and highest-ranking Manchu official); the procedure was juǎn-by-juǎn presentation to the throne, with the emperor reading each draft, supplying his own zhūpī 朱批 (vermilion-pen) judgments, and dictating editorial changes. Completed in Qiánlóng 32 / 1767. The dating bracket is set tightly to 1767–1768.

The work’s principal historiographical innovations — all imperially dictated — are the orthodoxy-judgments. Three are particularly consequential: (1) On the Sòng Èr wáng (Bǐng and Yì) — the work denies them Sòng zhèng tǒng (legitimate succession), explicitly contradicting Chén Jīng’s Tōng jiàn xù biān (KR2b0034) and Hú Cuìzhōng’s Yuán shǐ xù biān (KR2b0036) which had granted them; (2) On the Yuán Tàidìng and Tiānshùn succession — the work grants legitimacy, contradicting the Yuán shǐ’s suppression; (3) On the Míng-Qing transition — the work follows the Jiànyán nán dù precedent, sub-noting the Hóngguāng (Fúwáng) year-period as a legitimate Sòng-style southern remnant of one year, and treats the Lóngwǔ (Tángwáng) and Yǒnglì (Guìwáng) reigns sympathetically as the appended Míng TángGuì èr wáng běn mò. The last is striking: the Qiánlóng emperor here is institutionalising a sympathetic recognition of the Southern Míng resistance, while denying SòngÈrwáng equivalent recognition — a politically calibrated set of judgments.

The work is the Qing-imperial Lǐxué-orthodoxy form of universal history. Its production marks the high point of the Qing imperial historical project; together with the Yù dìng tōng jiàn gāngmù sān biān (KR2b0038) and the Huáng Qīng kāiguó fānglüè (KR2b0039), it constitutes the Qiánlóng-era imperially-sponsored historical-editorial program.

Translations and research

No translation. No standalone Western-language monograph. Discussion in:

  • R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries: Scholars and the State in the Late Ch’ien-lung Era (Harvard EAC, 1987) — discusses the work’s place in the Sì-kù project.
  • Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (UC Press, 1999) — discusses the imperial zhū-pī and the orthodoxy judgments.
  • William Theodore de Bary, Sources of East Asian Tradition, vol. 2 (Columbia, 2008), §§29–30.

Other points of interest

The zhūpī judgments are signed by the emperor in the first person and constitute the largest single corpus of Qiánlóng-era imperial historical commentary. They are cited throughout subsequent Qing-period imperial historical writing (e.g. Sìkù quánshū tí yào) as canonical authority.

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