Shìzōng Xiànhuángdì shàngyù bāqí 世宗憲皇帝上諭八旗
Yōngzhèng’s Imperial Pronouncements to the Eight Banners by 允祿 (奉敕編)
About the work
A 13-juàn compilation of imperial pronouncements (shàngyù 上諭) issued by the Yōngzhèng 雍正 emperor on Eight-Banner administrative affairs. The work was compiled by command of the emperor by his sixteenth-junior brother Héshuò Zhuāngqīnwáng 和碩莊親王 Yǔnlù 允祿 (1695–1767) and the imperial Jūnjī council, completed and submitted in Yōngzhèng 9 / 12 / 8 (1731). The work belongs to the integrated three-part Shàngyù bāqí — Shàngyù qíwù yìfù — Yùxíng qíwù zòuyì compilation (38 juàn total) covering all Yōngzhèng-era pronouncements relating to the Banners. The catalog separates these into KR2f0007 (the Shàngyù bāqí portion, 13 juàn) and the broader Shàngyù nèigé compilation KR2f0008. Both Manchu and Chinese texts (guóshū / Hànshū) were printed.
Tiyao
Shìzōng Xiànhuángdì shàngyù bāqí, 13 juàn; Shàngyù qíwù yìfù, 12 juàn; Yùxíng qíwù zòuyì, 13 juàn. In Yōngzhèng 9 (1731) Héshuò Zhuāngqīnwáng Yǔnlù 允祿 et al., by imperial command, edited the three collections, comprising one work. From the seventeenth day of the eleventh month of Kāngxī 61 (1722, Yōngzhèng’s accession) onwards, those imperial pronouncements relating to Eight-Banner administration are called Shàngyù bāqí, in 13 juàn. Where the imperial pronouncements are recorded first and the deliberative replies of the Banner ministers appended below, the result is Shàngyù qíwù yìfù, in 12 juàn. Where the Banner ministers’ memorials are recorded first and the responding imperial pronouncements appended below, the result is Yùxíng qíwù zòuyì, in 13 juàn. Both the imperial language (Manchu) and Chinese texts were printed and promulgated. — Now in pre-Three-Dynasties times, the military and the people were one body, and civil and martial were not separated; thus those whose names appeared in the registers, sixteen years and below were what the ruler raised, sixty years and above were what the ruler nourished; in time of leisure all could be drilled together, and in emergency every man could shoulder a halberd; and the generals of the time were taken from among the qīngdàifū. They never governed military matters separately from civil. — In our state’s Eight-Banner system, this ancient method is preserved: arm and finger linked, governed by military discipline; yet the people stand to one another like neighbours and clansmen, civil affairs are present in their midst; the offices function like commanderies and counties, administrative affairs are present in their midst. Thus the work of the Six Boards and the Hundred Bureaux — none of it is absent from the Eight Banners; and the regulations and casework files are accordingly extensive and intricate. Shìzōng Xiànhuángdì deeply contemplated this root concern, and his sage planning omitted nothing — what he uttered in lúnfú (silken pronouncements) is unusually full. Yet still fearful that some hair’s breadth might be missed, he took counsel with the ministers of the court; the deliberative replies accumulated into volumes; he consulted the wood-gatherers; the memorials too accumulated into volumes. Now even at the very seat of the imperial chariot, where seeing and hearing are nearest, the planning was so detailed and the consultation so close — how much more must we admire the imperial mind that, in a single breath, encompasses the four seas. The selected materials cover Yōngzhèng 1 to 5 (1723–1727): Shàngyù bāqí in one Manchu and one Chinese case; Shàngyù qíwù yìfù and Yùxíng qíwù zòuyì in two Manchu and two Chinese cases each, totalling thirty volumes. — Submitted on Yōngzhèng 9 / 12 / 8 (1731).
Abstract
This is the principal Yōngzhèng-period official compilation of yùzhǐ on Banner administration, a domain Yōngzhèng prosecuted with unusual intensity (the Banner reforms, the yánglián yín 養廉銀 stipend system for Banner officers, the rectification of garrison postings, the Banner-people reform). The Manchu original and Chinese translation were printed and promulgated together. Yǔnlù 允祿 — the long-serving senior imperial-prince administrator of the Council of State — was the natural choice as chief editor; the work was a complement to the yùzhǐ compilations relating to the Nèigé 內閣 (KR2f0008). Together with the Shìzōng shèngxùn (KR2f0006) and the Yùxuǎn yǔlù (KR6 series), this is one of the principal documentary monuments of the Yōngzhèng court.
Translations and research
- Pamela Crossley, Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World (Princeton UP, 1990) — uses the Banner shàng-yù extensively.
- Mark Elliott, The Manchu Way (Stanford UP, 2001) — chapter on Yōngzhèng-era Banner reforms.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7.