Qīndìng lìdài zhíguān biǎo 欽定歷代職官表
Imperially Approved Tables of Official Posts through the Ages by 永瑢 (Yǒng Róng, 奉敕撰) and 紀昀 (Jǐ Yún, 奉敕撰)
About the work
The Qīndìng lìdài zhíguān biǎo in 72 juǎn (the catalog meta) — the Sìkù Tíyào gives 63 juǎn, reflecting an earlier state of the work — is the great Qiánlóng-era comparative tabulation of every Chinese imperial administrative office from antiquity to the Qīng. It was commissioned in Qiánlóng 45 (1780) by the imperial bureau of the Sìkù quánshū. Each office and bureau is given as a horizontal table headed by the Qīng establishment, then by reign period from the Zhōulǐ through the Qīng, with case-notes (ànyǔ 案語) explaining identifications, name-changes, and discrepancies between sources. The compilation was overseen by Yǒng Róng 永瑢 (the Prince of Zhì 質親王, 1744–1790), as nominal chief of the Sìkù bureau, and the actual editorial work was led by the Sìkù chief editors Jǐ Yún 紀昀 (1724–1805), Lù Xíxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅 (1720–1796), and Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Tiyao
In the midst of these changes, the names and grades have been revised in dizzying succession; broadly speaking, when the structural counterweights are sufficient, the imperial mainspring (乾綱) is preserved; when power tilts in one direction, the reins of governance shift. Hence the gains and losses of the office system can be a barometer of the rise and fall of court politics. Our dynasty has examined antiquity in establishing offices, has held name and reality in line, and has made adjustments suited to each age. The August Sovereign’s clear gaze is impartial, his weighing of duties his own; he raises the upright and discards the bent, palace and bureau alike pure in administration — never seen before in the histories. He has further reflected that the office systems of past dynasties stand in the records, and that one ought to trace them to their sources to make their merits and demerits clear, so that prior precedents may serve as mirror and the principles of legal warning may be the more brightly displayed. Thus he has specially commissioned the Director of the Sìkù quánshū Bureau, Inner Court Academician now promoted to Vice Minister of War, your servant Jǐ Yún; the Light-Tribute Court Minister now promoted to Court of Judicial Review, your servant Lù Xíxióng; the Hànlín Compiler now promoted to Provincial Treasurer of Shāndōng, your servant Sūn Shìyì; the Junior Tutor of the Court of the Heir Apparent now promoted to Inner Court Academician, your servant Lù Fèichí — and others, to verify, sequence, and edit this work.
The headings entirely follow the present system; for each, the principal officer, the deputies, and the staff are listed — in order to make the framework clear. Concurrent appointments without a regular complement, but heavy in their charge — such as the Grand Council (Jūnjī chù 軍機處) — are also given separate special tables, in order to elevate the duties of office. The titles of the Eight Banners and of the new dominion of Xīnjiāng — never before extant — are also collated in detail, in order to record the unprecedented founding of our sage age. What was extant in antiquity but not now, or what was once instituted and later abolished, is also gathered and appended separately, for reference and verification. Each section is headed by a table; after the table, the institution is detailed, with the present dynasty leading off (somewhat in the manner of the Táng liùdiǎn KR2l0001); the historical succession follows, with selected citations from various works and case-notes (ànyǔ) appended to disambiguate them. Through several thousand years, the system of subdividing offices and arraying their staff is set out from origin to leaf, complete in every particular.
The compilation of tables of jiàngxiàng (chief generals and grand councillors) and of high officials began with Sīmǎ Qiān and Bān Gù, and was followed by the Zǎixiàng biǎo of the Tángshū, the Zǎifǔ biǎo of the Sòngshǐ, and the Nèigé qī qīng biǎo of the Míngshǐ. But these record only year and month of appointment and dismissal, with no connection to office systems; they are dynastically partitioned and not communicated across; consultation is rather difficult. As to the gathering of precedent like Sūn Féngjí’s Zhíguān fēn jì 職官分紀, this only feeds verbal flourishes and contributes nothing to the practice of administration. The opening principles of compilation here are entirely the result of imperial deliberation: encompassing antiquity and the present, threading beginning to end, with horizontal lines and oblique entries, citing the ancient and verifying the modern, warp and weft are clearly distinguished, the cross-references thorough. Not only does it stand as the great model for ages of central rectification — even now every official, in clarifying his duties and reflecting on the meaning of the names, ought to perceive the more clearly the warning and admonition.
Abstract
The Qīndìng lìdài zhíguān biǎo is the great Qīng synthesis of Chinese institutional history. It is the unmistakable Qīng-dynasty counterpart to KR2l0001 Táng liùdiǎn in the Tang and to Sūn Féngjí’s Zhíguān fēn jì 職官分紀 in the Sòng, and is the principal premodern reference for cross-dynastic identification of administrative offices. The compilation method — Qīng establishment first, then earlier dynasties (Zhōu through Míng) — implements an explicitly retrospective and Qing-centric reading of imperial history. The work was issued under imperial supervision; the actual editorial labour fell to the Sìkù chief editors (Jǐ Yún, Lù Xíxióng, Sūn Shìyì, Lù Fèichí), and the catalog meta lists Yǒng Róng (the Prince of Zhì, nominal director of the Sìkù) and Jǐ Yún as the formal compilers. The 72-juǎn recension reflects the final state of the work; the Sìkù Tíyào records 63 juǎn, an earlier state.
Translations and research
- Hucker, Charles O. 1985. A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Stanford UP. (The standard Western reference; relies on Lìdài zhíguān biǎo for cross-dynasty mappings.)
- Lìdài zhíguān biǎo 歷代職官表. Punctuated and reformatted edition by various publishers; the Shanghai Guji 1989 reprint is the standard modern citation.
- Wáng Xǐlóng 王希隆 et al. Qīngdài Xīnjiāng zhíguān zhì (uses the present work for the comparative framework).
Other points of interest
The opening note of the imperial Tíyào — that “the gains and losses of the office system can be a barometer of the rise and fall of court politics” (官制之得失，可以知朝政之盛衰也) — is one of the more direct expressions in Qiánlóng-era official editorial language of the principle that institutions reflect (and shape) governance. The work itself is therefore not merely a reference table but a piece of imperial political reflection.