The Importance of the Archival Palace Memorials of the Ch'ing Dynasty: The Secret Palace Memorials of the Kuang-hsü Period, 1875-1908

-71THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MCHIVAL PALACE MEMORIALS OF THE CH'ING DYNASTY: THE SECRET PALACE MEMORIALS OF THE KUANG-HSU PERIOD, 1875-1908 Ven-p ' ing Hao Department of History Imversily of Tennessee, Knoxville Kwan^-Chmg Liu Department ^l Histi-rv (:uwr-itL\ oí Caîitorma, Davis The recent publication of the Secret Palace Memorials of the Kuang-hsu Period (Kung-chung tane Kuang-hsu ch'ao tsou-che 'T *£ Xa -i t'r£ gp ------------Sl -----& ---& -----fc -------------------- a T '& .I- . 1J ^I0 C^ 4 ^, ) by the National Palace Museum in Taiwan was a momentous event for students of Chinese history. They not only constitute one of the most comprehensive and authentic collections of Ch'ing documents, but also mark the beginnings of large-scale, systematic, and continuous publication of the more than 150,000 palace memorials as well as other archival materials in the collection of the Museum, totaling about 400,000 documents (including the palace memorials). Taken together, these materials depict in meticulous detail important events and developments in all parts of the empire from the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the dynasty in 1912, and shed new light on the history of late imperial China and its rulers. In what way do we compare the personalities and capacities of the Ch'ing monarchs of the various reigns? What kind of person was the Yung-cheng emperor'' How did the Manchus gradually lose their ethnical identity? How did the Ch'ing bureaucracy work and how did the various devices of imperial control function in the different epochs of the long dynasty? *The authors wish to thank Dr. Chiang Fu-ts'ung ?t ?"? *·!¦ . Director of the National Palace Museum, and other members of the museum staff, Messrs. Ch'ang Pi-te % i'k i , Ch'ien Chieh-hsien ?f ^tF, » Chuang Chi-faJ,- * 4r fê- fx,· ) only includes memorials prior to 1820, and the recently published Memorials of the Tao-kuang, Hsien-feng, T'ung-chih and Kuang-hsu Periods (Tao Hsien T'ung Kuang ssu-ch'ao tsou-i Hf A" (S] i Cj? 5ñ ?- Ipl· ) covers only the years 1821-1884. The latter includes 602 memorialists in the four reigns, but the palace archives hold the memorials of 730 officials in the Kuang-hsu period alone. Furthermore, the palace archives are all-inclusive, while the other publications are often selections made either from the literary and ideological standpoint, as in the case of the Memorials of the Ch'ing, or politically oriented, such as the official collections of documents concerning the suppression of Muslim revolts in the Northwest. The memorials, edicts and decrees of the Boxer period, from June 20 to August 18, 1900 (KH 26/5/24 to 26/7/24), for instance, are only sparsely represented in the Veritable Records and the Tung-hua Records. The compilers of the Draft History of the Ch'ing (Ch'ing-shih kao -,"-&" $_ -%fy ) apparently had used only those two documentary sources. Palace memorials of the Boxer period with their imperial endorsements, are obviously of unique value—and this -75is only one example of the materials now being published which have not been censored for political reasons. The palace archives frequently have more memorials than any other work in respect to individual officials. A case in point Is Nien Keng-yao -JT "? -Ö (d. 1726), the famous official and military commander of the Yung-cheng period. Whereas the Collected Historical Documents (Chang-ku ts'ung-pien & -J^ ? f(¿L ) published only 79 of his memorials, the palace archives possess 284 (194 in Manchu and 90 in Chinese) , not counting 9 letters in Manchu and 40 imperial decrees in both Manchu and Chinese which concerned him. This situation is also true with Yuan Shih-k'ai. The Collection of Yuan Shih-k'ai's Important Memorials (Yang-shou-yuan tsou-i chi-yao M^ ~% ¡2 % ~Í% %t % } covering the period 1898-1907 has been widely used by historians. Whereas it has only 156 memorials and 41 enclosures, the palace archives hold 1,364 of Yiian's memorials and 931 enclosures in Q the same period. The present palace archives at the Palace Museum do not contain all memorials of the Ch'ing, because...