Qīndìng zōngshì wánggōng gōngjī biǎozhuàn 欽定宗室王公功績表傳
Imperially Ordered Genealogical Tables and Biographies of the Imperial Clan Princes and Dukes for Their Merits imperially commissioned by 高宗弘曆 (敕撰)
About the work
A 12-juàn imperially commissioned compilation of genealogical tables and biographies of the Qīng imperial-clan (Zōngshì 宗室) princes (wáng 王) and dukes (gōng 公) who held titles by virtue of distinguished service to the dynasty’s founding and consolidation. The compilation was ordered by the Qiánlóng emperor (Gāozōng Hónglì 高宗弘曆, r. 1735–1796) by edicts of Qiánlóng 29 (1764), ninth month, 26th day, and Qiánlóng 43 (1778), first month, 10th day; it was prepared by the Dàxuéshì and Zōngrénfǔ in collaboration, and presented in Qiánlóng 46 (1781) — the catalog meta gives “Qiánlóng 46” for the date. The work treats only the Tàizǔ-onward Aisin Gioro princes who earned their titles through military or civil merit (i.e., the “iron-cap” tiěmàozǐ 鐵帽子 princes — Xiǎnqīnwáng 顯親王, Kāngqīnwáng 康親王, Jiǎnqīnwáng 簡親王, Xìnjùnwáng 信郡王, Shùnchéng jùnwáng 順承郡王, Píngjùnwáng 平郡王, plus the Ruìqīnwáng Duōěrgǔn 多爾袞 (Dorgon), the regent of the Shùnzhì period, whose posthumous rehabilitation by Qiánlóng is the central programmatic statement of the second edict). The first imperial edict (Qiánlóng 29) explicitly notes the difficulty of consulting the Shílù (Veritable Records) and Guóshǐ (Dynastic History) for individual prince’s careers since these are kept in the secret archives, and so commands the consolidation in convenient form; the second imperial edict (Qiánlóng 43) is a substantial historical-juridical argument for the rehabilitation of Dorgon (1612–1650), faulting Sūkèsàhā 蘇克薩哈 for the Shùnzhì-era posthumous attainder.
About the imperial-edict programs
The work is one of three Qián-lóng-period genealogical compilations on the Qing’s zōngshì and ancillary nobility — the others being KR2g0043 Qīndìng wàifān Měnggǔ Huíbù wánggōng biǎozhuàn (the Mongol and Muslim wàifān nobility) and KR2g0044 Qīndìng Bāqí Mǎnzhōu shìzú tōngpǔ (the Eight-Banner Manchu lineages). Together the three works constitute the Qiánlóng court’s comprehensive prosopographical project on the Qing’s gōngchén (meritorious-minister) nobility — a Qing institutional response to the long SòngMíng míngchén yánxíng lù tradition (KR2g0024 etc.). The program is significant in its conscious extension of Han-Chinese biographical-anthology genres to encompass zōngshì, Mongol, Muslim, and Manchu-Banner non-Han elite — making it the first major Chinese-historiographical attempt at a unified prosopography of a multi-ethnic empire.
Abstract
The Qīndìng zōngshì wánggōng gōngjī biǎozhuàn is the foundational documentary compilation of the Aisin Gioro imperial-clan princely line, prepared at imperial command (the work’s title is qualified Qīndìng 欽定 = imperially fixed) and presented in Qiánlóng 46 (1781). The catalog meta correctly gives “乾隆四十六年” as the date. The work’s central programmatic statement — Qiánlóng’s lengthy 1778 edict on Dorgon’s posthumous rehabilitation — is one of the more remarkable single Qing imperial historiographical interventions, reversing the Shùnzhì attainder against the founding regent on the basis of a careful re-reading of the Shílù. The work is required reading for any serious treatment of the Manchu zōngshì under Qing rule.
Translations and research
- Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (UC Press, 1999), uses the work and its companion volumes for the Qing imperial-historiographical zōng-shì program.
- David M. Robinson, Empire’s Twilight: Northeast Asia under the Mongols (HUP, 2009), and Mark C. Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (Stanford UP, 2001), provide the broader context.
- The standard catalog notice is in Sì-kù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The work is unusual for the Sìkù in being both an imperial-court compilation and a Sìkù-included text — the only major Qīndìng (imperially-authored or imperially-corrected) work in the zhuànjì division. The Qiánlóng emperor’s lengthy 1778 edict on Dorgon’s rehabilitation, prefacing the volume, makes this a primary source for late-Qián-lóng imperial-court historiographical doctrine.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- Crossley, A Translucent Mirror (1999).