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II.4 Memorials register (shi-shu 史書) summary of a routine memorial, QL 25.12.8

Introduction to Documents II.4 and II.5

Memorials registers, called shishu 史書 in Chinese, are one of several kinds of chronological record books found in the Qing archives, consisting of summaries of routine memorials, i.e., tiben 題本. They were compiled by the "Six Sections," or liu ke 六科 – committees deep within the palace bureaucracy staffed by censors whose task was to check rescripted memorials on their way from the throne back out to the Six Boards. Their primary job was to scrutinize documents for formal irregularities, but their principal contribution to our archival research was writing summaries of the documents that passed through their hands into separate copybooks, to be retained in the Grand Secretariat for permanent reference. These are the shishu, which we may call "memorials registers" for lack of a better English term (usually they are simply referred to as shi-shu). For memorials that originated in the provinces (tongben), the shishu summaries are simply recopied tiehuang 帖黃, provided by the memorialists themselves; summaries of routine memorials originating in the capital (bu-ben) were evidently drawn up by the staff of the Six Sections. The summaries of tiben kept in the Six Sections were called lushu 錄書. Those sent to the Grand Secretariat for use as historical reference were called shishu 史書. The Six Sections kept all the original routine memorials until the end of the year, when they sent them to the Grand Secretariat for archival storage. This is the origin of the collection of routine memorials that has survived to the present day, which is thus referred to as liuke tiben 六科題本.

Having copied the rescripted tiben and zouben and sent them on to the offices in the Six Boards that had to act on them, the Six Sections compiled the summaries chronologically, in the order in which the imperial endorsements (fengzhi 奉旨) had been received. Usually one volume was compiled each month by each of the Six Sections. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, the shi-shu of the Sections on Revenue, Punishments, and Works might produce as many as two or three volumes of shishu a month; those for Rites, War, and Civil Appointments slightly less.

During the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns, the compilation of shishu was taken seriously: they were well organized, the paper was good, and the calligraphy was formal. From the Jiaqing reign on, however, the system deteriorated: the paper was cheap, the handwriting was hasty and careless, and the texts were greatly simplified. Generally, the volumes would not contain the complete texts of the Manchu and Chinese summaries, but merely would note the originating office, the subject of the memorial, and the edict received, without the texts of the summaries. Thus, the original significance of the shishu was lost.

Shishu were vital sources for many Qing official compilations. Stored in the Grand Secretariat as reference material for the Hanlin Academy officials of the Historiographical Office, they were typical of the sort of chronologically organized registers (dangce 檔冊) produced by various government offices that routinely copied and compiled their documents, and which furnished excellent sources for Qing historiographers to consult. Thus in the process of compiling works such as the Imperial Diaries (Qijuzhu ce 起居注冊), the Veritable Records (Shilu 實錄), official biographies (liezhuan 列傳), the Collected Statutes (Huidian 會典), administrative regulations (zeli 則例) of the Six Boards and other institutions, and official documentary histories of military campaigns (fanglue 方略), officials of the Hanlin Academy used the shi-shu extensively. Middle-ranking Hanlin officials would be appointed tidiaoguan 提調官 charged with searching for passages in the shishu and marking them for copying. One can still find paper slips pasted on the pages of shishu, yellow and white, long and short, large and small--instructions to the scribes to copy passages for a particular purpose.

For example, in the 禮科史書 of Yongzheng 5.6.1, there is a routine memorial from the director-general of the Grand Canal, on which is pasted a yellow slip with the notation chao chu 抄出 ("copy out"). A small white slip was pasted onto the corner of the same page with three characters "旨 ○ 應載" ("the decree should be recorded"). The mark ○ instructs the scribe to raise the character zhi two spaces above the line (the respect always accorded an imperial utterance). The yellow slip must be the marker inserted in the process of selecting materials for the Veritable Records; and the white slip for the Imperial Diary (In these two sources, the text of the memorial is in fact included, though the two versions show considerable differences introduced by the editors.) In the shishu, some slips have notes such as chao shan 抄刪 ("copy-delete") and xie qi 寫訖 ("write to here"), and some slips are just yellow and blank. Bureaucratic traces of this sort prove that the shishu were used extensively.

While scholars of Qing history have made extensive use of routine memorials and palace memorials, they have generally paid less attention to shishu. But the shishu are very useful in research, especially (for the reasons explained above) on topics prior to ca. 1800. Because they are strictly chronological within each of the six categories of government business, the shishu are valuable as finding-aids for the unwieldy tiben collection itself. They can also serve the researcher as a unique and convenient source for large-scale investigations of institutions, government procedures, and social conditions. Document 4 (from the memorials register of the Section on Civil Appointments 吏科史書) illustrates procedures for evaluating and controlling the bureaucracy. Document 5 (from the memorials register of the Section on Punishments 刑科史書) relates the grimy details of a murder case.

 

Glossary

奉天府 - Fengtian fu - Fengtian Prefecture (modern Shenyang)

府尹 - fuyin - prefect (note that the "prefect" of Fengtian was equivalent in rank to a provincial governor.)

薦 - jian - recommend for appointment or promotion

卓異 - zhuoyi - outstanding (the highest rating in the triennial civil-service fitness reports)

賢員 - xianyuan - worthy official

以昭大典 - yizhao dadian - in order to display our fundamental institutions; to carry out the evaluation of officials 

考績 - kaoji - evaluation of achievements

攸關 - youguan - affect; relate to; have a bearing on (you is used like suo 所)

訪察 - fangcha - investigation

詳明 - xiangming - detailed and clear

至當 - zhidang - most proper; just right

方 - fang - only then

足以 - zuyi - enough to ...

清吏治 - qing lizhi - purify the civil bureaucracy

鼓勵 - guli - encouragement (to officials). The text up to this point is ritualistic. The substance of the memorial (the actual case at hand) now begins.

屆 - jie - to reach (a designated date); instance (of a recurrent or cyclical event)

大計 - daji - Grand Accounting (Qing officials in the provinces were evaluated (kao-cheng 考成) annually by their provincial superiors. The "Grand Accounting" summarized these evaluations trienially and reported them to the capital.)

矢公矢慎 - shigong shishen -with great care and impartiality

佐雜 - zuoza - petty officials (Note: zuo is short for zuo-er 佐貳, sub-prefects and assistant magistrates of departments and counties; za is short for za-zhi 雜職, minor officers such as postmasters and granary keepers).

悉行 - xixing - all

類皆 - leijie - as a rule; without exception

循分供職 - xunfen gongzhi - fulfill duties

才 - cai - talent; ability

操守 - caoshou - personal integrity

未克兼擅其長 - weike jianshan qichang - cannot claim to excel in both

典史 - dianshi - jail warden

承德縣 - Chengde xian - County in present Hebei, outside the Wall, site of the imperial summer capital

才具 - caiju - ability; talent

明敏 - mingmin - intelligent and clever

幹練 - ganlian - capable and experienced

勤慎 - qinshen - diligent and prudent

洵屬 - xunshu - truly is

才猷出眾 - caiyou chuzhong - of exceptional talent and wisdom

所當 - suodang - well deserves

特疏 - teshu - prepare a special memorial

盜案 - daoan - cases of robbery

未清 - weiqing - remain unsolved

監斃 - jianbi - die in prison

絞犯 - jiaofan - criminal sentenced to death by strangulation

Two more prisoners had died in jail under Cai's administration–evidently not such a bad record!

咨參 - zican - send a lateral communication (zi 咨) to the Board (of Civil Appointments) impeaching someone. (Note that a lateral communication is used by the Fengtian prefect because his rank, equivalent to governor, is also equivalent to board president.)

未准部覆 - weizhun bufu - no reply from the Board has yet been received

議處 - yichu - penalties for administrative misdeeds

合併聲名 - hebing shengming - it is incumbent on me to also state clearly (the above facts). 名 is a scribe's error for 明.

履歷 - lüli - curriculum vitae; record of career

冊結 - cejie - complete the record book of an inspected official

送部查核 - songbu chahe - send to the Board for inspection

敕部 - chibu - order the Board

議覆 - yifu - to deliberate and report