福建通志

Fújiàn tōngzhì 福建通志

Comprehensive Gazetteer of Fújiàn supervised by 郝玉麟 (Hǎo Yùlín, d. 1745) — jiānxiū 監修 compiled by 謝道承 (Xiè Dàochéng, d. 1741) — biānzuǎn 編纂

About the work

The YōngzhèngQiánlóng provincial gazetteer of Fújiàn, in 78 juan, supervised by the ZhèjiāngFújiàn Governor-General Hǎo Yùlín 郝玉麟 in response to the Yōngzhèng 7 (1729) edict and presented to the throne in Qiánlóng 2 (1737). Its principal predecessor — and the basis of its narrative continuity — is Huáng Zhòngzhāo’s 黃仲昭 BāMǐn tōngzhì 八閩通志 (1490, Hóngzhì 3), in 87 juan; on BāMǐn the Sìkù editors comment that, although it is “called a good edition”, it is incomplete. The Yōngzhèng revision was driven not only by the empire-wide gazetteer programme but by the substantial reorganisation of Fújiàn’s administrative geography under the Qīng: Táiwān had been incorporated into the empire (1683); Fúníngzhōu 福甯州 had been raised to a fǔ; Yǒngchūn 永春 (formerly under Quánzhōu) and Lóngyán 龍巖 (formerly under Zhāngzhōu) had been split off as zhílìzhōu (directly-administered departments). The 78-juan extent is fourteen juan greater than the previous gazetteer, with the additions concentrated on the coastal-island defence material (沿海島澳) — Fújiàn being a province “with the sea on three sides” — and a fresh corpus of 30 categories running from Xīngyě 星野 through Yìwén 藝文.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Fújiàn tōngzhì in 78 juan is supervised by Hǎo Yùlín 郝玉麟, Minister of War and Governor-General of Zhèjiāng and Fújiàn, and others. From Liáng Kèjiā’s 梁克家 Sānshān zhì 三山志 of the Sòng down to the present, the works on Fújiàn geography have run to no fewer than several dozen; only the Míng-era BāMǐn tōngzhì 八閩通志 by Huáng Zhòngzhāo 黃仲昭 has been considered a reasonably good edition, and even it is incomplete. Moreover, since the Míng established the Fújiàn Provincial Administration Commission and divided the constituent prefectures — Fú 福, Xīng 興, Quán 泉, Zhāng 漳 forming the “Lower Four Prefectures”, and Yán 延, Jiàn 建, Shào 邵, Tīng 汀 forming the “Upper Four Prefectures” — the moral influence and military reach of our dynasty have extended afar, the whale-roiled seas have grown calm, Táiwān has entered the empire’s registry, Fúníng under Fúzhōu has been raised from a department to a prefecture, and Yǒngchūn (under Quánzhōu) and Lóngyán (under Zhāngzhōu) have each been carved off and constituted as zhílìzhōu. Administrative establishments have therefore much altered, and when one collates the old gazetteer it is often at variance with the present system. Furthermore, since Fújiàn is bounded by the sea on three sides, with harbours leading inland and islands strung offshore, the entire matter of strategic-pass establishment and garrison stationing was inadequately treated in the old gazetteer.

In the seventh year of Yōngzhèng (1729), responding to the imperial decree to compile provincial gazetteers, the editors took the prolix and inappropriate portions of the old gazetteer, struck out the redundant prose, and added new matter; territorial and institutional structure they determined entirely on what is now in force. By the second year of Qiánlóng (1737), the book was completed, and Yùlín and the others presented it to the throne with a memorial. From Xīngyě 星野 down to Yìwén 藝文, it falls into 30 categories and 78 juan, more than the old gazetteer by fourteen juan. As to such matter as the maps of the coastal islands and harbours, which the older gazetteer had not registered — these are all newly drawn and inserted in detail, sufficient to provide material for examination, and conform fittingly with the prescribed pattern.

(Editorial note: The Sìkù tíyào date “Qiánlóng 2 = 1737” for completion is consistent with all external sources; presentation under Hǎo Yùlín, who held the MǐnZhè governor-generalship from 1732 to ca. 1740. The biānzuǎn, Xiè Dàochéng 謝道承, is named in the imperial copy’s lists of compilers; no surviving biānzuǎn preface is preserved in the WYG version.)

Abstract

The Fújiàn tōngzhì of Yōngzhèng 7 – Qiánlóng 2 (1729–1737) succeeds two principal predecessor gazetteers:

1. The Sòng Sānshān zhì 三山志 (1182, Chúnxī 9) by Liáng Kèjiā — a fǔzhì of Fúzhōu prefecture but the foundational documentary source for what would become the Fújiàn provincial corpus, KR2k0023 in the Sìkù.
2. The Míng BāMǐn tōngzhì 八閩通志 (1490, Hóngzhì 3) by Huáng Zhòngzhāo, the first true Fújiàn provincial gazetteer.

The Yōngzhèng project was led by Hǎo Yùlín 郝玉麟 (d. Qiánlóng 10 = 1745), a Manchu qíxiù of the Bordered Yellow Banner who had served as LiǎngGuǎng Governor-General before being moved to FújiànZhèjiāng in 1732. The biānzuǎn was Xiè Dàochéng 謝道承 (d. Qiánlóng 6 = 1741), Mǐnxiàn 閩縣 native, jìnshì of Kāngxī 60 (1721), Hanlin biānxiū and a leading Fújiàn literatus of the early Qiánlóng era; he is also known as a poet and as compiler of the Mǐn shí xí 閩詩錄.

The 78-juan / 30-category structure represents a substantial recasting of the older BāMǐn topical scheme to accommodate the post-1683 coastal-island additions and Táiwān’s incorporation. The newly drawn yánhǎi dǎo’ào tú 沿海島澳圖 (“maps of coastal islands and harbours”) are singled out by the Sìkù editors as the work’s most distinctive contribution. The work serves as a major documentary baseline for the YōngzhèngQiánlóng reorganisation of Fújiàn coastal defence and Táiwān’s first administrative integration.

The Yōngzhèng Fújiàn tōngzhì was superseded for working reference by Chén Shòuqí’s 陳壽祺 Dàoguāng Fújiàn tōngzhì (1829), in 268 juan, but the present 78-juan version preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vols. 527–530) remains the definitive Yōngzhèng-era source.

Translations and research

No English translation of this Yōngzhèng Fújiàn tōngzhì. The work is heavily exploited in modern scholarship on Fújiàn coastal society and Táiwān’s eighteenth-century administrative history: John E. Wills, Jr., Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681 (Harvard, 1974); Pierre-Étienne Will, Chinese Local Gazetteers: An Historical and Practical Introduction (1992); John Robert Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600–1800 (Stanford, 1993); Emma Jinhua Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683–1895 (Harvard, 2004); and Wáng Zhōnghàn 王鍾翰, ed., Qīngshǐ liè-zhuàn 清史列傳 entries on Hǎo Yùlín. For Xiè Dàochéng’s literary-historical role see Mǐn shī jì-shì 閩詩紀事 and Mǐn-zhōng yáo-jì 閩中遙集.

Other points of interest

The yánhǎi dǎo’ào tú 沿海島澳圖 — coastal-island maps — added to this gazetteer are an important seventeenth–eighteenth-century cartographic record of the FújiànTáiwān maritime frontier in the immediate post-Zhèng Chénggōng era. The work also enshrines the early Qīng administrative-historical baseline for Táiwān’s incorporation, since Táiwān is here treated as part of Fúzhōu’s hinterland (the Táiwān separate provincial gazetteer would not appear until 1696 Táiwān fǔzhì and the much later 1885 elevation of Táiwān to provincial status).

Links

• Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11062873 (福建通志)
• Will, Chinese Local Gazetteers (1992).