Ming Dynasty Northern Strategy - (Complete Two Volumes)

Author: Ji Liuqi
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1984-06-01
Features: A historical record of events in northern China during the Ming Wanli to Chongzhen periods. Written by Ji Liuqi of Wuxi in the early Qing Dynasty (1622–). Liuqi, styled Yongbin, styled Tianjiezi, styled Jiufeng Jushi, was from Wuxi, Jiangsu. The entire book consists of twenty-four volumes, starting from the year 1595 when Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, rose in Northeast China, and ending in 1644 when Wu Sangui led the Qing army through the Pass. It records events year by year, with particular detail on the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, and the events after Li Zicheng entered the capital are almost arranged day by day. Within each year, events are listed with specific titles in the style of "record of events according to their origins," with most content covering late Ming peasant wars, class contradictions, and ethnic relations. The sources are extensive, and the events are well-organized. Since the book was completed in the early Kangxi period, not long after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, most of the historical records are accurate, but there are also rumors and superstitious or unreliable parts. Due to the literary restrictions in the early Qing Dynasty, the book was listed as forbidden and was not published. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, a wooden type edition published by Ban Songzi in Beijing's Liulichang was circulated, but it had been edited and was not the original by Ji Liuqi. Later, there were stone-printed editions by the Library of Integrating Knowledge and lead-printed editions by the Commercial Press, all of which were identical in content to the Ban Songzi edition. Later, early Qing manuscripts were discovered in Hangzhou and Changshu, which contained more than forty additional entries compared to the common editions. After being punctuated and organized, they were published by the Zhonghua Book Company in 1984.