Qīndìng Bāqí Mǎnzhōu shìzú tōngpǔ 欽定八旗滿州氏族通譜
Imperially Ordered Comprehensive Genealogy of the Manchu Lineages of the Eight Banners imperially commissioned by 高宗弘曆 (敕撰)
About the work
An 80-juàn imperially commissioned comprehensive genealogy of the Manchu (and adjacent) lineages of the Eight Banners (Bāqí 八旗), prepared at the order of the Qiánlóng emperor with an imperial preface dated Qiánlóng 9, twelfth month, third day (= early 1745). The catalog meta records the date as Qiánlóng 9 (= 1744), corresponding to the completion of the imperial preface; the work itself was begun under Yōngzhèng. The original imperial directive — preserved in the prefatory matter — quotes Yōngzhèng’s earlier instruction: “The surnames of the Eight-Banner Manchus are many and there is no consolidated work for reference. Let the Eight-Banner surnames be examined in detail, with the time and circumstances of their original submission to our dynasty also recorded; let it be compiled into volumes; and after my review let it be cut for permanent transmission. Let the Manchu Dàxuéshì in collaboration with Fúmǐn 福敏 and Xú Yuánmèng 徐元夢 prepare it accordingly. Respectfully heed.” The work is organized by surname (xìngshì 姓氏), each surname grouped under its locality (dìmíng 地名), with the men of the surname listed under each locality. Under each xìngshì, the most distinguished member’s zhuàn is placed at the head; lesser figures are attached to the various dìmíng sub-headings. Coverage closes at the end of Yōngzhèng 13 (1735), so that the Qián-lóng-period figures are not yet included. The work is the foundational genealogical compilation of the Manchu Banner-population and the indispensable source for any reconstruction of Manchu lineage history.
About the imperial-edict program and structure
Yōngzhèng’s earliest order is undated in the surviving record but appears to be from the early Yōngzhèng reign (1723–1735). The compilation team included the Manchu Dàxuéshì (the senior Manchu cabinet official), Fúmǐn (a senior Manchu official), and Xú Yuánmèng (a Mongol-Han hybrid scholar-official). Qiánlóng on his accession (1736) maintained the program; the imperial preface he provided in 1744 explicitly stresses the zhèn / zōng / zǔ moral-political structure: that the descendants who eat the inherited fields and tend the forefathers’ duties shall not stray from their fathers’ service. The work’s fánlì 凡例 (editorial principles, given in the second prefatory section) lay out the format precisely: each juàn opens with the book-title and juàn-number at the top; xìngshì in head-position as the gāng (summary heading); dìmíng and rénmíng below in indented format; and so on. The first 65 juàn cover the principal Manchu surnames; juàn 66–73 cover Měnggǔ (Mongolian) Banner-surnames; juàn 74–80 cover the Gāolì (Korean), Hànjūn (Han Banner), Táiníkǎn and Éluósī (Russian) supplementary categories. The work treats only those who joined the Aisin Gioro confederation prior to Yōngzhèng 13.
Abstract
The Qīndìng Bāqí Mǎnzhōu shìzú tōngpǔ is the foundational documentary compilation of Manchu Banner lineage history. The work was begun under Yōngzhèng and completed under Qiánlóng, with the imperial preface dated Qiánlóng 9 (= 1744; specifically the twelfth month, third day). The 80 juàn are organized by surname-and-locality and provide for each significant Banner family a record of its original submission to the Aisin Gioro and a brief biography of the lineage’s most distinguished members. The work is the indispensable source for Manchu Banner prosopography and is consulted in all serious modern works on Qīng Manchu history (Elliott, Crossley, Rhoads, Roth Li). It is also one of the rare Qīndìng (imperially-fixed) compilations to be included in the Sìkù’s zhuànjì division.
Translations and research
- Mark C. Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (Stanford UP, 2001) — uses the work extensively.
- Pamela Kyle Crossley, Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World (Princeton UP, 1990).
- Edward J. M. Rhoads, Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928 (UWP, 2000).
- Gertraude Roth Li, Manchu: A Textbook for Reading Documents (UHP, 2000).
- 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’s structure — by surname and within surname by locality — preserves a great deal of pre-Qing Manchu (and Jurchen) tribal-territorial history that would otherwise be lost. It is the indispensable supplement to the Mǎnzhōu shílù 滿洲實錄 (the founding-period official chronicle) and the Bāqí tōngzhì 八旗通志 (the Eight-Banner administrative compendium) for any serious Manchu history.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- Elliott, The Manchu Way (2001).
- Crossley, Orphan Warriors (1990).