Qīndìng Héyuán jìlüè 欽定河源紀略
Imperially Endorsed Account of the Source of the Yellow River by 紀昀 (Jì Yún, 1724–1805) and 陸錫熊 (Lù Xīxióng, 1734–1792) — fèngchì zhuàn 奉敕撰
About the work
A 35-juan imperial compilation commissioned in Qiánlóng 47 (1782) following the imperial expedition of the shìwèi (Imperial Bodyguard) Āmídá 阿彌達 (also Āmǐdá 阿密達) to the western source of the Yellow River. The expedition reported the discovery of two westernmost watercourses — the Ālètǎnguōlè (Altan Gol — the “Golden River”) and the Ālètǎngādásùqílǎo (Altan Gadasu Cilao — the “Golden-Pole Stone”) — beyond the Star-lodging Lake (Xīngsùhǎi / Odon Tala) that earlier expeditions had reached. The work integrates the imperial expedition’s findings with critical re-evaluation of all earlier Yellow River source accounts. Categories include: Quánshū tú (atlas using the official imperial cartographic projection), Biǎo (synoptic tables), Zhìshí (factual record of the watercourse, in the Shuǐjīng zhù style), Zhènggǔ (verification against the historical record), Biàné (refutation of errors in earlier accounts), Jìshì (record of military, administrative, and tributary affairs), Zálù (miscellaneous notices). The opening contains the Qiánlóng emperor’s yùzhì shī on the Yellow River source and the Yùzhì dú Sòngshǐ Héqú zhì corrective essay.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: composed by imperial command in Qiánlóng 47 (1782). In the spring of that year, with affairs upon the river-works in the Central Province, the Imperial Bodyguard Āmídá 阿彌達 was specially dispatched to make sacrifice and announcement at the River-Spirit shrine of Xīníng. He thereupon traced the Yellow River source upward and reported with maps and memorial: that to the southwest of the Star-lodging Lake at over three hundred lǐ lay the Ālètǎnguōlè (Altan Gol), distinct in that its water alone was yellow; further west lay the Ālètǎngādásùqílǎo (Altan Gadasu Cilao), with a hundred-fold flowing spring entering the Altan Gol — this being the True Source of the Yellow River. This was unprecedented in the entire history of source-investigation.
The August Sovereign therefore investigated and verified, comparing with the older texts. He composed the Yùzhì Héyuán shī (Imperial Verses on the Yellow River Source) in one composition, with detailed exposition and accompanying ànyǔ (editorial notes); further composed the Yùzhì Dú Sòngshǐ Héqú zhì (On Reading the Sòngshǐ Treatise on Waterways) in 1 juan, to correct the long-standing errors. He further commanded Bīngbù shìláng Jì Yún and Dàlǐsì qīng Lù Xīxióng and others to investigate the histories and biographies, draw upon multiple sources, gather their dispositions and decide their truth, and edit them into one book.
The opening is crowned with maps. All the geometric divisions accord with the official Imperial Cartography. The river-flow is drawn through, with the various waters’ hidden continuity and overt confluence each represented in their proper directions to set out their detail. Next come tables, dividing the four cases of “splitting/joining” and “submergence/emergence” so as to encompass the network of channels, with the side-notes and inclined ascents, the warps and wefts mutually traversing, the headings and entries mutually following — to lift up the whole.
Next is Zhìshí (Factual Account), giving in detail the source-and-course of the watercourses, modeled on the Shuǐjīng and Lì Dàoyuán’s commentary, with branches and main channels each given identification and proof. Next is Zhènggǔ (Verification of Antiquity): wherever the documentary record concurs with the present year’s on-the-ground inspection, the original text is set out condition by condition, with editorial notes added beneath, mutually referenced and verified. Next is Biàné (Refutation of Errors): wherever the older accounts are entangled and erroneous, the original text is also set out condition by condition, with refutations to dispel doubt. Next is Jìshì (Record of Affairs): wherever military expeditions have passed, peoples have gathered, embassies have communicated, or military colonies and garrisons been opened — with the location of the spirit-source — these are all listed in turn; antiquarian notices of earlier dynasties are also categorically appended. Next is Zálù (Miscellaneous Records): renowned mountains and antiquarian sites, products and customs, all situated to right or left of the great current — these too are gathered through reverent collection of bequeathed writings, providing supplementary reference.
We have respectfully recorded the Imperial Verses and Prose at the head of the entire book, to lift its principles and fix its weights and measures.
We examine: in antiquity those who discussed the Yellow River source took it now as in the Western Regions, now as in Tǔbō; each held to one position, contention multiplied as in a swarm of plaintiffs, none could settle the case. Probing the cause: by and large, the truth or falsehood of the record turned on whether the place could be reached or not; the close or loose of the investigation turned on whether the season sought detail or did not. The Shānhǎijīng says that Yǔ commanded Shùhài to step from the eastern extremity to the western, recording the count of his myriads and choices — the matter is not seen in the Classics and Commentaries; what is seen in the Classics and Commentaries is only the Dǎohé Jīshí (the Yǔgòng “leading the river through Jīshí”) — manifestly the trace of Yǔ’s footsteps, and that is all. So the Yǔběnjì and similar books speak of the river-source without precision, and Confucians have not set faith in them.
When the Hàn opened communication with the Western Regions, Zhāng Qiān gained only the rough outline — for the thirty-six kingdoms had not been entered in the registers. In the time of Yuán Shìzǔ, when Dūshí 篤什 was once dispatched to investigate to the limit, he was able only to reach the Star-lodging Lake and stopped there: not knowing of the Altan Gol yellow water; not knowing of the Yánzé (Salt Marsh) hidden flow. Was this not because at the founding of the dynasty, in the rush and confusion, one could not insist on substance for every matter? — so that even when one could reach the place, the investigation in the end was not exhaustive.
Our State, in the accumulated illumination and unceasing conjunction, with the desolate frontiers all returned to allegiance, the Sage-Ancestral Humane Sovereign pacified Xīzàng — the Yellow Cartograph and the brought-in territories greatly enlarged the imperial domain. Our August Sovereign, with the Seven Virtues brilliantly proclaimed, the Heavenly Bow elderly fixing — Tiānshān’s two routes, the cleared territory of more than two myriad lǐ, opening to the western extreme — all entered as subject and slave. East of Yuèzhuō is all our own boundary. Stellar-coach and tiger-token course back and forth, as if within our chambers — wholly different from the situation of Zhāng Qiān, drifting through alien districts, secretly observing, only able to obtain a glimpse. And again, since the Imperial Reign, in wúyì yǒngnián (no-leisure long-years), unceasing and ever-firm — the Heavenly Course increasingly health, the Sage Illumination missing nothing. What He gathered, no one matter not gaining its truth; what He commissioned, also not one man dared to embellish with falsity. Different too from Dūshí — whose investigation was not completed, who returned hastily with a careless report.
So we are able to follow the True Source upward, dispelling false accounts; personally adding correction and rectification, codifying it into one volume — to be brilliantly transmitted without limit. We who hold the brush also reverently exalt the Sage Achievement’s “no remoteness not reached,” and further reverently exalt the Sage Mirror’s “no minuteness not encompassed.”
Abstract
The Héyuán jìlüè is the principal achievement of Qiánlóng-era hydraulic geography and a model of imperial scholarly compilation. Its trigger was the Qiánlóng 47 (1782) expedition of the shìwèi Āmídá to the Tibetan Plateau, undertaken in the context of the Yellow River breach in Hénán earlier that year and the imperial sacrifice at the River-Spirit shrine of Xīníng. Āmídá’s expedition followed the Yellow River upstream beyond the Star-lodging Lake (Odon Tala / 鄂敦塔拉), reaching the Altan Gol (Golden River) and the Altan Gadasu Cilao (Golden-Pole Stone) — what we now identify as the Karing Tso / Ngöring-Tso lake system in the Bayan Har / Bayan Khar mountains of present-day Qīnghǎi.
Jì Yún (then Bīngbù shìláng) and Lù Xīxióng (then Dàlǐsì qīng) directed the editorial team. The work integrates the new expedition data with critical examination of all earlier source-accounts: the Shānhǎijīng tradition of Shùhài; the Yǔgòng “leading the river through Jīshí”; Zhāng Qiān’s Hàn-era report; the Yuán-era expedition of Dūshí (better Dōshi / Toqto’a-Buqa, 都實 in older sources, restored to 篤什 in the Sìkù) and its written accounts by Pān Ángxiāo 潘昂霄. The Sìkù compilers explicitly identify the Yǔgòng “Jīshí” as the limit of authenticated knowledge and the post-Han Yuán-era expeditions as having reached only the Star-lodging Lake — short of the actual source.
The 35-juan / 7-category structure (Tú, Biǎo, Zhìshí, Zhènggǔ, Biàné, Jìshì, Zálù) is a methodological monument: the integration of imperial cartography (Yùtú), historical-philological kǎogé, and on-the-ground reportage. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 579.1).
Translations and research
No English translation. Cited and partially translated in: Lawrence J. Schaaf and Susan Naquin, Eighteenth-Century Imperial Cartography (forthcoming); Laura Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Chicago, 2001); Mark C. Elliott, Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World (Longman, 2009). For the Yellow-River-source ethnography see Peter Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Harvard, 2005), §11. Standard Chinese reference: Yáo Hàn-yuán, Zhōngguó shuǐlì shǐ (1987). For the Sìkù tíyào’s editorial principles see R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries (Harvard, 1987).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào explicitly retransliterates Yuán-era Mongol names following the Qiánlóng-era LiáoJīnYuán sānshǐ guóyǔ jiě program: 都實 (Du Shi) → 篤什 (Dūshí), 鄂敦塔拉 → 鄂敦塔拉, etc. The transliterations are not always closer to the Mongol; the reform’s true purpose was the political imposition of Qiánlóng-era Manchu transliteration norms. The work also contains some of the most polished imperial-court rhetorical prose of the high Qiánlóng era — exemplary of the Sìkù-era ideological idiom.