湖廣通志

Húguǎng tōngzhì 湖廣通志

Comprehensive Gazetteer of Húguǎng supervised by 邁柱 (Màizhù [Hitara Maizhu], 1670–1738) — jiānxiū 監修 compiled by 夏力恕 (Xià Lìshù, 1690–1754) — biānzuǎn 編纂

About the work

The Yōngzhèng-era provincial gazetteer of Húguǎng 湖廣 (Húběi 湖北 + Húnán 湖南, treated as a single administrative-geographical unit under the unified Húguǎng Governor-General even after the 1664 administrative bifurcation), in 120 juan. The work was launched on Yōngzhèng 8/2/27 (1730/4/14), block-cut began Yōngzhèng 10/7/15 (1732/8/4), and final completion fell in Yōngzhèng 11 (1733); the fánlì (general guidelines) preserved at the head of the present volume specifies these dates exactly. Compilation took place at Wǔchāng 武昌 (the Húběi provincial capital and the seat of the Húguǎng governor-generalship), under the principal biānxiū Xià Lìshù 夏力恕 (jingyán 日講官 and Hanlin biānxiū) with the former Yídū zhīxiàn Kē Yù 柯煜; subsequent collation by Xià with the Hanlin jiǎntǎo Chéng Guāngjù 程光鉅. The senior zǒngcái was the Manchu Húguǎng Governor-General Màizhù 邁柱 (Hitara Maizhu, 1670–1738; CBDB 喜塔臘邁柱), with the Húběi governor Dé Líng 德齡 and the Húnán governor Zhào Hóng’ēn 趙宏恩 in subsidiary supervision.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Húguǎng tōngzhì in 120 juan is supervised by Màizhù 邁柱, Governor-General of Húguǎng, Minister of War, and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, and others. Earlier records of the Chu region preserved in the official histories — such as Shèng Hóngzhī’s 盛宏之 Jīngzhōu jì 荊州記, Yǔ Zhòngyōng’s 庾仲雍 Xiāngzhōu jì 湘州記 and Hànshuǐ jì 漢水記, the Jīngnán dìzhì 荊南地志 of Liáng Yuándì 梁元帝, Guō Zhòngyàn’s 郭仲彥 Xiāngzhōu jì 湘州記 and the Xiāngzhōu fùtú jì 湘州副圖記, Táo Yuè’s 陶岳 Línglíng zǒngjì 零陵總記, Wéi Zhòu’s 韋宙 Línglíng lù 零陵錄, Fàn Zhìmíng’s 范致明 Bālíng gǔjīn jì 巴陵古今記, Wú Cóngzhèng’s 吳從政 Xiāng Miǎn jì 襄沔記 — most are extinguished and not transmitted; even of those that have survived, their texts are fragmentary and out of order. The Míng-era Húguǎng tōngzhì by Wèi Cháng 魏裳, Liào Dàonán’s 廖道南 Chǔ dà jì 楚大紀, and Chén Shìyuán’s 陳士元 Chǔ gù lüè 楚故略, all of recent date, are likewise often defective and overgrown with miscellany, not to be relied on.

The present gazetteer was completed in the eleventh year of Yōngzhèng (1733). Màizhù, together with the Húběi governor Dé Líng 德齡 and the Húnán governor Zhào Hóng’ēn 趙宏恩, undertaking the imperial decree, compiled it. They incorporated Húběi and Húnán into a single book, as the Jiāngnán tōngzhì (KR2k0042) had incorporated the Upper-Jiang and Lower-Jiang into one — the editorial pattern of the two works is identical. They worked broadly from the Kāngxī jiǎzǐ (1684) gazetteer and supplemented it by category, with sub-headings sometimes added or merged: in all 31 categories, with thirteen further appended sub-categories; the Rénwù 人物 section is itself further sub-divided into four. The articulation is clear and the matter can be verified against the registers. The single weakness: Chángshā 長沙, situated far across the Dòngtíng 洞庭 lake, was inadequately surveyed when the editorial bureau was opened at Wǔchāng, with the result that what is recorded for Húnán is somewhat slighter than the more thoroughly assembled Húběi material.

Reverently collated and submitted, ninth month, Qiánlóng 46 (1781).

Abstract

The Húguǎng tōngzhì of Yōngzhèng 8–11 (1730–1733) is the only Yōngzhèng-era provincial gazetteer to treat both halves of a bifurcated province as a single book. Although Húguǎng had been administratively split into Húběi 湖北 and Húnán 湖南 in Kāngxī 3 (1664), the Húguǎng Governor-General continued to hold authority over both, and the Yōngzhèng decree to compile a single “Húguǎng tōngzhì” preserved this older terminology. The model invoked by the Sìkù tíyào is the parallel decision in the Jiāngnán tōngzhì (KR2k0042) to combine Jiāngsū and Ānhuī (Upper- and Lower-Jiang) into a single work.

The fánlì preserved in juan 0 of the present source supplies a precise compilation timeline:

• Yōngzhèng 8/2/27 (1730/4/14): editorial bureau opens at Wǔchāng.
• Yōngzhèng 10/7/15 (1732/8/4): block-cutting begins.
• Yōngzhèng 10/10/25 (1732/12/12): the editorial bureau receives the imperial decision raising Guìyángzhōu 桂陽州 (in Húnán) to a zhílìzhōu with three counties (Línwǔ, Lánshān, Jiāhé) under it; the change is appended to the relevant volumes already cut.
• Yōngzhèng 11 (1733): substantive completion (per Sìkù tíyào).

The work draws on Wèi Cháng’s Míng-era Húguǎng tōngzhì, Liào Dàonán’s Chǔ dà jì, Chén Shìyuán’s Chǔ gù lüè, and the Kāngxī jiǎzǐ (1684) provincial gazetteer; the Sìkù editors single out the Kāngxī 1684 work as the principal substantive source, with the Yōngzhèng revision proceeding by topical augmentation rather than wholesale rewriting. The structure runs to 31 main categories plus 13 appended sub-categories, with the Rénwù section sub-divided into four (typically xiànchén 仙臣, rúlín 儒林, yìnyì 隱逸, and fùnǚ 婦女, mirroring the conventional fourfold scheme).

The Sìkù editors single out a structural defect: because the editorial bureau was located at Wǔchāng (Húběi), the Húnán material — particularly Chángshā, which lay across the Dòngtíng lake — was inadequately surveyed; the Húběi material is consequently more fully developed. The list of compilers (preserved in juan 0) gives the working hierarchy: zǒngcái Màizhù, with successive Húběi and Húnán governors; tídiào (administrators) and fēnxiū (sub-compilers) drawn from the prefectural and county-level officials of both halves of the province, with the heaviest contributions from Wǔchāngfǔ and Hànyángfǔ educators.

The Yōngzhèng Húguǎng tōngzhì was superseded as a working reference by Wú Yùngū 吳允谷 et al., Jiāqìng Húběi tōngzhì (1804) in 100 juan, plus the separate Jiāqìng Húnán tōngzhì (1820), and the still later Guāngxù provincial gazetteers; but it remains the definitive Yōngzhèng-era documentary baseline for the unified Húguǎng region — the last gazetteer to treat the two halves as one.

Translations and research

No English translation. Heavily exploited in modern scholarship on Yōngzhèng-Qiánlóng Húběi-Húnán hydraulics, Miáo-frontier administration, and rice-grain trade: Pierre-Étienne Will, “Un cycle hydraulique en Chine: la province du Hubei du XVIe au XIXe siècles”, BEFEO 68 (1980): 261–87 (foundational); William T. Rowe, Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796–1889 (Stanford, 1984), and the companion Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City, 1796–1895 (Stanford, 1989); Donald S. Sutton, Steel City: Industrialization in a Chinese Frontier Province (Cambridge, 2005). For the Húnán Miáo frontier and its gazetteer treatment, see Daniel McMahon, Rethinking the Decline of China’s Qing Dynasty: Imperial Activism and Borderland Management at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century (Routledge, 2014). Wáng Xìnzhōng 王新中, Qīngdài Húběi nóngyè jīngjì yán-jiù 清代湖北農業經濟研究 (Wǔhàn dàxué, 2007), draws on this gazetteer extensively. Pierre-Étienne Will, Chinese Local Gazetteers: An Historical and Practical Introduction (1992) is the standard methodological framework.

Other points of interest

The fánlì of the present Húguǎng tōngzhì is unusually detailed for an eighteenth-century provincial gazetteer in supplying date-anchored compilation milestones (1730/2/27 opening, 1732/7/15 block-cutting, 1732/10/25 administrative-revision interpolation), making the work a precious documentary source for the bureaucratic-temporal mechanics of the Yōngzhèng provincial-gazetteer programme as a whole.

Links

• Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11062924 (湖廣通志)
• Will, “Un cycle hydraulique en Chine: la province du Hubei”, BEFEO 68 (1980).