II.10 The Grand Council Record Book
II.10 The Grand Council Record Book Suishou dengji 隨手登記
I. Characteristics of the Suishou dengji
The Suishou dengji, also called the Suishou dang 隨手檔, is a calendar (i.e., chronological listing) of memorials, imperial edicts, and court letters that passed through the Grand Council. Its contents make it the most comprehensive Grand Council record of official business. It also serves as a daily chronological account of historical events. An indispensable introduction to the SSDJ is Bartlett 1975.
This record-book began in the first year of the Qianlong reign and lasted until the end of the dynasty. Each year was bound as two volumes (spring-summer, fall-winter). The first day of the year began the first volume. The entries were made by the Grand Council clerks (zhangjing 章京, from the Manchu janggin) serving in rotation. Their job was to record incoming palace memorials (as well as minutes, _pian_片 presented to the throne by the Grand Councilors themselves); and outgoing imperial commands in the form of edicts and court letters. They also recorded the exact procedure by which each document was handled and transmitted.
The Grand Council considered the SSDJ an invaluable record book. Because of its comprehensive listing of Grand Council documentary business, it was consulted when compiling a record-book or documentary history, such as the Imperial Diary, the Veritable Records, the documentary histories of military campaigns (fanglue 方略) and other specialized document-based collections. It is a basic tool of the historical researcher who seeks to understand the chronological development of politics and administration at the heart of the Chinese empire. It is also the most complete and accurate finding-aid for all sorts of archival documents handled through the Grand Council system.
II. Procedures for Compiling the SSDJ
The SSDJ principally existed to record memorials sent to the Grand Council by the Chancery of Memorials (zou-shi-chu 奏事處), whether from the provinces or from capital agencies; as well as the various enclosures in memorials (minutes 片, lists and depositions 單); and the edicts and court letters drafted by the Grand Councilors in response. The receipt of any enclosures was to be noted above the subject, or directly under the rescript. If the sender of a palace memorial used the military post (rather than a personal servant), the speed at which it was sent (number of li per day) and the date it was sent were to be recorded by the Grand Council clerks when the memorials were received from the Chancery of Memorials. If the document was returned to its sender by military post, the speed of return was likewise to be noted.
The method of recording these materials was straightforward: Each day, the clerks on duty would record all the memorials, edicts, and enclosures that they had received. Vermilion rescripts on memorials would all be recorded, and the subjects (事由) of all upward and downward documents would be noted. At the same time would be specified the exact disposition of each document. Some palace memorials and imperial edicts, for example, would be sent to the Grand Secretariat to be copied out for administrative agencies, and would be identified in the SSDJ with the character jiao 交 (forward). Those documents sent to the provinces by military courier would be so noted.
III. Examples and Analysis of SSDJ Entries
1. Entry for DG 21.12.23. (Here the reader is referred to Introduction to Qing Documents. Part I, Document 1.1, pp. 14-16. What follows is a more detailed analysis of that day's entries.) Note that the pages reproduced here are a recopied version of a draft. The draft SSDJ were done speedily in running script and are sometimes troublesome to read. The recopied version are easier to read but may contain some erroneous characters.
The form of the SSDJ was rigidly prescribed. For example, each incoming palace memorial was noted as follows: (In large characters): "His Majesty rescripted a memorial from so-and-so" 硃批 某人 摺. Then, lower down, one column to the left, in small characters, was written the subject (shi-yu) of the incoming memorial. Separated by several spaces in the same column followed the vermilion rescript in small characters (e.g. "There is a decree written separately" 另有旨, that is, a court letter is being sent in response to the memorial).
To discover what the 另有旨 referred to in the case of Yu-tai's memorial (lines 1 and 2), scan the list of edicts that follows. Each outgoing edict (in response to a provincial memorial it would take the form of a court letter) is listed under a large character heading, "Edicts" 諭旨 道, the dao being a respectful numerative for imperial commands. The summary of each document is preceded by the character for "one" and ended with the word 由. The edict in response to Yu-tai is recorded on lines 11-12, preceded by 寄 for 寄信, court letter. After the names of the addressees is a brief summary of the court letter's contents (reproduced in Introduction... Part One as Document 2; the full text would also be findable in the Grand Council record-book of edicts, Shang-yu-dang). Following the summary (still line 12) is a record of how the court letter was transmitted: "attached to the original memorial, sent at a rate of 400 li." The memorial itself was, by regulation, returned to the palace at the end of the year (the court letter, too, if it bore vermilion emendations).
The edicts summarized on lines 4-10 were all sent to the Grand Secretariat for copying out and transmitting to the Six Boards. Most were in response to memorials from the boards. In the draft version of the SSDJ, the board in question is explicitly noted at the head of each line. In the copied version it is not so noted, but the relevant board is generally obvious from the context. If the compilers of the Veritable Records (Shi-lu) judged such an edict important enough, they would include it under the heading "edict to the Grand Secretariat" 諭內閣. Some particular points:
Line 4: A felon is to be sent to the Board of Punishments for interrogation.
Line 5: A personnel recommendation by the Board of Civil Appointments has gone up to the throne, but an imperial decision has not been sent down. Hence the Grand Councilors drafted an edict in which space has been left for the appointee's name. The prospective appointee's name will be "stated again" ~~ by the Grand Councilors at a later audience. (The names were filled in two days later and the edict formally issued. See Shih-lu, DG, 364.18b.)
Line 6: (Responding to the Board of Revenue memorial). Rations for Grain Transport workers are to be borrowed (from government granaries).
Line 7: (An edict to be forwarded to the Board of Civil Appointments: ) Rewards (of brevet rank) are to be recommended for officials and commoners who have contributed funds for city wall repairs.
Line 8: A military official is being cashiered for misconduct.
Line 9: Soldiers transferred temporarily to the Suzhou-Songjiang area are to be retained there and supported by grain-tribute rice. See Shih-lu, DG, 364.14.
Line 10: (Refers to the document recorded on lines 13-14): The Board of Works memorialized that supplementary expenses for river conservancy are greater than usual. The edict orders the official in charge to economize. (年 is apparently a scribal error for 河). Find the edict, headed "諭內閣", in the Shih-lu, DG, 364.12. This edict would have been drafted by the Grand Councilors, approved by the emperor, and sent to the Grand Secretariat for copying out and transmitting to the board. Such edicts (unlike court letters) were not treated as secret documents.
Lines 11-12: Received a report from Yu-tai and Zhao Bingyan of disturbances in Chongyang County. According to the memorial, the city has been attacked and officials tied up. The court orders them to resolve the situation quickly and not to allow the uprising to spread. The small text notes a separate memorial sent to Yu-tai at the rate of 400 li per day. It also notes that his lieutenant, Liu, is taking care of his duties, as specified in Yu-tai's memorial..
Line 14: 隨旨交 in small characters shows that the Board's memorial has been sent to the Grand Secretariat along with the edict.
2. Entries for DG 21.9.17 and 19
Line 1: 汪 and 梁 are the surnames of the Grand Council clerks (章京) on duty that day.
Line 3: Pang-zhu 旁硃 (interlinear vermilion) after an entry of a document indicates that the emperor has written imperial comments in vermilion between the lines. The notations sui-zhi jiao 隨旨交 or tong-zhi jiao 同旨交 (forward this document to the Grand Secretariat along with the decree) and just jiao (forward to the Grand Secretariat) are used when an imperial instruction, either written on the document or separately, is to be copied out by the GS for the Board or other executive agency that has to deal with it. Memorials thanking the emperor for official appointments (謝恩摺), usually rescripted "noted" 知道了 or "seen" 覽) do not need forwarding and are not so marked. Memorials that gave rise to court letters, which were secret and not to be handled by the Grand Secretariat, were noted with 即有旨 or 另有旨 and were sent directly back to the memorialist. They of course do not bear any 交 notation.
Line 9: 桂單銜 ("Gui-liang alone") indicates that the official Gui-liang has sent this particular memorial, in a batch of memorials sent jointly by him and Zhang Lizhong.
Lines 14-17: Dan 單 indicates that the document in question is in the form of a list, in this case evaluations of officials. It has been forwarded to the Board of Civil Appointments. Pian 片 (minute, supplementary note) indicates a separate document, attached to a memorial, on another subject. It does not bear the name or office of the memorialist and is generally called 片奏.
