Míng Shì Jì Huìbiān 明謚紀彙編
Compendium of Míng-Period Posthumous-Name Records by 郭良翰 (撰)
About the work
A comprehensive late-Míng compilation of posthumous-name (shì) practice across the entire dynasty, by the Sìkù-listed scholar Guō Liánghàn 郭良翰 (active late Wànlì–Chóngzhēn). 25 juǎn. The most detailed documentary record of Míng shì protocol. Headings include: gōnglìng (regulations, with sub-categories Huìdiǎn shìlì and jìnrì shìlì); shìfǎ (the rules); zūnshì (imperial-house posthumous names) with 9 sub-categories from emperor-and-empress through wángfēi; chénshì (officer posthumous names) with 9 sub-categories including civil officers, military officers, yìliú (other categories), fūrén shūrén (titled wives), zhuīzèng qiáncháo chén (retroactive prior-dynasty officials), wàiyí (foreign), recent zhǔnshì civil officers, yìlùn (discussion), and kǎowù (corrections of error).
Tiyao
By Guō Liánghàn of the Míng. Liánghàn’s Zhōulǐ gǔběn dìngzhù has been catalogued. This work compiles the shì practice of one full dynasty, the most detailed of its kind. Headings:
Gōnglìng (regulations) with sub-categories Huìdiǎn shìlì and jìnrì shìlì. Shìfǎ (no sub-categories). Zūnshì (imperial shì): emperor-and-empress; six-character empress shì; four-character empress shì; two-character empress shì; Dōnggōng (heir-apparent); princesses; qīnwáng (princes of the blood); jùnwáng (commandery-princes); wángfēi (princely consorts). Chénshì (officer shì): civil officers; military officers; yìliú (mixed categories); fūrén shūrén; retroactive prior-dynasty officials; foreign; recent provisional civil-officer shì; discussion; kǎowù.
The “recent provisional shì” category—those late-Wànlì civil officers whose shì was proposed but never confirmed—corresponds to the 29 officials in Bào Yīng’áo’s Míngchén shì kǎo who “are neither granted nor refused.” The yìlùn gate gathers Míng-period shì discussions: how Lǐ Dōngyáng (with party associations) was given Wénzhèng; how Péng Sháo (uncompromising) was given Huì’ān; etc. The judgments are fair. The kǎowù gate corrects unofficial-history transmissions against the cabinet records—exact and reliable.
Abstract
This work belongs to a small late-Míng cluster of comprehensive shì-protocol compilations that includes Bào Yīng’áo’s Míngchén shì kǎo (KR2m0030). Where Bào focuses on civil officers and rests on his own Lǐbù archival access, Guō Liánghàn casts a wider net (imperial house, military, provisional, foreign, fūrén shūrén, etc.) and synthesizes both the rules and the discursive tradition. The two are usefully read together.
Guō Liánghàn’s life-dates are not precisely transmitted; the dating bracket here (1610–1644) reflects late-Wànlì compilation through the dynasty’s end. The work is preserved in Sìkù and is the principal supplementary reference (alongside Bào) for Míng prosopographical research.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Lǐ Zhōuwěi 李周為, Míng-dài shì-fǎ yán-jiū 明代諡法研究 (Tiānjīn dàxué chūbǎn-shè, 2017), is the principal modern monograph on Míng shì practice, drawing on both Bào and Guō. No specialist Western literature on this work specifically.
Other points of interest
The work’s yìlùn (discussion) gate, which collects comparative judgments such as Lǐ Dōngyáng’s politically compromised Wénzhèng against Péng Sháo’s principled Huì’ān, makes it valuable not only as protocol-record but as an early modern Chinese collection of debate over the moral economy of posthumous naming.