Zhāng Xiāngzhuàng zòushū 張襄壯奏疏
Memorials of Zhāng Xiāng-zhuàng by 張勇 (撰)
About the work
A 6-juàn compilation of 120 frontier-military memorials by the great early-Qīng northwestern general Zhāng Yǒng 張勇 (1616–1684; Xiāngzhuàng his posthumous title), spanning his 35-year career from his 1649 confirmation as Gānsù zǒngbīng to his 1684 deathbed memorial at Gānzhōu. The work was edited by his son Zhāng Yúnyì 張雲翼.
Tiyao
Zhāng Xiāngzhuàng zòushū, 6 juàn, by Zhāng Yǒng of the present dynasty (清). Yǒng, zì Fēixióng, from Shàngyuán; through accumulated military merit served to Jìngnì hóu Jìngnì jiāngjūn Tídū Gānsù jūnwù, with concurrent Shǎofù and Tàizǐ tàishī. — This collection was edited by his son Yúnyì. It begins with the Shùnzhì 6 (1649) memorial of thanks for confirmation as Gānsù zǒngbīng and ends with the Kāngxī 23 (1684) deathbed-memorial at Gānzhōu — 120 pieces in total. — Yǒng on first taking the Gānsù zǒngbīng office immediately faced the Suìzhōu Huí revolt within and the Ánghànyí encroachments along the frontier, every day given to attack-and-suppress. Mid-career he was reassigned to a southern campaign, returning to Gānsù and again facing the Wáng Fǔchén disturbance — coming and going on suppression-marches without a day of peace. At his death he had suffered new wounds defending against Màilìgàn; pressing his strength out, he led the army out and died in camp. — Counting his time on the front lines, more than forty years in all. Wáng Jìnbǎo, Zhào Liángdòng, and others all rose from his junior officers (piānbēi) into named generals. From Kāngxī 13 (1674) onwards, with arrow-wounds and damaged foot, he commanded from a sedan-chair for ten years; he repeatedly requested release of office, all answered with yōuzhào of comfort and retention; he governed from his sickbed. The grace received from the two reigns [Shùnzhì and Kāngxī], among the various generals, none surpassed Yǒng. — In examining the collection, the various memorials are largely his battlefield writing, all clear-cut and detailed, no word held back. Reading them, one sees from the foundation-period the strategic settlement of QínLǒng (Shǎnxī–Gānsù), and equally one sees the various sage emperors’ knowing-of-men and skilful employment, the wind-and-clouds meeting [the fēngyún jìhuì of meritorious service] — truly the height of a thousand-year-rare moment. — Reverently presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Zhāng Xiāngzhuàng zòushū is a principal documentary monument of the early-Qīng northwestern frontier consolidation — the period encompassing the post-conquest pacification (1649–1660s), the Sānfān uprising (1673–81), and the build-up to the first Galdan-war (1684+). The collection spans 35 years and is the largest single-author Qīng-period frontier-general memorial-corpus before the Yōngzhèng zhūpī yùzhǐ (KR2f0009). The Sìkù editors’ praise of the work is unusually warm — using the rare phrase “qiānzǎi yīshí zhī shèng” (a height of one moment in a thousand years) — reflecting Qīng official ideology of the early-Kāngxī northwestern campaigns as the founding moment of the consolidated empire.
Translations and research
- Joanna Waley-Cohen, The Culture of War in China: Empire and the Military under the Qing Dynasty (Tauris, 2006).
- Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Belknap/Harvard, 2005) — context for the Galdan campaigns and the post-1690 consolidation.
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7 (Qīng zòu-yì).
Other points of interest
Zhāng’s principal subordinate-officers Wáng Jìnbǎo and Zhào Liángdòng — both later major generals in their own right — illustrate the Hànjūn (Chinese-bannered) advancement-pattern of the early Qīng military: junior officers rose under a senior Hàn-bannered patron-commander. The Sìkù tíyào explicitly notes this patronage chain.
Links
- Wikidata: Zhang Yong (Qing)
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7.