The Early Qing Compilation of the Ming History in Manchu: The Contexts, Contents, and Significance of the Ming gurun i suduri

Abstract

The Qing court produced an extensive history of the Ming empire in the Manchu language, which has survived in manuscript form in the Palace Museum under the title Ming gurun i suduri (History of the Ming State). Based on a close reading of this manuscript and scrutiny of related archival documents, this article elaborates on three observations. First, the Ming gurun i suduri resulted from the earliest stage (1645–1669) of the Qing compilation of the Ming history. With a primary focus on producing a chronicle in Manchu, it exemplifies the mid-seventeenth-century development of Inner Asian historiography. Second, it recounts Ming history by juxtaposing and connecting translated extracts from the Ming shilu 明實錄 (Ming Veritable Records) whenever it exists. This approach that combines compiling and translating, in effect, offers a reassessment of key political events and figures. Third, in light of the Ming gurun i suduri thus contextualized, the 1739 Ming shi 明史 (Ming History) is best seen as a product of a century-long history of negotiation (1645–1739) during which the ideological agenda and intellectual achievements of the early Qing court gradually sank into oblivion.