Shi Lu is an accurate chronicle of important historical facts during the reign of feudal emperors in China, and it is one of the traditional official records of China. Most of these records are named after the emperor's posthumous title or temple, such as Shunzong records in Tang Dynasty or Chengzu records in Ming Dynasty. Since the Tang Dynasty, all records have been compiled by officials and customized from generation to generation. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the records of Emperor Dezong Jing (Emperor Guangxu) had been compiled by * * * 100. If the records of emperors of a certain dynasty are published together, they will be called Shi Ming Records and Qing History Records. After these records were compiled, they were hidden in the palace and never published or distributed publicly. With the rise and fall of feudal dynasties, most of them were defeated or scattered. So far, only the records of Ming and Qing dynasties have been preserved intact.
The ancient history of China was created by the ancestors of the Chinese nation. Tibet is an inalienable part of China. Tibetans, Menba and Barrow are ancient ethnic groups that thrive on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. There is a long history of communication and integration between different ethnic groups in ancient China. The political, economic, military and cultural ties between Tibetans and the Han people in the Mainland and other ethnic groups have been recorded in Chinese and Tibetan characters since Sui and Tang Dynasties, and have been supported by various archaeological materials before. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in China in the 3rd century, Tibet became an administrative region directly under the jurisdiction of the central government. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the central government's activities in Tibet, such as establishing rules and regulations, governing the army and sealing officials, were recorded in more and more detailed official history books, with the records in the Ming and Qing Dynasties being the most authoritative.
However, there are countless records in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Despite the progress of modern printing technology and the rise of library cause, it is still difficult for ordinary readers to find them. It is not easy to consult and use Tibetan historical materials. After the reform and opening up, senior Tibetan scholars began to collect and sort out various Chinese historical materials. From 65438 to the early 1980s, Tibetan History of Ming Dynasty (all three volumes) and Tibetan History of Qing Dynasty (all ten volumes) were published successively, which were the academic achievements of the older generation of Tibetan scholars such as Chen Jiafu and Gu. "Exaggerated, it is hard to find a single typo" (Han Jingshan's Love Tibet and Beijing Evening News, 60th edition, February 27th, 2008), which has benefited the teachers, students and enthusiasts of Tibetan studies. At that time, the author was studying Tibetan history at the Central University for Nationalities, bought these two sets of historical materials, read and retrieved them, extracted and quoted them, and finished my graduation thesis. Since then, I have been engaged in teaching and researching Tibetan history for many years. Two sets of historical materials have been kept in the most accessible place in the bookcase and can be consulted at any time.
The editing of two sets of "historical materials" lasted for many years, which was extremely cautious and commendable. However, in the process of use, it can also be found inconvenient.
China's ancient historiography was developed, and the ancients in China had a tradition of attaching importance to the study of Historical Records. Pre-man-made history gradually forms chronicles, biographies and chronicles, and records belong to chronicles. The arrangement of the above-mentioned Historical Records of Tibetans in the Ming Dynasty and Historical Records of Tibetans in the Qing Dynasty is generally modeled on the chronological style, one by one in chronological order. But some major events in history that have a long-term impact on future generations may span a long time. Cause and effect, rise and fall, history. This brings inconvenience to the use of chronological history books. The ancient people in China used chronicles or biographies to make up for and solve this problem. However, chronological style overcomes the shortcomings of scattered chronological style and repeated biographical style, and creates a new genre of history books besides chronological style and biographical style, which opens up a new way for the development of historiography.
Two sets of "Lei Bian" belong to the end of the chronicle, classified records, with a beginning and an end. Take the record of tea-horse trade in Shi Minglu as an example, which is very typical. As we know, the central government of the Ming Dynasty carried out "tribute trade" to neighboring nationalities. Tea-horse trade in southwest China is of great significance to the management of Tibet in Ming Dynasty and the compilation of Tibetan Classics. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, it lasted for more than two hundred years. It takes a long time to sort out this kind of information from Shi Minglu, and it is inevitable that there will be omissions. The compilation of Tibetan historical materials in A Record of the Ming Dynasty is divided into two sub-headings, namely, "Establishing Tea and Horse Department, Salt Horse Company, Awarding Gold List, Official Tea Horse Exchange" and "Tea Horse Exchange". In the Ming Dynasty, private tea was forbidden, and tea law and horse administration were rectified. All the historical materials related to the tea-horse trade are included, and the time span is more than 200 years from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the original Tibetan historical books in the Ming Dynasty, the convenience for readers to retrieve excerpts is far from the same. The compilation of Tibetan historical materials in Qing Dynasty is different from the previous books. Because the latter is voluminous. When the Qing dynasty ruled Tibet, all kinds of systems were more complete, and the records were even more incomparable than those of previous dynasties. The classified list greatly facilitates the readers.
Social history is developing and academic research is progressing. Scholars' research interests, attainments, readers' reading ability and preference hotspots are also constantly changing. The editors of the two sets of Lei Bian noticed the above points, and they changed the traditional Chinese characters into simplified Chinese characters and changed the vertical version into horizontal version, so as to take care of and facilitate the reading habits of contemporary readers as much as possible, which is commendable. Moreover, two sets of classics are made into a database, which allows more readers to have more choices besides paper books, and also adapts to the development of digital historiography in today's era. If there is still room for improvement, I would like to make two suggestions for your reference:
First, reduce costs again. In particular, the compilation of Tibetan historical materials in Qing Shi Lu, with nine volumes, is very heavy, and it seems that it can be simplified to a reduced version of about one tenth of the existing volume. A precedent that can be referenced is Memoirs of Gu Weijun, which was originally a 13-volume edition, and then two simplified editions were published, which is quite convenient for readers.
Second, if a condensed version can be produced, we can also consider translating important and typical contents into English on the basis of the condensed version in the future. Let more foreigners who care about Tibetan affairs but don't know Chinese get a glimpse of one of the two sets of Thunder Border, so as to understand the outline of Tibetan governance in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
(China Tibet Network Special Contributor/Hu Yan Author is a professor at the Central Party School)