欽定盛京通志

Qīndìng Shèngjīng tōngzhì 欽定盛京通志

Imperially Endorsed Comprehensive Gazetteer of Shèngjīng by 阿桂 (奉敕撰), 劉謹之 (奉敕撰); with 福長安 and 董誥 as senior project supervisors

About the work

A 130-juan Qiánlóng-era imperial gazetteer of Shèngjīng 盛京 (the Manchu secondary capital, present-day Shěnyáng 瀋陽 in Liáoníng), commissioned in Qiánlóng 44 (1779) and substantively complete by Qiánlóng 54 (1789). The work is structured in 37 mén (each subdivided into multiple juan): Shèngzhì 聖製 (7 juan, imperial poetry / prose by Qiánlóng), Lúnyīn 綸音 (2, imperial decrees), Tiānzhāng 天章 (8, court literary writings on Shèngjīng), Jīngchéng 京城 (1), Tánmiào 壇廟 (1), Gōngdiàn 宮殿 (1), Shānlíng 山陵 (1, the imperial tombs of Yǒnglíng 永陵, Fúlíng 福陵, Zhāolíng 昭陵), Xīngtǔ 星土 (1), Jiànzhì yángé 建置沿革 (1, with table and treatise), Jiāngyù xíngshèng 疆域形勝 (1), Shānchuān 山川 (4 + an appended Gǔ shānchuān kǎo 古山川考), Chéngchí 城池 (4), Guānyóu 關郵 (1), Jīnliáng chuánjiàn 津梁船艦 (1), Hùkǒu 戶口 (2), Tiánfù 田賦 (2, with appendices on qítián 旗田, guānzhuāng 官莊, and shuìkè 稅課), Zhíguān 職官 (4), Xuéxiào 學校 (2), Guānshǔ 官署 (2), Xuǎnjǔ 選舉 (4), Bīngfáng 兵防 (2), Mínghuàn 名宦 (5), Lìcháo rénwù 厯朝人物 (7), Guócháo rénwù 國朝人物 (17), Zhōngjié 忠節 (5), Xiàoyì 孝義 (1), Wénxué 文學 (1), Yǐnyì 隱逸 (1), Liúyù 流寓 (1), Fāngjì 方伎 (1), Xiānshì 仙釋 (1), Liènǚ 列女 (4), Císì 祠祀 (3), Gǔjī 古蹟 (5, with Língmù 陵墓 appended), Fēngsú 風俗 (1), Wùchǎn 物産 (2), Zázhì 雜志 (1), Liècháo yìwén 列朝藝文 (6), Guócháo yìwén 國朝藝文 (16). It supersedes the earlier 30-juan / 35-mén Yōng-zhèng-era Shèngjīng tōngzhì.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Shèngjīng tōngzhì in 130 juan was composed in Qiánlóng 44 (1779) by imperial command. Each juan was submitted in turn for imperial review and definition. Note: Shèngjīng formerly had a tōngzhì in 30 juan, divided into 35 mén — the narrative was much beset by error and omission, and so it was ordered corrected and supplemented; this volume has been fixed as the new version. We respectfully read the yùzhì quánjí of the imperial-pen poetry and prose: of what bears on Shèngjīng, the original recorded only three in ten — now all are restored. Further, the yùzhì (imperial-pen output) is now divided between Lúnyīn 綸音 and Tiānzhāng 天章 mén, each by literary form. In the Jīngchéng mén, the original did not detail the construction-and-repair history of Shèngjīng, Xīngjīng 興京, and Dōngjīng 東京, nor the Tàizǔ’s and Tàizōng’s campaigns and capital-establishment in detail. In the Tánmiào mén, the original did not give construction methodology and dates, nor record the storage of cè 冊 and bǎo 寳 (imperial seals and tablets) and the annual Tángzǐ 堂子 (Manchu shrine) sacrifice rites. In the Gōngdiàn mén, the original did not give construction-and-repair dates, the yùtí 御題 inscriptions, nor the storage of shèngróng 聖容 (imperial portraits), shèngxùn 聖訓, shílù 實錄, yùdié 玉牒, zhàntú 戰圖, and the establishment in Qiánlóng 43 (1778) of the Jiànmù 諫木 (admonition tablet). In the Shānlíng mén, the original did not give the imperial paying of respects nor the annual cíyí 祠儀 ritual, and what it gave on the San-líng 三陵 official-organization was much in error. In the Shānchuān and Chéngchí mén, the original did not record Tàizǔ and Tàizōng’s campaigns. In the Rénwù mén, the original did not record the founding-imperial Wánggōng 王公 (princes), nor the various xūnchén 勳臣 (meritorious officials), and many of the events were also left incomplete. All these have been compounded with detailed examination and supplementary editing. The remaining eight mén — Xīngtǔ, Jiànzhì yángé, Jiāngyù xíngshèng, Císì, Gǔjī, Língmù, Zázhì, Fēngsú, Tǔchǎn — invoke the classics and histories to rectify error and supplement deficiency. Eight further mén — Guānyóu, Hùkǒu, Tiánfù, Zhíguān, Xuéxiào, Guānshǔ, Xuǎnjǔ, Bīngfáng — in the original carried records only down to Qiánlóng 8 (1743); these are now extended year by year. Ten further mén — Mínghuàn, Lìdài Zhōngjié, Xiàoyì, Wénxué, Yǐnyì, Liúyù, Fāngjì, Xiānshì, Liènǚ, Yìwén — are also revised and emended. The official-name, personal-name, and place-name re-romanizations of the original — often false to the truth — are corrected one by one. The form and method are precise; the evidential investigation detailed and clear; tracing the original foundations of Fēngyì 豐邑 (the ancestral land), narrating the great achievements of the Bǎnquán 阪泉 (the imperial-rise battle-history), giving the threading-and-warping of opening and conferral, and inheritance and restoration without limit, the founding model: this stands ten thousand years as if seen with one’s own eyes — distinct as can be from those provincial gazetteers that merely indulge themselves in mountains and rivers and persons.

Reverently collated and submitted, first month, Qiánlóng 54 (1789). 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 Shèngjīng tōngzhì is the canonical Qiánlóng-era imperial gazetteer of the Manchu secondary capital and Liáodōng homeland. Compiled under the zǒngcái leadership of Fú Chángān 福長安 and Dǒng Gào 董誥 and the zǒngzuǎn of Liú Jǐnzhī 劉謹之 and Chéng Wéiyuè 程維岳, with separate Manchu and Hàn editorial teams, the work was commissioned in 1779 and presented in stages to imperial review; the biǎo wén of presentation is followed by the Sìkù tíyào of Qiánlóng 54 (1789). The catalog meta lists Āguì 阿桂 and Liú Jǐnzhī as primary fèngchì compilers — the convention in the Sìkù prefatory matter — even though Āguì’s role was largely supervisory; the project officials also included Fú Chángān (御前大臣 內大臣 兵部尚書 內務府大臣 戶部左侍郎) and Dǒng Gào (戶部左侍郎). The work supersedes the earlier 30-juan Yōngzhèng Shèngjīng tōngzhì (compiled by Wáng Hé 王河 et al., 1734–36), which the tíyào explicitly criticizes for narrative incoherence and omission.

The work’s institutional purpose is two-fold. First, it provides the canonical record of Shèngjīng as Qīng péidū 陪都 (secondary capital) — the institutions, palaces, ancestral tombs, ritual structures, and frontier defenses of Liáodōng as understood in the Qiánlóng era. Second, it serves as the gazetteer-instantiation of the same Qiánlóng-era ideological programme that produced KR2k0035 Qīndìng Rèhé zhì and KR2k0038 Qīndìng Mǎnzhōu yuánliú kǎo: the systematic presentation of the Manchu homeland as ancestral, sacral, and incorporated — with extensive yùzhì (imperial-pen) materials, the imperial bēi (stelae) at the three imperial tombs, and detailed presentation of the four imperial visits (sìjià Shèngjīng 四駕盛京) of Qiánlóng’s reign. The Liècháo rénwù (juan 58–64, 7 juan) is one of the principal Qīng-period prosopographies of pre-Qīng eminent figures of Liáodōng (covering the Liáo, Jīn, and Yuán dynasties, with corrected re-romanization of names per the Qiánlóng huàyī standard), while the Guócháo rénwù (juan 65–81, 17 juan) is the major prosopography of Qīng-period eminent natives of the Manchu homeland.

The 130-juan extent and 37-mén organization make it one of the largest provincial gazetteers ever produced in the Sìkù tradition, comparable in size to the Yōngzhèng Zhèjiāng tōngzhì (KR2k0044) of 280 juan but more densely organized around yùzhì and ancestral materials. The placement of Yìwén (juan 109–130) — fully 22 juan in 6+16 distribution — is a striking feature: roughly one-sixth of the entire work consists of poetic and prose anthology of writings on Shèngjīng, including the foundational Shèngjīng fù 盛京賦 of Qiánlóng (1743), the Yǒnglíng / Fúlíng / Zhāolíng dedications, and several centuries of Liáo, Jīn, Yuán, Míng, and Qīng poetry on the Liáodōng landscape.

Translations and research

• Mark C. Elliott, “The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies,” The Journal of Asian Studies 59.3 (2000): 603–646 — frames the Shèngjīng tōngzhì in the imperial geographical-ideological construction of Manchuria.
• Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror (UC Press, 1999) — uses the work as a primary source on Qiánlóng-era Manchu identity discourse.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022), §16.4 (provincial gazetteers); §66.5 (Qing capitals) — names the Shèngjīng tōngzhì among the central Qiánlóng-era frontier compendia. Wilkinson also points to Dīng Hǎibīn 丁海斌 and Shíyì 时义, Qīng dài péi-dū Shèngjīng yán-jiū 清代陪都盛京研究 (Shè-huì kē-xué chū-bǎn shè, 2007) as the standard mainland synthesis on Shèngjīng as secondary capital.
• Standard modern reprint: Qīn-dìng Shèngjīng tōngzhì, in the Wényuāngé Sìkù photographic facsimile (vols. 501–503); also a punctuated edition by Liáo-níng Mín-zú Chū-bǎn-shè in the late 1990s.

Other points of interest

The work’s prefatory biǎo of presentation makes the rhetorical claim that the work belongs to a unique imperial-genre because it documents the péidū (secondary capital) where the dynasty’s ancestral qǐyùn originated — and not merely a province. The treatment of the Mùlán parallel hunting grounds (in KR2k0035) and the Chángbái shān sacrality (in this work and in KR2k0038) give the Qiánlóng-era project of inner-Asian sacralization its institutional-textual form. The Qiánlóng-era Jiànmù 諫木 of 1778 — an admonition tablet erected at the Shèngjīng palace — is documented for the first time in this work.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022), §16.4, §66.5.
• Elliott, “The Limits of Tartary” (JAS 59.3, 2000).
• Crossley, A Translucent Mirror (UC Press, 1999).
• CBDB: 阿桂 c_personid 510929; 劉謹之 c_personid 75336 (1739–1787).
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11140883 (欽定盛京通志)