Yúnnán tōngzhì 雲南通志
Comprehensive Gazetteer of Yúnnán supervised by 鄂爾泰 (È’ěrtài / Ortai, 1677–1745) — jiānxiū 監修 compiled by 靖道謨 (Jìng Dàomó, fl. early 18th c.) — biānzuǎn 編纂
About the work
The Yōngzhèng-era Yúnnán tōngzhì in 30 juan (organized as 30 categories, one per juan), compiled under the imperial decree of Yōngzhèng 7 (1729) by then-Yún-Guì Governor-General Ortai 鄂爾泰 and submitted in Qiánlóng 1 (1736) under the new Governor-General Yǐn Jìshàn 尹繼善. The principal biānzuǎn was the Yáozhōu 姚州 zhīzhōu Jìng Dàomó 靖道謨. Yúnnán’s prior gazetteer tradition is exceptionally thin: a Hóngwǔ-era 61-juan compilation has not survived, and the standard literary materials (Diānchéng jì 滇程記, Diānzǎi jì 滇載記 by Yáng Shèn, Diānlüè 滇略 by Xiè Zhàozhè) are partial. The Kāngxī 30 (1691) Yúnnán tōngzhì gave only the rough framework. Ortai’s role here intersects with his principal political project — the YúnGuì gǎitǔ guīliú (replacement of native chieftaincy with regular bureaucracy) — and the gazetteer is the canonical documentary monument of that political transformation.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Yúnnán tōngzhì is supervised by Grand Secretary Ortai 鄂爾泰 of our dynasty, and others. Yúnnán under the Hàn was administratively part of Yìzhōu 益州; thereafter it was held by Nánzhào 南詔, and only under the Yuán did it enter the imperial registers. As regards its dìzhì, this only first appears in the Táng — yet of works transmitted to today, only Fán Chuò 樊綽’s Mánshū 蠻書 survives, recording solely the mountains and rivers of the Six Zhāo 六詔. The years are now ancient, the old traces mostly effaced; when checked against the present, hardly one or two in ten correspond.
The Míngshǐ Yìwénzhì records that when Tàizǔ first pacified Yúnnán, he ordained that the literati should investigate and fix a gazetteer — in 61 juan; this work is now lost. Other works, such as Yáng Shèn 楊慎’s Diānchéng jì 滇程記 and Diānzǎi jì 滇載記, are gathered into a compilation that yet cannot avoid omission and imbalance. Xiè Zhàozhè 謝肇淛’s Diānlüè 滇略 has been called a good edition, but its narrative ends with the Míng. In Kāngxī 30 (1691) of our dynasty a tōngzhì was first sketched out — in rough form, but still much of it lacunose and erroneous.
In Yōngzhèng 7 (1729), Ortai then YúnGuì Governor-General received the imperial decree to compile, and assigned the matter to the Yáozhōu zhīzhōu Jìng Dàomó, who, building on the older gazetteer, redacted and supplemented. Altogether 30 categories, with each category one juan. The book was completed in Qiánlóng 1 (1736) and the next Governor-General Yǐn Jìshàn 尹繼善 and others presented it with a memorial. Its supplementations and consolidations of the older are not uniform: the maps now have shuō (commentary), and the prefectural-departmental-county designations and titles all supply what the older lacked; the various items Dàshì kǎo (Examination of Major Affairs), Shǐmìng (Embassies), Shīmìng (Military Commands) — formerly present but redundantly and improperly — are now expunged. Tax-imposts (Kèchéng 課程), originally appended to Salt Law, and Sluices, Weirs, and Reservoirs (Zhábà yàntáng 閘壩堰塘), originally appended to City Walls and Moats, are now each set apart as their own categories. The over-arching framework is brilliantly clear, and compared with the original it has structural coherence in considerable measure.
Abstract
The 1736 Yúnnán tōngzhì is the canonical Qīng-era documentary monument of the YōngzhèngQiánlóng gǎitǔ guīliú policy in the YúnGuìChuān frontier. Its jiānxiū Ortai (Manchu, Mǎnzhōu Bordered-Blue Banner; YúnGuì Governor-General 1726–1731 and a principal architect of gǎitǔ guīliú) and its biānzuǎn Jìng Dàomó (a Yáozhōu local-administration official with extensive direct experience of the southwestern tǔsī system) were uniquely placed to document the transition. The work supersedes the three principal Míng-era literary monuments (Yáng Shèn’s Diānzǎi jì, Xiè Zhàozhè’s Diānlüè, the lost Hóngwǔ-era 61-juan compilation) and the unsatisfactory Kāngxī 30 (1691) tōngzhì. The 30-juan / 30-category structure is unusually compact for a Yōngzhèng-cohort tōngzhì (cf. the 128-juan Guǎngxī tōngzhì), reflecting Yúnnán’s relatively limited prior documentary base.
The work was completed in Qiánlóng 1 (1736) and the jìnbiǎo was filed by the new YúnGuì Governor-General Yǐn Jìshàn (Manchu Manju) — the original jiānxiū Ortai having by then transferred to Beijing as Grand Secretary. The Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū version (vols. 569.1–570.1) is the standard text. It was succeeded by the Dàoguāng Yúnnán tōngzhì of 1835.
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. Heavily exploited in Western and Chinese scholarship on the gǎi-tǔ guī-liú reforms and the Sino-Yí / Sino-Zhuang / Sino-Tai frontier: John E. Herman, Amid the Clouds and Mist (Harvard, 2007); C. Patterson Giersch, Asian Borderlands (Harvard, 2006); Jodi L. Weinstein, Empire and Identity in Guizhou (Washington, 2014); David A. Bello, Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain (Cambridge, 2016); Bin Yang, Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Columbia, 2008). For Ortai’s career and political role see R. Kent Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces (Washington, 2010), with substantial attention to the Yún-Guì governorship and its gazetteer monuments.
Other points of interest
The Yúnnán tōngzhì is the only Yōngzhèng-cohort provincial gazetteer to be supervised throughout by a single Manchu Grand Secretary (Ortai), reflecting both Yúnnán’s strategic importance to early-Qīng frontier policy and Ortai’s exceptional personal authority over the YúnGuìChuān frontier zone. Ortai’s gǎitǔ guīliú memorial cycle of 1726–1731 — the doctrinal foundation of the policy — is preserved in his zòuyì collection but is also extensively documented in the gazetteer’s institutional sections.
Links
- Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11066073 (雲南通志)