山西通志

Shānxī tōngzhì 山西通志

Comprehensive Gazetteer of Shānxī supervised by 覺羅石麟 (Juéluó Shílín, d. 1747) — jiānxiū 監修 compiled by 儲大文 (Chǔ Dàwén, 1665–1743) — biānzuǎn 編纂

About the work

The Yōngzhèng-era provincial gazetteer of Shānxī, in 230 juan — second only to Zhèjiāng tōngzhì (KR2k0044) at 280 juan in scale among Yōngzhèng provincial gazetteers. The Imperial Clansman (Juéluó 覺羅) Manchu Shílín 石麟 launched the project in Yōngzhèng 7 (1729) at the Shānxī provincial seat (Tàiyuán); he engaged as principal biānzuǎn the former Hanlin shùjíshì Chǔ Dàwén 儲大文 (1665–1743), Yíxīng 宜興 native, recognised as a leading historical-geographer of the early Qiánlóng era. The compilation took three years, with completion in Yōngzhèng 12/3 (1734/4) — Shílín’s preface is precisely dated to that month. The 40-category structure expands the 32 categories of the Kāngxī 21 (1682) revision under Liú Méi 劉梅; the Sìkù editors single out two distinctive features: (1) Chǔ Dàwén’s particular expertise in geography, which they say is reflected in the unusually well-handled Shānchuānxíngshì (mountain-and-river formation) sections; (2) the establishment of a separate Jīngjí 經籍 bibliographic category, modelled on Shī Sù’s 施宿 Kuàijī zhì and Yuán Juè’s 袁桷 Sìmíng zhì. The work has long been heavily consulted as a documentary source for the Shānxī merchant networks (Jìnshāng 晉商), the Yellow River bend, and the Mongolian-Shānxī frontier.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Shānxī tōngzhì in 230 juan is by Juéluó Shílín 覺羅石麟, Governor of Shānxī and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, and others. Shānxī’s possession of a provincial gazetteer began in the Chénghuà era of the Míng (1465–1487) with the education-supervisor Hú Mì 胡謐; in the Jiājìng era (1522–1566) the assistant Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Zhōu Sīshèng 周斯盛, and in the Wànlì era (1573–1620) the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Lǐ Wéizhēn 李維楨, both took up the work and arranged it further. Coming to our dynasty, in the rénxū year of Kāngxī (Kāngxī 21 = 1682) the education circuit-officer Liú Méi 劉梅 again took the older edition and re-edited it; after five drafts it was at length completed. What had been added there was considerable; the categorisation came to thirty-two; misreadings and duplications, however, were also not few.

In the seventh year of Yōngzhèng (1729), Shílín, having received the imperial decree, opened an editorial bureau in the provincial city. Together with the Provincial Administration Commission, the Provincial Surveillance Commission, and the various circuits, he carried out further revision and amplification, broadening the categorical framework to forty categories; whatever loose anecdotes and old-time matter could be recovered was added in greater detail than before. The principal hand who drafted the editorial framework (fā fán qǐ lì) was the former Hanlin shùjíshì Chǔ Dàwén 儲大文. Dàwén himself was particularly versed in the study of geography, and accordingly the presentation of the mountains and rivers, and of strategic configurations, is well grasped throughout. His establishment of a separate Jīngjí 經籍 (Bibliography) category follows the precedent of Shī Sù’s Kuàijī zhì and Yuán Juè’s Sìmíng zhì; this also has its place in dignified scholarship.

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

Abstract

The Shānxī tōngzhì of Yōngzhèng 7 – Yōngzhèng 12 (1729–1734) sits at the head of a long Shānxī provincial-gazetteer tradition reconstructed in the Sìkù tíyào:

1. The Chénghuà-era Shānxī tōngzhì by the education-commissioner Hú Mì (1475–1493).
2. The Jiājìng-era revision by the assistant Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Zhōu Sīshèng (1530s–1560s).
3. The Wànlì-era revision by the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Lǐ Wéizhēn (1580s–1610s).
4. The Kāngxī 21 (1682) re-edition by the Shānxī education circuit-officer Liú Méi 劉梅 — the immediate predecessor of the Yōngzhèng version.

The Yōngzhèng project was launched at the imperial decree of Yōngzhèng 7 (1729) under the Shānxī governor Juéluó Shílín 覺羅石麟 (a member of the Imperial Clan, Juéluó signalling collateral imperial descent), serving as Shānxī governor from Yōngzhèng 5 (1727) to Qiánlóng 9 (1744). The principal biānzuǎn was Chǔ Dàwén 儲大文 (1665–1743), Yíxīng 宜興 native, jìnshì of Kāngxī 60 (1721), a former Hanlin shùjíshì and one of the most accomplished historical-geographers of the early eighteenth century, whose Cún yánlóu jí 存研樓集 collects his geographical scholarship. According to Shílín’s preface (Yōngzhèng 12/3 = 1734/4), the editorial bureau worked for three full years; the closing position of the work — the Yìwén sub-categorisation runs to xù, tíbá, míngzhēn, shū yǐn, biànzànsòng, zhuàn, wéncè, jìlěiāicí, fù, cí, shī, cíyú, and zázhù, with Zázhì 雜誌 closing in juan 228–230 — is among the most fully developed of the Yōngzhèng provincial-gazetteer corpus.

The work’s distinctive contributions, signalled by the Sìkù tíyào:

• Chǔ Dàwén’s particular expertise in geography produces unusually well-grasped shānchuān xíngshì (mountain-and-river configuration) sections, an asset for the work’s value as a source on the Shānxī Yellow-River bend and the strategic-pass topography of the northern frontier.
• The separate Jīngjí category — paralleling those of Zhèjiāng tōngzhì (KR2k0044) and Shāndōng tōngzhì (KR2k0048) — establishes a substantial Shānxī provincial bibliography, modelled on the Sòng Jiāhuà Kuàijī zhì by Shī Sù 施宿 (1146–1213) and the Yuán Yán’yòu Sìmíng zhì by Yuán Juè 袁桷 (1266–1327).

The Yōngzhèng Shānxī tōngzhì served as the principal Qīng-era documentary baseline until the issue of the Guāngxù Shānxī tōngzhì (1892) by Wáng Xuānyú 王軒等 in 184 juan. It is widely indexed: cf. Chí Xiùyún 池秀云, Shānxī tōngzhì rénwù zhuàn suǒyǐn 山西通志人物傳索引 (Tàiyuán, 1984), which indexes 15,808 named persons in the work’s biographies (Wilkinson §10.3).

Translations and research

No English translation. The work is a foundational primary source for Western scholarship on the Shānxī merchant network, the Mongolian-Shānxī borderland, and Shānxī Confucian academies: William T. Rowe, Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China (Stanford, 2001), draws extensively on it for Shānxī material; Madeleine Zelin, The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China (Columbia, 2005), and her earlier The Magistrate’s Tael (1984), use it for Shānxī fiscal-reform documentation; Henrietta Harrison, The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village, 1857–1942 (Stanford, 2005); Pierre-Étienne Will, Chinese Local Gazetteers: An Historical and Practical Introduction (1992). For Chǔ Dàwén’s geographical scholarship and his Cún yán-lóu jí, see Qīngdài shī wén jí huì biān (Shanghai gǔjí, 2010). The standard name-index is Chí Xiùyún (1984; cf. Wilkinson §10.3).

Other points of interest

The 230-juan extent of this gazetteer reflects a deliberate editorial scaling-up to accommodate Shānxī’s exceptionally rich pre-Hàn historical-archaeological record (the Shānxī Bronze Age sites are central to the Shānchuān, Gǔjì 古蹟, and Bēijié 碑碣 sections) as well as the dense Buddhist-monastic and Confucian-academy tradition (Wǔtáishān, Cóngróngyuán, etc.). Chǔ Dàwén’s organising hand is everywhere visible: the fánlì of the work is one of the more rigorous of any Yōngzhèng provincial gazetteer.

Links

• Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11062939 (山西通志)
• Chí Xiùyún, Shānxī tōngzhì rénwù zhuàn suǒyǐn (Tàiyuán, 1984).
• Will, Chinese Local Gazetteers (1992).