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大清一統志

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Text ID
KR2k0009
Date
1764–1784
Dynasty
清

DàQīng yītǒng zhì 大清一統志

Comprehensive Gazetteer of the Great Qīng by 和珅 (奉敕撰)

About the work

The second edition of the Qīng official empire-wide gazetteer, in 424 (originally 500) juan, edited by Héshēn 和珅 (Hesĕn, 1750–1799) and others by imperial command. Begun by imperial order in Qiánlóng 29 (1764) on the basis of the first (1743/44, Xú Qiánxué) edition and finally presented to the throne in 1784 (printed 1790), this is the recension preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū and the one used here. It expands the first edition’s 342 juan to 500 juan to incorporate the post-1755 conquests in Xīnjiāng, the formal reorganisation of Tibet and Qīnghǎi, and a number of newly internalised territories on the southwestern frontier (Wilkinson, CHNM §66.4.3.3). It is the largest and most authoritative Qīng comprehensive gazetteer prior to the third edition (the 1842 Jiāqìng chóngxiū) and remains the principal pre-Jiāqìng documentary source for Qīng administrative geography. (The catalog meta records dynasty as 明, evidently a clerical error: this is a Qīng imperial work; corrected here.)

Tiyao

By imperial command, Qiánlóng 29 (1764). This book was first edited and completed in Qiánlóng 8 (1743). For each province, a tǒngbù 統部 (provincial overview) was first established, prefaced with maps and tables; first fēnyě 分野, next jiànzhì yán’gé 建置沿革, next xíngshèng 形勝, next zhíguān 職官, next hùkǒu 戶口, next tiánfù 田賦, next mínghuàn 名宦 — each subsuming the entire province. For its prefectures and zhílì zhōu 直隸州, a separate table was set up, with the counties hung beneath; for each, first fēnyě, next jiànzhì yán’gé, next xíngshèng, next fēngsú 風俗, next chéngchí 城池, next xuéxiào 學校, next hùkǒu, next tiánfù, next shānchuān 山川, next gǔjī 古跡, next guānài 關隘, next jīnliáng 津梁, next dīyàn 堤堰, next língmù 陵墓, next sìguàn 寺觀, next mínghuàn, next rénwù 人物, next liúyù 流寓, next liènǚ 列女, next xiānshì 仙釋, next tǔchǎn 土產 — twenty-one categories in all. Comprising 342 juan in total; with foreign vassals and tributary states appended separately.

By Qiánlóng 20 (1755), with imperial majesty thundering forth and Yīlí 伊犁 pacified, the territory expanded by over 20,000 lǐ — for which earlier topographies had no precedent — and the merging or subdivision of prefectures, zhōu, and counties, and the increases, decreases, and relocations of officials, also frequently differed from the older establishment. So an imperial decree commanded a re-edition, defining this present recension. Then in Qiánlóng 28 (1763), the south-western Huí tribes Àiwūhǎn 愛烏罕, Huòhǎn 霍罕, Qǐqíyùsū 啟齊玉蘇, Wū’ěrgēnqí 烏爾根齊, and the Yúnnán-southern tribal chiefdoms of Zhěngqiàn 整欠 and Jǐnghǎi 景海 successively submitted to the realm; in Qiánlóng 40 (1775) the two Jīnchuān 金川 (Greater and Lesser) were further pacified, with garrison-colonies opened and outposts ranged, broadening the imperial frame again. They were therefore likewise included in the work, to display the unprecedented extent of unified rule.

The territorial frame having broadened beyond what came before, the gathering is yet more comprehensive; the categories remain as before, but the format is yet more detailed. At a glance one has the Nine Provinces reaching their borders and the Eight Extremes in mutual concord, all visible to the palm of the hand. Of old, the Táng divided the empire into ten dào, with Lǒngyòu placed sixth; Lǐ Jífǔ’s Yuánhé jùnxiàn zhì KR2k0003 retreated it to tenth, the territory by then having fallen to Tǔbō. The Sòng’s territorial extent was the most contracted; Ōuyáng Mín’s Yúdì guǎngjì KR2k0006 for those areas it could not hold, set up the rubric huàwài zhōu, already ingenious; Zhù Mù’s Fāngyú shènglǎn KR2k0007 does not even mention Huáiběi by a single character. Where dynasties have been weak, territorial extent has shrunk daily, and so the records have had to shrink daily; in our enlightened age, the imperial frame extends daily wider, and so the editing must accordingly grow yet daily fuller. Today’s Zhì, dated by only some decades from the last edition, has territory assigned to it that the earlier work could not accommodate; the august virtue is announced afar, and submission flocks like clouds — this is the manifest token. Even the territorial expansion of YúShùn, increasing nine provinces to twelve, can scarcely be set against the brilliance of our age.

(The Wényuāngé prefatory matter for this text contains no Sìkù tíyào in the digitised _000.txt — in fact, the entry begins directly with the body. The translation above is from the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào fallback. The reverent submission line and editor list — Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅, with general collation by Lù Fèichí 陸費墀 — applies as standard.)

Abstract

Three editions of the DàQīng yītǒng zhì were compiled (Wilkinson, CHNM §66.4.3.3):

  1. First edition (the Xú Qiánxué edition): proposed by imperial agreement of the Kāngxī emperor in 1672 and completed only in 1743/44, in 342 juan, under the editorship of Xú Qiánxué 徐乾學 (1631–1694) and successors; the eighteen provincial gazetteers on which it was based had to be newly compiled first, accounting for the long delay.
  2. Second edition (the Héshēn edition; the present work): commissioned by imperial decree in Qiánlóng 29 (1764) on the basis of the post-1755 territorial expansion (the conquest of the Dzungar territories and the pacification of the Hui regions of Xīnjiāng, the formal incorporation of Tibet and Qīnghǎi, and the new southwestern tūsī establishments). Final compilation was supervised by Héshēn 和珅 (1750–1799); presented to the throne in 1784 and printed in 1790. The work expanded the first edition’s 342 juan to 500 juan; the Wényuāngé Sìkù copy was redivided into 424 juan during the Sìkù editing process (Qiánlóng 46, 1781).
  3. Third edition (the Mùzhāng’ā / Jiāqìng chóngxiū edition): completed in 1820 (Jiāqìng 25) under Mùzhāng’ā 穆彰阿 et al.; printed in 1842; the Jiāqìng yītǒng zhì, in Wilkinson’s words, “the largest and most accurate of all the extant empire-wide gazetteers”.

The present (second) edition is the one preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū under volumes 474–483. The text proceeds, after the yùzhì xù (imperial preface), province by province through the Liǎngjīng (Beijing and Shèngjīng / Mukden), the eighteen Inner Provinces, the four colonised territories (Xīnjiāng, Tibet, Qīnghǎi, Mongolia / Wàifān), and a final block on tributary states (Cháoxiǎn 朝鮮, Liúqiú 琉球, Yuènán 越南, Xiānluó 暹羅, Miǎndiàn 緬甸, Sūlù 蘇祿, etc.). The provincial-level structure follows a fixed 21-category schema (fēnyě, jiànzhì yán’gé, xíngshèng, fēngsú, chéngchí, xuéxiào, hùkǒu, tiánfù, shānchuān, gǔjī, guānài, jīnliáng, dīyàn, língmù, sìguàn, mínghuàn, rénwù, liúyù, liènǚ, xiānshì, tǔchǎn) which is the most elaborate of any imperial Chinese gazetteer.

A note on attribution: the catalog meta names Héshēn as fèngchìzhuàn 奉敕撰 (compiler by imperial command), reflecting his nominal headship in the final phase of the project. In practice, the second edition was drafted and edited by a large team of scholars including the principal zǒngzuǎnguān 總纂官 (Editors-in-Chief) of the Sìkù quánshū establishment — Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅, with general collation by Lù Fèichí 陸費墀. The dating “Qiánlóng 29 (1764)” given in the catalog meta refers to the start of the second edition’s commission; the actual presentation date is Qiánlóng 49 (1784), and the printing 1790. The date bracket 1764–1784 used in this entry reflects the actual composition span of the received Wényuāngé text.

Translations and research

  • Dà-Qīng yītǒng zhì 大清一統志. Xú Qiánxué et al., eds. Completed 1744. The first edition; the basis of the present second edition.
  • Dà-Qīng yītǒng zhì 大清一統志. Hé-shēn et al., eds. Presented 1784, printed 1790. The present (second) edition; preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù.
  • Jiāqìng chóngxiū dà-Qīng yītǒng zhì 嘉慶重修大清一統志 (third edition). Mùzhāng’ā 穆彰阿 et al., comp. Completed 1820, printed 1842. Shànghǎi gǔjí, 12 vols., 2008. The most accurate and comprehensive of the three.
  • Yajima Genryō 矢島玄亮. Chūgoku no jiin 中國の寺院 (Chinese Buddhist temples). Sankō shiryō 37. Sendai: Tōhoku daigaku fuzoku toshokan, 1966. Index of the 2,407 temples listed in the Jiāqìng yītǒng zhì; data incorporated into CHGIS.
  • Biot, Édouard. Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et arrondissements de premier, deuxième et troisième ordre compris dans l’Empire chinois. Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1842. A French digest of the Jiāqìng yītǒng zhì; revised and Englished as Playfair, G. M. H., The Cities and Towns of China: A Geographical Dictionary, 2nd rev. ed., Kelly and Walsh, 1910.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., §§16.3.3, 66.4.3.3. The principal English-language anchor.
  • CHGIS (China Historical Geographic Information System), Harvard, draws extensively on the Jiāqìng yītǒng zhì and on the present (Hé-shēn) recension.

Other points of interest

The Héshēn recension is the first official Chinese imperial gazetteer to incorporate Tibet, Qīnghǎi, and Xīnjiāng as integral provinces of the realm rather than as foreign vassal regions, and is for that reason a key documentary basis for late-Qīng imperial geography. It is also the largest Sìkù entry in volumes by cè in the Wényuāngé. The 424-juan division of the Wényuāngé text reflects an editorial decision of the Sìkù establishment in 1781; the Héshēn presentation copy itself was 500 juan.

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