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齊乘

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Text ID
KR2k0026
Date
1335–1339
Dynasty
元

Qí chéng 齊乘

The Chronicles of Qí by 于欽

About the work

A six-juan general gazetteer of the ancient region of Qí 齊 (modern Shāndōng) — the only properly systematic regional gazetteer of Yuán-period Shāndōng — by Yú Qīn 于欽 (1284–1333), zì Sīróng 思容, native of Yīdū 益都 / Qīngzhōu 青州 (modern Shāndōng). Yú Qīn drew on his lifelong residence and offices in Shāndōng (he ended his career as Yīdū tiánfù zǒngguǎn) and on direct field investigation, in addition to the standard textual canon, to produce what the Sìkù editors call “an old-method gazetteer” (dìzhìzhōng zhī yǒu gǔfǎzhě 地志中之有古法者) — a model of evidential local geography. The work covers all 59 prefectures and counties of Shāndōng under the Yuán in eight rubrics. An appendix (juàn fù 卷附) of shìyīn 釋音 (one juan) provides phonetic glosses for the place-names and technical terms — a feature unusual in the gazetteer corpus.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Qí chéng in six juan is by Yú Qīn 于欽 of the Yuán. Qīn, zì Sīróng 思容, was a man of Qīngzhōu 青州; he served by promotion to Bīngbù shìláng 兵部侍郎. This book is dedicated entirely to the geography of Qí. It is divided into eight categories: yángé (historical evolution), fēnyě (astronomical correspondence), shānchuān (mountains and rivers), jùnyì (commanderies and counties), gǔjì (ancient sites), tíngguǎn (pavilions and lodges), fēngtǔ (custom and produce), rénwù (worthies). The narrative is concise, careful, and broad-ranging — among gazetteers, an exemplar of the old method.

There are some errors. For example: that in Sòng Jiànlóng 3 (962) Wéizhōu 濰州 was changed to set up the Běihǎijūn 北海軍, with Chāngyìxiàn 昌邑縣 attached to it; that in Qiándào 3 (1167) Wéizhōu was again promoted, and Chānglèxiàn 昌樂 was further added to its administration — both these are in the Sòng shǐ Dìlǐzhì, but this book alone omits them. Also, Shòuguāng 壽光 was the ancient state of Jǔ 莒, and that too is not given in detail. Other errors: he equates Huábùzhù 華不注 with Mójīshān 磨笄山, and places Táichéng 臺城 thirteen lǐ northeast of Jǐnán — Gù Yánwǔ’s 顧炎武 Shāndōng kǎogǔlù 山東考古錄 has refuted these.

But Qīn was himself a man of Qí. He drew on the canonical and historical texts and verified them against personal observation, and so compared with other gazetteers — which merely look at maps and pronounce judgements in air — his evidential basis is genuinely detailed and reliable. Hence it has long been esteemed a fine recension. At the head of the book there is a preface by Sū Tiānjué 蘇天爵 dated Zhìyuán 5 (1339), which likewise warmly praises it.

Reverently collated and submitted, second month, Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Editors-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collation officer: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Qí chéng is the most important and most fully-realized regional gazetteer of Yuán-period Shāndōng. Its structure is unusual: rather than treating a single prefecture (the dominant gazetteer-unit of the SòngYuán) it covers all 59 jùnyì 郡邑 of the Shāndōng region as a coherent unit, justified by appeal to the ancient cultural identity of “Qí” as transmitted from the Spring and Autumn period through the Hàn (the title chéng 乘 deliberately invokes the Jìn Chéng 晉乘 and Lǔ Chūnqiū 春秋 of the Mèngzǐ — the lost regional histories of antiquity).

The work was completed during Yú Qīn’s later years, almost certainly in the period of his last office as Yīdū tiánfù zǒngguǎn 益都田賦總管 (Director of the Yīdū Land-Tax Bureau, ca. early-mid ZhìyuánZhìshùn era). Sū Tiānjué’s preface — dated Zhìyuán wǔnián jǐmǎo dōng shíyuè bǐngxū shuò (the first day of the tenth month of Zhìyuán 5 / 1339) under his offices as Jiāyì dàfū and JiāngběiHuáidōngdào sùzhèng liánfǎngshǐ — explicitly states that Yú Qīn had died “with his household impoverished” (qí jiā xiāorán 其家蕭然) and that only this manuscript survived among his papers, with his son Yú Qián 于潛 transmitting it. Sū obtained access to it while serving in Wéiyáng 維揚 (Yángzhōu). The preface places the work explicitly in the lineage of the Yuán imperial Dà Yuán dà yītǒng zhì 大元大一統志 begun under Zhào Biàn 趙忭 in the early Dàdé era — a work whose secrecy (“stored in the inner archives, no one in the world could see it”) motivated the production of regional gazetteers like the Qí chéng as substitutes accessible to the educated public.

The eight rubric scheme: (1) yángé 沿革 (historical evolution of administrative units, drawing on the canonical historical record from the Yǔgòng through the Yuán); (2) fēnyě 分野 (astronomical-correspondence — Qí mapped to Xū 虛 and Wēi 危 lodges); (3) shānchuān 山川 (the mountains and rivers of Shāndōng, with particular attention to Tàishān 泰山, Láoshān 嶗山, the headwaters of the Yellow River and the Jǐ 濟); (4) jùnyì 郡邑 (the 59 administrative units); (5) gǔjì 古蹟 (archaeological sites); (6) tíngguǎn 亭館 (pavilions); (7) fēngtǔ 風土 (custom and produce, including the products of the Jiāodōng 膠東 peninsula); (8) rénwù 人物 (worthies, with substantial coverage of the Línzī 臨淄 and Jǐběi 濟北 traditions, the Jìxià xué 稷下學, and post-Hàn Shāndōng).

The Sìkù editors — themselves drawing on Gù Yánwǔ’s 顧炎武 Shāndōng kǎogǔlù 山東考古錄, an early Qīng evidential study of Shāndōng historical geography — note three identifiable errors (the Sòng restructuring of Wéizhōu and Chāngyì/Chānglè; the placement of Shòuguāng in the ancient state of Jǔ; the equation of Huábùzhù with Mójīshān; the location of Táichéng), but emphasize that Yú Qīn’s autopsy and direct local knowledge make the work substantially more reliable than other gazetteers of his period.

A note on dating: the work is conventionally dated to ca. 1335–1339, with completion by 1335 (during Yú Qīn’s lifetime — he died 1333 per CBDB, but the more standard date is 1333; some sources place his death later). Sū Tiānjué’s preface (1339) marks the moment of the work’s emergence into circulation through Sū’s editorial hand. The catalog meta gives Yú Qīn’s lifedates as 1284–1333; we follow CBDB. notBefore 1335 reflects the date of compilation in Yú’s last years; notAfter 1339 reflects the date of Sū Tiānjué’s preface and the work’s first circulation.

A note on a Sìkù typographical slip: the Sìkù tíyào writes Yú Qīn’s office as Bīngbù shìláng 兵部侍郎 (Vice Minister of War); Sū Tiānjué’s contemporary preface gives instead the more substantive offices Yùshǐ xiàntái dōushì 御史憲臺都事, Zuǒsī yuánwàiláng 左司員外郎, and finally Yīdū tiánfù zǒngguǎn 益都田賦總管. The Sìkù attribution of Bīngbù shìláng may reflect a posthumous honorific or simply an error.

Translations and research

  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 6th ed. 2022. §§16.4.1, 64.3.3.1. Treats the Qí chéng in the company of the principal extant Yuán-period gazetteers.
  • Modern punctuated edition: in Sòng Yuán fāngzhì cóngkān 宋元方志叢刊 (Zhōnghuá, 1990), vol. 6.
  • Qí chéng jiào shì 齊乘校釋. Lǐ Sūshēng 李歲生, ed. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2012. The standard modern critical edition with collation notes and notes on the shì-yīn appendix.
  • Qí Sēn 齊森. 2010. “Qí chéng yánjiū” 《齊乘》研究. PhD dissertation, Shāndōng dàxué. The most recent monograph-length study, covering authorship, editions, and the work’s relationship to the Dà Yuán dà yītǒng zhì.
  • Hargett, James M. 1996. “Song dynasty local gazetteers and their place in the history of difangzhi writing.” HJAS 56.2: 405–42.

Other points of interest

The Qí chéng is one of only a handful of premodern Chinese regional (rather than prefectural or provincial) gazetteers surviving from before the Míng. The supplementary shìyīn (one juan) provides phonetic glosses for technical and toponymic terms, an unusual textual feature that reflects Yú Qīn’s evidential interest in correctly reading the inherited canon. Sū Tiānjué’s preface places Yú Qīn’s project in the same lineage of post-conquest Yuán intellectuals (in Sū’s own circle) using regional history-writing as an alternative mode of cultural memory in the absence of accessible imperial documentary records — a generation of scholars including Sū himself, Yú Qīn, and the surviving disciples of Yú Jí 虞集, Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯, and Wú Chéng 吳澄.

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