Grand View of Chinese Imperial Edicts

Author: Zhou Qingming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The over 100 imperial decrees collected in The Grand Collection of Chinese Imperial Decrees are all preserved in the Xuzhou Imperial Decree Museum. The collection of the Xuzhou Imperial Decree Museum has spanned more than two decades. These two decades were a special period when the Chinese people bid farewell to the extreme "movements" and moved toward cultural clarity. Without such a political and cultural backdrop of reform and opening up, without such a process of restoring humanistic rationality and continuing historical traditions, imperial decrees as remnants of feudal culture would have been swept away long ago. The author's collection work would naturally have faced a situation without a source, yet reality granted its approval. The resilience of the decrees after hardship and the fortune of the people after hardship have once again brought cultural vitality to light through this book. The book includes approximately 100 imperial decrees, all preserved in the Xuzhou Imperial Decree Museum and published for the first time. Among them, the earliest are eight Ming Dynasty decrees, while the majority are from ten generations of emperors from the Qing Dynasty, ranging from Shunzhi to the last emperor, Puyi. One decree spans two generations, granting the hereditary title of "Feng'en Jiangjun" (Meritous Grace General) to Kui Ding and his son Yu Gang by the Daoguang and Xianfeng emperors, making it a unique piece.