Huáng Qīng kāiguó fānglüè 皇清開國方略
Strategic Outline of the August Qing Founding imperially commissioned (fèng chì 奉敕撰), compiled by 阿桂 (Āguì, 1717–1797) and 梁國治 (Liáng Guózhì, 1723–1786) et al.; presented Qiánlóng 51 / 1786
About the work
A 32-juan Qiánlóng-imperial chronicle of the Qing founding from the rise of Nurhaci’s father in the 1580s through the Shùnzhì entry into Beijing in 1644. Commissioned in Qiánlóng 38 / 1773; completed and presented in Qiánlóng 51 / 1786. The principal Qing-imperial chronicle of its own dynastic foundation, drawing on the Manchu-Mongol-Chinese trilingual Mǎnzhōu shí lù and the Tàizǔ / Tàizōng shí lù archives.
Tiyao
Huáng Qīng kāiguó fānglüè, 32 juǎn. Qiánlóng 38 (1773), composed under imperial commission. We respectfully — Our State, virtuous accumulation continuous, sincerely receiving the Heavenly Gaze — Báishān (the Long-White Mountain) was Heaven-made; the Vermilion-Fruit miraculously displayed; fifteen kings — opening of the Zhōu zuò. Foundation’s beginning — far indeed, the source long, the stream long. To Our Tàizǔ Gāohuángdì, with the founder-ancestor’s diligence, met U-wǎng’s decline — grandly built the great enterprise, received Heaven’s bright Mandate. The Lord goes forth in zhèn (the Earthquake-trigram); the ten-thousand things know spring. By which to lift the Tiānshū (Heaven’s pole), to compass and govern the cǎomèi (chaos-shoots), through tūn (the Tūn-trigram) and crossing the perilous, preserving the great and fixing merit — the mó liè (model and virtue) clearly transmitted. Truly what writing-and-engraving has not seen since.
To Our Tàizōng Wénhuángdì, taking up the previous threads, expanding further the bǎnzhāng (the Banner-list), Sun-Moon at the high road — brilliant continuing-and-illuminating. Chéng Tāng held the Yuè (Yuè-axe); eleven campaigns nowhere not gaining merit. Zhōu Wǔ at the river, eight hundred states none not coming to assemble. Acoustic-spirit broadcast far; zhìzuò renewed. Wéndé and wǔgōng — chord-the-prior to open-the-after — lín lín bǐng bǐng. Also what the historical books have not heard.
Yet affairs span five reigns; time exceeds ten chronologies. Old ministers’ recitations; ancient elders’ chants — mouth-and-ear mutually transmitted — sometimes cannot all be set down on bamboo and silk. While the Veritable Records and Treasured Instructions are honorably stored in the metal-cabinet, beyond the historians’ brushstrokes — not what the outer-court can glimpse. Therefore the special edict to the Bureau ministers, respectfully recording the founding shape, set as the imperial Diǎn. Headed by a Fā xiáng shì jì (Recording the Origin’s Auspicious Manifestations) one piān — like the Shāng sòng’s account of the Xuán Niǎo, the Zhōu yǎ’s celebration of GōngLiú. Although the times are dim and far, year-and-month cannot fully be detailed — yet since the affairs have evidence, the principle requires transmitting truth — by which to clarify the inheriting-blessings’s source.
The remaining all biānnián records-by-month, listed mù and raised gāng. From Tàizǔ Gāohuángdì guǐwèi year (1583), summer fifth month, raising troops to attack Níkānwàiguān at the Kètúlún city, beginning. To Tiānmìng 11 (1626), autumn seventh month, instructing the ministers — compiled as 8 juǎn. From Tàizōng Wénhuángdì’s accession through Shùnzhì 1 (1644) — Shìzǔ Zhānghuángdì entering the gates and fixing the dǐng — compiled as 24 juǎn. Apparently divine merit and sage virtue — history cannot exhaust the writing. Only respectfully narrating the merits-and-enterprises most conspicuous, the affairs-of-government most significant, the móyóu (planning) most far-reaching — already piling pieces and connecting volumes, accumulated as 32 juǎn.
The order of TángYú — set in the Diǎnmó. The administration of WénWǔ — distributed in the documents. We ministers, in the writing-and-collating remainder, circling back, kneeling and reading — the difficulty of opening the enterprise, the far-reaching of bequeathed planning, all may be glimpsed one by one. How is this not what all ten-thousand ages should listen to with the ear of intent?
Abstract
The Huáng Qīng kāiguó fānglüè is the principal Qing-imperial chronicle of its own dynastic foundation. Its temporal coverage runs from the 1583 raising of troops by Nurhaci against Níkānwàiguān 尼堪外蘭 at Kètúlún 圖倫 city — the symbolic beginning of the Manchu polity, when Nurhaci was 25 — through to the Shùnzhì 1 / 1644 entry of the Shùnzhì emperor into Beijing under Dorgon’s regency. The work is in two structural blocks: (a) juǎn 1–8, Tàizǔ Nurhaci’s reign through Tiānmìng 11 / 1626; (b) juǎn 9–32, Tàizōng Hong Taiji’s reign through to the Beijing entry. A prefatory Fā xiáng shì jì on the legendary-mythic Manchu origins (the Vermilion-Fruit story of the eponymous ancestor; the Long-White Mountain; the fifteen kings of the pre-Nurhaci Aisin Gioro lineage) frames the chronicle.
The work is a Qiánlóng-era exercise in dynastic self-historiography. Source-base: the trilingual Manchu-Mongol-Chinese Mǎnzhōu shí lù 滿洲實錄 (originally compiled in Tàizōng’s reign 1635–1636 from Nurhaci’s-era materials); the Tàizǔ shí lù and Tàizōng shí lù; the Bā qí tōng zhì 八旗通志; supplemented by oral-historical materials gathered from Manchu elders. Form: biānnián, year-and-month set, with gāng (large-script headings) and fēnzhù (sub-script details).
The work was commissioned in Qiánlóng 38 / 1773 (per the Sìkù tíyào), completed and presented to the throne in Qiánlóng 51 / 1786 (per the catalog meta). The dating bracket is set to the documented compositional period 1773–1786. Āguì 阿桂 (the highest-ranking Manchu official of the late Qiánlóng era) and Liáng Guózhì 梁國治 (concurrent senior Sìkùguǎn zǒngcái) led the editorial bureau; the substantive scholarly work was done by the Mǎnzhōu yuánliú kǎo historiographical staff.
The work’s principal historiographical interest lies in (a) its extensive use of pre-1644 Manchu-language materials translated into Chinese for the first time, and (b) its sympathetic and detailed treatment of the pre-Nurhaci Aisin Gioro lineage — institutionalising the official Qing-imperial dynastic-origin narrative. Together with the Mǎnzhōu yuánliú kǎo (1789, also under Āguì) and the Bā qí tōng zhì, it constitutes the Qiánlóng-era imperial canon of Manchu-origins historiography.
Translations and research
No translation. No standalone Western-language monograph. Discussion in:
- Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (UC Press, 1999), §§4–5 — the principal English-language analysis.
- Pamela Kyle Crossley, The Manchus (Blackwell, 1997 / 2002), §§3–4.
- Mark Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 2001).
- Gertraude Roth Li, Manchu: A Textbook for Reading Documents, 2nd ed. (NFTRC, 2010).
Other points of interest
The work’s prefatory Fā xiáng shì jì — the legendary Aisin Gioro origins from the Vermilion-Fruit / Long-White Mountain ancestor — is institutionalised as imperial canon here for the first time, and is the principal documentary source for the official Qing-imperial dynastic-origin myth.
Links
- Wikidata Q11084141
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào 0105101.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §50.6 (Qing dynasty histories).