Lìdài Jiànyuán Kǎo 歷代建元考
Investigation of Reign-Title Establishments through the Ages by 鍾淵映 (撰)
About the work
A comprehensive 10-juǎn reference on Chinese reign-titles (niánhào 年號) by Zhōng Yuānyìng 鍾淵映 (early-Qīng, zì Guǎnghàn, of Xiùshuǐ 秀水). Where most prior reign-title compilations focused on legitimate dynasties (the zhèngtǒng), this work and its near-contemporaries—Wú Sùgōng 吳肅公’s Gǎiyuán kǎotóng and Wàn Guāngtài 萬光泰’s Jìyuán xùyùn—deliberately incorporate usurpers, illegitimate claimants, banner-rebels, even peasant-rebellion claimed reign-titles. Arrangement: identical reign-titles grouped first; then arranged by rhyme; then a chronological summary of legitimate-dynasty emperors with their reign-titles; with brief notices of foreign and tributary states. The most comprehensive of the three early-Qīng reign-title references.
Tiyao
By Zhōng Yuānyìng of our dynasty. Yuānyìng, zì Guǎnghàn, of Xiùshuǐ. Reign-title compilations have generally been thorough on the zhèngtǒng (legitimate succession) but thin on the rest. Only Wú Sùgōng’s Gǎiyuán kǎotóng of the early Qīng, Wàn Guāngtài’s recent Jìyuán xùyùn, and Yuānyìng’s present work include the wěicháo bàguó (false-court hegemonic-states), down even to the petty rebels’ usurped claims, all carefully recorded.
The arrangement: identical reign-titles are listed first; then arranged by rhyme; then a chronological list of zhèngtǒng emperors and a final list of usurpers; foreign states also occasionally included. The order is precise. Even with vast resources, exhaustive collection is impossible. For instance, Shǔ Wáng Yǎn (i.e., Wáng Jiàn, the Former Shǔ founder) used the same reign-title as Sòng Tàizǔ; Fǔ Gōngyòu used the same; Qiú Fǔ had a “Wéipíng” usurpation; Chéngdū was the Western-Xià’s name (in self-reference)—various such cases are inevitably omitted; one cannot say nothing slipped. Compared to Wú and Wàn, however, the work is comprehensive.
Abstract
A specialist reference work for early-Qīng evidential historiography. Zhōng Yuānyìng’s life-dates are not transmitted; the dating bracket here (1660–1700) reflects mid-to-late Kāngxī compilation. The work belongs to a small early-Qīng cluster of reference works on imperial chronology: Wú Sùgōng’s Gǎiyuán kǎotóng 改元考同 (slightly earlier), Zhōng Yuānyìng’s Lìdài jiànyuán kǎo (this work), and Wàn Guāngtài’s Jìyuán xùyùn 紀元敍韻. The Sìkù tíyào ranks Zhōng’s the most comprehensive of the three.
The principle of including usurpers and rebels alongside zhèngtǒng dynasties is methodologically progressive: it acknowledges that reign-titles are linguistic-historical data (necessary for dating any document, even a rebel’s edict) rather than a register of legitimacy. The principle is now standard in modern Chinese chronology references such as Lǐ Chóngzhì 李崇智, Zhōngguó lìdài niánhào kǎo 中國歷代年號考 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1981; rev. 2001), which incorporates Zhōng’s coverage.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Modern reference for Chinese reign-titles: Lǐ Chóngzhì, Zhōngguó lìdài niánhào kǎo 中國歷代年號考 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, rev. ed. 2001). For Western users, Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.2, gives the principal reign-title chronology and points to Lǐ Chóngzhì. No specialist Western treatment of Zhōng Yuānyìng’s work.
Other points of interest
The work’s principle of treating reign-titles as linguistic data rather than as legitimacy markers anticipates the methodological shift in Qīng kǎojù historiography by some decades; in this respect Zhōng’s work belongs with the early-Qīng cohort of evidential scholarship that took shape outside the orthodox zhèngtǒng framework.