Collection of Ming and Qing Archives from Fragrant Hills

Author: Zhongshan Municipal Archives Bureau, First Historical Archives of China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book is reorganized and classified into eight categories: Administration, Military Affairs, Legal and Political Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Religion, Finance and Trade, Agriculture, and Education and Culture. Additionally, the original departments are appended at the end of the archives. The eight categories are as follows:
Administration: This category includes 47 archives, primarily focusing on official appointments, awards, and local administrative affairs. It also contains the only four Ming-era archives in this collection.
Military Affairs: This category comprises 76 archives, mainly covering coastal defense, military campaigns, and the conditions of local military units. Some of these are important historical materials for studying the Second Opium War.
Legal and Political Affairs: This category contains over 150 archives, broadly divided into three aspects: opium, criminal cases, and the Xinhai Revolution.
Foreign Affairs: All archives involving diplomatic exchanges, treaties, tributes, and the service of foreign personnel between Chinese and foreign governments are included in this category, totaling nearly 200 pieces. It is the most valuable part of the Xiangshan Qing Archives.
Religion: This category includes 69 archives, primarily focusing on the spread of Catholicism in China, with a particular emphasis on the Chinese government’s management and control of missionary activities. Most of these are memorials submitted by local officials to the emperor regarding the handling of Catholic affairs.
Finance and Trade: This category contains over 200 archives, mainly covering taxation and foreign trade.
Agriculture: This category has fewer archives, totaling nearly 50, most of which are short in length.
Education and Culture: This category includes nearly 60 archives from the Kangxi to Guangxu periods, such as small gold lists, local examination candidate rosters, and lists of American students studying in China during the late Qing Dynasty.