In fact, the content of the memorial is not fixed, but strictly speaking, many of the memorials we think now are not memorials, but also called passbook. It turned out that a so-called secret folding system was formed in the early Ming Dynasty, and it was not until the Kangxi period that they joined the memorial, also known as the passbook. Because the memorial is a secret document, it is presented directly to the emperor without being checked by the higher authorities, so the memorial cannot be used casually. Generally, there are very important things to use the memorial passage. In addition to the paper, there are also papers and chapters, which are also documents written by ancient officials to the monarch. Generally, the emperor will reply with a cinnabar pen and send it back to the person who hit it. In which chapters and tables are used separately. General chapters such as Shane are used to state facts, but tables are used, and the contents of recitation include many kinds of common words, countermeasures and mutual inquiries. The Ming Dynasty divided topics, played topics, expressed ideas, awarded chapters, wrote books, published books, posted books, collated books, uncovered books and translated books. The predecessor of the memorial in question is the secret revelation of the Ming Dynasty, which is similar to the secret revelation in form and existed in the Han Dynasty.

(Photo: Transcript of Daoguang Chaoqian Grain Content)

The distinction between documents in the Ming Dynasty was very detailed, so according to this standard, many documents can not be counted as memorials, but as memorials and tables. But because the subject matter is very similar, but the content is different, it is easy to confuse them. Many memorials in Qing Dynasty were handed down from archives. Judging from the throne of the Kangxi Dynasty, the contents are mainly food price, rain, harvest, public opinion, corruption and war. It can be seen that this mystery, called the memorial, is closely related to the emperor's concerns.

(Photo: Kangxi Dynasty Memorial Hall)

The binding style of commemorative books-folding binding Our books now have various binding styles, such as round ridge hardcover, square ridge hardcover, hollow hardcover and so on. Just like all kinds of binding methods we use now, there are many binding methods for ancient books and documents. The binding styles commonly used in ancient times include bamboo slips as an example, scroll binding (also called paper binding), cyclone binding, butterfly binding, Bao Beizhuang binding, thread binding and commemorative binding. Surrender is also called the Brahman's conquest, so sometimes the emperor's lines in film and television dramas will also call the throne surrender. The memorial is the same as the common memorial style in film and television dramas, which is to fold a long document with a certain width and add a book coat. This binding method is not only used for memorials, but also used in many ancient Buddhist scriptures. However, writing directly on yellow paper or other paper without folding frame style is not actually a memorial, because the folding of the memorial is originally from the folding format, and if the content is still playing in rare special circumstances, it may be classified as "memorial".

(Photo: Liuyong Memorial Hall)

There is no hard and fast rule about what materials to use in the memorial ceremony. In Qing Dynasty, the memorials were generally made of bamboo paper such as list paper, home-made paper, wool paper, etc., but every day, the memorials were written to the emperor with rice paper, which was easy to be beaten by local tyrants. Most surviving memorial curators are 22 cm wide 10 cm. As for whether the memorial must be made of yellow cardboard, there is actually no relevant regulation. Theoretically, any color can be used, but you have nothing to give the emperor white color. It is estimated that the emperor is not happy. You have nothing to do with the last black. It is estimated that the emperor will kill your head when he sees the throne at night. If red is used, the emperor's eyes will be ruined. Don't many of our eye protection papers or eye protection software apps use yellow as the background color, because human eyes have different sensitivity to light of various wavelengths. In fact, many papers are destroyed by fluorescent agents now, and ancient bamboo papers did not have bleaching and fluorescent agents. Generally speaking, the primary color of paper is yellow. There is also a kind of file in the palace. Generally, after the memorial is sent to the palace, someone will copy it, but it is more common to use yellow in the palace, and the style is still formulated in batches.

Conclusion Although the appellation of the memorial only appeared in the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty divided the documents very carefully, and the forms of the documents in the Qing Dynasty were quite chaotic. There are many memorials from the Qing Dynasty to the present, especially in the late Qing Dynasty. A large number of documents in the Qing Dynasty were sold as waste paper, and I don't know how many of them were scattered among the people. In short, such cultural relics can still be seen on some auction websites. Obviously, not all memorials are confidential. After Yongzheng began to use the memorial on a large scale, ministers still paid tribute on time, and some even sent watermelons to the memorial. It is not surprising that the emperor vomited blood when he saw the throne. However, this documentary cultural relic is very valuable raw material for us to study the history of Qing Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than 8,000 sacks 1.5 thousand Jin of information were sold for 4,000 yuan. What is more sad is that a large part of them still stayed in Japan, not China.