This book is not merely a line-by-line modern-language rendering of the Veritable Records of the Ming. At the end of every volume, it also includes an in-depth review running to thousands of words. It gets to the heart of how Ming politics worked, analyzing the underlying tensions in the empire's finances, frontier defenses, and factional struggles. It will help you truly understand the Great Ming.
The History of Ming was partly altered and edited by the Qing dynasty, concealing certain historical truths, a practice criticized by historians. Though the Ming court's copies of the Veritable Records of the Ming were also banned and destroyed, multiple transcripts survived and can be cross-checked against one another. Their differences are limited to copying errors and awkward phrasing, making them exceptionally valuable historical sources. They are of great significance for studying Ming history and getting back to its original sources.
The Veritable Records of the Ming is a chronicle officially compiled by the Ming dynasty. It records a wealth of information covering roughly 250 years and fifteen generations of emperors, from Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to Ming Xizong Zhu Youjiao, making it the equivalent of the Ming empire's national archives.
The Veritable Records of the Ming comprises thirteen works and 2,911 volumes, with more than 16 million characters. It is the most comprehensive collection of historical sources from the Ming dynasty. The work was compiled from memorials and documents submitted by the various central government offices, supplemented by accounts of earlier reigns collected by officials sent to the provinces. It records the emperors' edicts and decrees year by year, along with major political, economic, and cultural events.
This series is based on the red-grid edition and collates multiple transcripts. It aims to reconstruct Ming history, sentence by sentence, following the original text of the Veritable Records of the Ming in accessible modern language.
The Veritable Records of the Ming is a chronicle, essentially a running record of historical events, which may put off most readers. Yet the inheritance of Chinese civilization is preserved in these very records of sacrificial rites, statutes, and regulations. I hope this work can provide useful historical references for scholars and enthusiasts of Ming history.
At present, except for Taizu's entrepreneurship and Taizong's troubles, there are relatively continuous events. Others are trivial records of daily empire operations, which can be read as a reference book. Although boring, many historical materials are still interesting to study in detail. For example, there are many biographies of characters, some of which may be just a minister, or a famous person in a thousand households, or a prefect. But with just a few hundred words, a lifetime can leave traces in history books. Looking at the different life situations of ancient people, I find it quite interesting. In addition, the Ming Dynasty's rule and interactions with the Jurchens, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Western Regions, and Tibetan areas are interspersed in these 16 million words of classical Chinese historical materials. The content is very rich and is of great value to the study of Ming history. Of course, there are also administrative management of central agencies, laws and regulations, local governance, disaster relief, military operations, appointment and dismissal of officials, sacrificial rituals, cultural exchanges, economics and trade, tribute system, etc. All-encompassing, a real, lively, rigorous and orderly Han Dynasty with ups and downs is vividly displayed on the page in these tens of millions of words.
I would like to ask the author, the current popular saying on the Internet is that most of the Ming Dynasty emperors were killed by the civil servant clique. What do you think? For example, from Lao Zhu to Zhengde, they were all poisoned to death. Only Jiajing and Wanli escaped the disaster by not going to court.
Excellent product, it can only be said to be a great achievement in history