Yú Qīngduān zhèngshū 于清端政書
Administrative Documents of Yú (Chénglóng) the Pure-and-Upright by 于成龍 (撰)
About the work
The administrative-documents corpus of 于成龍 Yú Chénglóng (1617–1684, posthumously Qīngduān 清端), the most celebrated qīngguān (incorrupt official) of the early Qīng, who rose from auxiliary gòngshēng status to Liǎngjiāng zǒngdū (Governor-General of the Two Jiang) entirely on administrative merit. Eight juan organized by Yú’s successive posts: juan 1 Luóchéng shū (Luóchéng magistracy, Guǎngxī, 1661–1669); juan 2 Hézhōu shū (Hézhōu prefectship, Sìchuān, 1669–1672); juan 3 Wǔchāng shū (Wǔchāng vice-prefect / acting prefect, 1672–1674); juan 4 Huángzhōu shū (Huángzhōu Yangtze-defense circuit, 1674–1677, during the Sān fān war); juan 5 BāMǐn shū (Fújiàn provincial vice-treasurer / vice-judicial-commissioner, 1677–1680); juan 6 Jīfǔ shū (Zhílì governor, 1680–1682); juan 7 Liǎngjiāng shū (Governor-General, 1682–1684). Juan 8 Yínyǒng shū collects his poetry in all forms plus six prose pieces. Up through the jiānsī (provincial-supervisory) ranks the documents are all administrative reports, regulatory recommendations, dispatch-orders and admonitions; from the xúnfǔ (governor) level upward, memorial-to-the-throne (zòushū) become part of the record. The Sìkù tíyào notes that a separate Yúshān zòudú 于山奏牘 in 7 juan was preserved as catalog-only material, since its arrangement was less coherent than the present zhèngshū.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Yú Qīngduān zhèngshū is by Yú Chénglóng of our dynasty. Chénglóng of Yǒngníng zhōu, Shānxī, rose from fùbǎng gòngshēng status to Liǎngjiāng zǒngdū, posthumously Qīngduān, zèng Tàizǐ tàibǎo. His official record is in the state-historical běn zhuàn. The present collection is composed of his works from each successive post: Luóchéng shū (his magistracy at Luóchéng); Hézhōu shū (his Hézhōu prefectship); Wǔchāng shū (his time as Wǔchāng tóngzhī concurrently acting prefect); Huángzhōu shū (his Huángzhōu Yangtze-defense circuit); BāMǐn shū (his Fújiàn provincial liǎng sī offices); Jīfǔ shū (his Zhílì governorship); Liǎngjiāng shū (his Liǎngjiāng governor-generalship). Up through his vice-supervisory tenure all are administrative reports, regulatory recommendations, official dispatches, and edicts of warning and exhortation; from his governorship onward, formal memorials begin to appear. The eighth juan, the Yínyǒng shū, is his composed poetry in all forms with six prose pieces appended.
There is separately a Yúshān zòudú in 7 juan; its arrangement is not as orderly as the present collection’s, and it is preserved as catalog-entry only. Chénglóng was famed for his qīngjié (incorrupt integrity). From his entry to office as magistrate and prefect, on through his two great commissions as governor — pacifying the people, suppressing banditry — every administrative achievement showed a generous chéngsuàn (forethought-and-stratagem). His statecraft also is enough to transmit. Reading this work today, we may still see in it the běnmò (root-and-end) of his life’s planning. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 49 (1784), third month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Yú Qīngduān zhèngshū is the administrative-document model of the early-Qīng biéjí — extraordinarily, the Sìkù compilers placed it in the literary-collection division (jí 集) rather than in the historical-statecraft division (shǐ 史), despite its predominantly administrative content. This placement reflects the Sìkù’s programmatic recognition of Yú as a model qīngguān whose memorials and dispatches together with his small verse-output constitute a unified literary legacy of Qīngduān governance.
The dates of Yú’s posts can be approximately fixed: he was magistrate of Luóchéng in xīnchǒu of Shùnzhì 18 / Kāngxī 1 (1661); promoted to Hézhōu in jǐyǒu (1669); then to Wǔchāng tóngzhī in rénzǐ (1672); to Huángzhōu Yangtze-defense in jiǎyín (1674), in the early phase of the Sān fān war; to Fújiàn in dīngsì (1677); to Zhílì governor in gēngshēn (1680); to Liǎngjiāng governor-general in rénxū (1682); he died in office in Liǎngjiāng in jiǎzǐ (1684). The composition window is therefore approximately 1661–1684.
The Sìkù tíyào’s failure to challenge the catalog meta dates (which give 1638–1700 in our project metadata) is itself notable; the correct lifedates 1617–1684 (CBDB id 56816) are clearly implied by the Sìkù description of his career and confirmed by the Qīng state’s běn zhuàn in the Qīng shǐ gǎo.
Translations and research
Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K’ang-hsi (Knopf, 1974) — discusses the Kāngxī emperor’s personal patronage of Yú.
Cynthia J. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit (Princeton, 1991) — uses Yú as model of incorrupt governance in popular Qīng didactic literature.
Robert M. Marsh, The Mandarins: The Circulation of Elites in China, 1600–1900 (Glencoe: Free Press, 1961) — references Yú as exemplary case of administrative-merit advancement.
Cài Guàn-luò 蔡冠洛, Qīng-dài qī bǎi míng-rén zhuàn 清代七百名人傳 — Yú entry.
Other points of interest
Yú Chénglóng is one of the most folklore-rich early-Qīng officials: the Yú Chénglóng dà rén 于成龍大人 narrative cycle generated a substantial Qīng-Republican popular literature, including the modern Liánzhèng dàlǐ TV series. The Kāngxī emperor’s personal accolade “Tiānxià dìyī liánlì” (first incorrupt official in the realm) — preserved both in the Qīng shílù and on Yú’s stele inscription — is the most celebrated imperial praise for an early-Qīng provincial official.
The two contemporary 于成龍s (this person 1617–1684; the lesser 于成龍 1638–1700, the Yellow-River chief) have been frequently confused since the Yōngzhèng era; modern scholarship since ECCP (1943) carefully distinguishes the two. The catalog-meta date error (1638–1700) is itself an instance of this widespread confusion.
Links
- Wikidata Q15913330 (Yu Chenglong, Qingduan)
- ECCP 937–938 (Fang Chao-ying)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào