欽定日下舊聞考

Qīndìng Rìxià jiùwén kǎo 欽定日下舊聞考

Imperially Endorsed Examination of “Records Heard of Old in the Land Beneath the Sun” by 于敏中 (奉敕撰) and 英廉 (奉敕撰)

About the work

A 160-juan + 1-juan-mùlù imperial revision and amplification of Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 Rìxià jiùwén 日下舊聞 (1688), commissioned in Qiánlóng 39 (1774) and presented to the throne in Qiánlóng 48 (1783). The work is the principal Qīng-period topographical-historical compilation on Beijing and its surrounding metropolitan area (the Shùntiān fǔ prefecture and adjoining sub-prefectures of Zūnhuà, Yùtián, Fēngrùn, etc.). Where Zhū Yízūn’s 1688 original arranged its quoted material in 13 mén (Xīngtǔ 星土, Shìjì 世紀, Xíngshèng 形勝, Gōngshì 宫室, Chéngshì 城市, Jiāojiōng 郊坰, Jīngjī 京畿, Qiáozhì 僑治, Biānzhàng 邊障, Hùbǎn 戶版, Fēngsú 風俗, Wùchǎn 物産, Zázhuì 雜綴) over 42 juan, the kǎo (1774–83) restructures the corpus into 15 mén (adding Yuànyòu 苑囿 and Guānshǔ 官署, and folding the original three-juan Shígǔ kǎo 石鼓考 into the Guānshǔ under the Guózǐjiàn heading), corrects errors, supplements omissions, and re-romanizes Liáo-Jīn-Yuán-Mongol personal and place names according to the Qiánlóng-mandated Qīndìng sānshǐ huàyī / Tóngwén yùntǒng standard. A 4-page yìyǔ zǒngmù 譯語總目 (translation glossary, prefixed) tabulates more than 200 such re-romanizations.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Rìxià jiùwén kǎo in 160 juan was made in Qiánlóng 39 (1774) by imperial command. It is based on Zhū Yízūn’s Rìxià jiùwén original; cutting redundancies, supplementing lacunae, citing antiquity to verify the present, the work is examined item by item in detail, then fixed as the present version. The original was divided into 13 mén: Xīngtǔ, Shìjì, Xíngshèng, Gōngshì, Chéngshì, Jiāojiōng, Jīngjī, Qiáozhì, Biānzhàng, Hùbǎn, Fēngsú, Wùchǎn, Zázhuì. At that time, the structures and ponds west of the city at Yùquán 玉泉 and Xiāngshān 香山 had not yet begun to be built, so they were placed in the Jiāojiōng category, which now does not match present circumstances; and various official xièshǔ 廨署 (yamens) were placed in the Chéngshì category. The Tàixué Shígǔ 太學石鼓 (“Stone Drums of the Imperial Academy”) were given the unusual treatment of three separate juan, which was also not in keeping with form. Now we have added two further mén, Yuànpǔ 苑圃 and Guānshǔ 官署, making 15 mén in all; and the three juan of Shígǔ kǎo are merged into the Guānshǔ mén’s Guózǐjiàn entry. Also, in the Chéngshì and Jīngjī mén of the original, the boundaries of the five wards (Wǔchéng 五城) and of the various sub-prefectures and counties have undergone change, and these are now corrected one by one according to the new boundaries. The ancient sites listed in the original were always cited from old text, profligately broad, but with no field verification of their actual presence; some hearsay errors arise, and there are mutual discrepancies — these are now investigated on the ground, with the pretensions corrected against truth, and doubt preserved where what is preserved is reliable. The literary citations are either supplemented in their omissions or trimmed of what can be omitted, with the goal that everything bearing on examination is missed neither by leakage nor by overflow. As to the imperial-pen output of the Lièshèng chénzhāng and our Huángshàng yùzhì — wherever it touches on the metropolitan area’s fēngtǔ — these are reverently entered by category. This in particular makes the work a perdurable record of imperial substance.

The decoration of mountains and rivers — recording the metropolitan capital, none of antiquity surpassed the Sānfǔ huángtú 三輔黃圖, none later surpassed the Cháng’ān zhì 長安志. Yízūn’s original had already pulled the gathering wider than these two; now, by the imperial wisdom, the corrections of error and supply of omissions outdo Yízūn’s original in turn. From now on, charts of the metropolitan area should take this book as their measuring-stick.

Reverently collated and submitted, tenth month, Qiánlóng 49 (1784). 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 Qīndìng Rìxià jiùwén kǎo is the canonical Qīng-period historico-topographical compilation on Beijing. It supersedes (while preserving in full and with citation) Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 (1629–1709) Rìxià jiùwén of 1688 (in 42 juan) — the foundational late-seventeenth-century gathering of textual material on Beijing — and Sūn Chéngzé’s 孫承澤 Chūnmíng mèngyú lù 春明夢餘錄 (in 70 juan), a parallel late-Míng / early-Qīng work, both of which the throne explicitly singled out for revision in the yùzhì tící (imperial title-poem prefacing the work) — itself transcribed in the prefatory matter on the order of Héshēn and Liáng Guózhì. The commission proceeded under the zǒngcái 總裁 of Yú Mǐnzhōng 于敏中 (1714–1779) and the leading editorial direction of Yīnglián 英廉 (1707–1783, also senior in years), Héshēn 和珅, Liáng Guózhì, and Débǎo 德保. The total compilation team comprised 4 zǒngcái + 5 dūbàn + 4 zǒngzuǎn + 8 zuǎnxiū + and large jiàolù / ténglù corps; the biǎowén 表文 was submitted on the fifth day of the second month of Qiánlóng 48 (1783), with imperial acknowledgment (“知道了”) issued the same day. The Sìkù tiyao is dated Qiánlóng 49 (1784), tenth month.

The work’s importance is double. As a Qīng Jīngshī túzhì 京師圖志 it is the principal reference for the historical buildings, gates, walls, water systems, gōngshì (palaces and gardens), yuànyòu (the Three Lakes / Western Imperial Garden complex, the Yuánmíng yuán 圓明園, the Chángchūn yuán 長春園, the Qíchūn yuán, the Jìngmíng yuán, the Jìngyí yuán), guānshǔ (Six Boards, Hànlín, Imperial Academy, Qīntiānjiān, Tàiyīyuàn, Nèiwùfǔ, etc.), and the Wǔchéng (Five Wards) of the inner and outer cities, as they stood in the late Qiánlóng era. As a kǎozhèng 考證 work it bears the imprint of Qiánlóng-era methodology: the yìyǔ zǒngmù (translation glossary) at the front of the work re-romanizes some 200+ Liáo, Jīn, Yuán, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongol personal and place names according to the Qiánlóng-era standard, in alignment with the parallel Qīndìng Liáoshǐ / Jīnshǐ / Yuánshǐ re-editing project. The work is a sister-volume to the Qīndìng Rèhé zhì (KR2k0035) and Qīndìng Mǎnzhōu yuánliú kǎo (KR2k0038) within the Qiánlóng-era imperial geographic-historical canon for the metropolitan and inner-Asian frontier.

The work was printed in Qiánlóng 53 (1788) at the Wǔyīngdiàn 武英殿 jùzhēn bǎn 聚珍版 (movable-type) press; numerous re-cuts followed. The standard modern punctuated edition is the Beijing Gǔjí Chūbǎnshè 北京古籍出版社, 1981 (8 vols.), reissued 2001. The text continues to be the core reference for historical studies of imperial Beijing.

Translations and research

• Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900 (University of California Press, 2000) — uses the Rìxià jiùwén kǎo as a fundamental primary source on Beijing temples; bibliography pp. 765 ff. cites it throughout.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022), §66.5.1.1 — names this work as the principal Qīng-era compilation on Beijing, alongside the late-Míng Chūnmíng mèngyú lù (§65.3.10).
• Geremie R. Barmé, The Forbidden City (Profile Books, 2008) — popular synthesis citing the work as a primary reference.
• Mark Elliott, The Manchu Way (Stanford, 2001) — uses the Rìxià jiùwén kǎo on the Wǔ-chéng and Banner Beijing.
• Fù Xī-nián 傅熙年, Qīng dài Yuán-míng yuán xíng-zhì zhī yán-jiū (mainland series of architectural-history papers) draws extensively on the Yuàn-yòu mén (juan 74–87).
• Modern punctuated edition: Yú Yǒng 于永 et al., Rìxià jiùwén kǎo (Beijing Gǔjí, 1981; 2001), 8 vols.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022) §44.4.4.3 also lists the work in its survey of imperial gazetteers.

Other points of interest

The closing Cúnyí 存疑 (juan 155–156) — “preserved in doubt” — is a methodologically distinctive feature: explicitly listing items concerning Beijing history that the editors found insufficiently documented to admit but too widely circulated to suppress, with their textual sources tagged. This is one of the most explicit instances of kǎozhèng doubt-preservation in Qīng official compilation. The work is also unusual in collecting verbatim a substantial body of the imperial poetry of Kāngxī, Yōngzhèng, and especially Qiánlóng on Beijing topography — the imperial yùzhì outputs occupy the head of every relevant entry — making it an indirect but immense source for yùzhì shīwén on the capital.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022), §66.5.1.1, §44.4.4.3.
• Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life (UC Press, 2000).
• CBDB: 于敏中 c_personid 57033 (1714–1779); 英廉 c_personid 57402 (1707–1783).
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11140842 (欽定日下舊聞考)