The SSDJ entries were created as documents were dealt with (sui-shou, "as the work went along") by the clerks of the Grand Council, to record the handling of all documents processed by that body. These include principally palace memorials (such as Document I.1, preceding) and the imperial replies to them. Thus it served Grand Council officials at the time (and serves the researcher today) as the ultimate finding-aid for documents in the Grand Council system. The Peking SSDJ is now available on microfilm. For a full discussion of the SSDJ, see Beatrice S. Bartlett, "Ch'ing Documents in the National Palace Museum Archives, Part One: Document Registers: The Sui-shou teng-chi." National Palace Museum Bulletin, X.4 (Sept-Oct 1975).

The selection offered here is intended only to show the process by which Yu-tai’s memorial was handled at the capital. A fuller treatment of SSDJ entries is found under Document II.10 in "Using Archives." This document is the same as the first document found on that page.

Source: First Historical Archives, Peking; reproduced by permission.

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Glossary

Line numbers are added here for convenience

Line 1:

硃批 - zhu pi - This is the log entry for the last vocabulary item in Document 1. Here the phrase is used in a verbal sense, with the next phrase acting as the object.

裕泰。。。摺 - Yu tai … zhe - memorial submitted by Yu-tai

報 - bao - special dispatch by military post

四百里(1) - si bai li … - (the rate of transmission, followed by the date and place of dispatch)

拜發 - bai fa - respectfully dispatched

四百里(2) - si bai li … - (rate by which the memorial was returned to the sender, bearing the vermilion rescript)

si bai li … - 四百里 - (the rate of transmission, followed by the date and place of dispatch) (rate by which the memorial was returned to the sender, bearing the vermilion rescript)

Line 2:

一 - yi - (indicates an item)

崇陽。。。由 - Chong yang … you - (summary of the memorial)

另有旨 - ling you zhi - (see Document 1)

Line 3:

諭旨道 - yu zhi dao - imperial edicts (dao is a counter for edicts). Most of the following items are court letters. The first seven are omitted here.

Line 4: (This begins the summary of the edicts, one by one. Each is set off by a numeral “one.”)

Line 5:

寄 - ji - a letter (in this case: a ting-ji, a court letter). The text of this court letter follows as Document 2.

據奏 - ju zou - We have received your memorial

崇陽。。。官 - Chong yang … guan - (summarizes the memorial)

著 - zhuo - let … (introduces an imperial command)

趕督拏辦 - gan du na ban - speedily supervise the arrest and prosecution (lan 覽 is probably a scribal error for du 督)

Line 6:

毋令滋蔓 - wu ling zi man - do not permit [the rebellion] to spread (the perennial imperial worry in such cases)

附報 - fu bao - appended: the original memorial

知會 - zhi hui - notify