Reading Local Records and Traveling to Guizhou | Chieftain Writing and Image in Guizhou's Old Records - Contemporary Pioneer Network - Culture

Reading Local Records and Traveling to Guizhou | Chieftain Writing and Image in the Old Records of Guizhou

Author: Qi Yuying
Source: Xianfeng Network
Release time: 2025-03-08 09:29:47

One of the principles of compiling local chronicles is to reflect regionalism and locality. When it comes to Guizhou, the typical description of its region has to mention the chieftain of Guizhou. Among them, the Tongzhi of Guizhou compiled in the 12th year of Kangxi's reign (1673) said: "The meaning of ancient feudalism is that there is still a chieftain of Guizhou? Since you left the post, there is no official in the world, and the chieftain of Guizhou has been linked to Jibu." This self question and answer shows the huge group of chieftains in Guizhou and their wide distribution, It also implies the difficulty of governance. As a local encyclopedia, the local chronicles are also the books of "endowment". For a large number of chieftain groups, how do the editors of Guizhou local chronicles record "chieftain" in the local chronicles of Guizhou? It deserves our attention. However, there is no regulation to set the category of "Chieftain", either in the General Annals of Henan and Shaanxi, which were published twice in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, or in the Kangxi period, which took the general annals of Henan and Shaanxi, which were compiled by Jia Hanfu, as the national models for the compilation of records. Therefore, we focus on the category setting of "Chieftain" in Guizhou local chronicles, and discuss the writing and image construction of Chieftain in Guizhou local chronicles, It is very important to understand the intention and strategy of local chronicles compilation in Guizhou.

Picture 2 of "relevant local officials" in the 36th year of Kangxi's printing of Guizhou General Annals.

First, look at the setting of the category of "Tusi" in Guizhou local chronicles. In the Ming Dynasty, there were four general chronicles (provincial chronicles), one government chronicles and one prefecture chronicles in Guizhou, namely, Hongzhi's "New Annals of Guizhou Tujing", Jiajing's "General Annals of Guizhou", Wanli's "General Annals of Guizhou", private Wanli's "Records of Guizhou", Jiajing's "Annals of Sinan Prefecture" and Jiajing's "Annals of Pu'an Prefecture". Among them, only Wanli's "Records of Guizhou" was set with the category of "Chieftain", Volume 56 to Volume 58 are divided into "Xuanwei Liezhuan", "So Xuanwei Liezhuan" and "Chieftain Tuguan Shizhuan". It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, Guizhou local chronicles had the behavior of setting the category of "Tusi", but the setting was not universal. However, in the Qing Dynasty, from the perspective of spatial distribution, there were 14 prefecture level units (including prefectures and counties below) in Guizhou with the category of "Tusi". In addition, from the "Guizhou Tongzhi" compiled in the 12th year of Kangxi (1673) to the "Yuqing County Annals" compiled in the 30th year of Guangxu (1904), 232 years ago and 232 years later, the local chronicles compiled by Guizhou basically set the category of "Tusi". And from the perspective of local chronicles, there are cases of setting up the category of "Tusi", whether it is the general (provincial) chronicles, government chronicles, state chronicles, hall chronicles, county chronicles, or even the Wei Institute chronicles. It shows that the editors of Guizhou local chronicles attach great importance to the writing of chieftain.

The picture of "Guizhou Propaganda and Comfort Secretary" in the New Records of Guizhou Pictures and Classics by Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty.

Returning to the main body of the category of "Chieftain" in Guizhou local chronicles, we should pay attention to how it describes the image of Guizhou chieftain. From its contents, we can see that the image of Guizhou chieftain is mainly constructed from two aspects: one is to shape it into an indispensable part of the national official system, in which, in terms of the content setting, "Chieftain" is placed under the "official chronicles" and "rank official chronicles", In addition, in terms of content writing, such as the description of the rationality of the chieftain's access to power, Daoguang's "Sinan Mansion Continuation Annals" said in the "ordinary examples": "The chieftain has been serving him for a long time, the glory of his official services, and the great grace of the holy dynasty cannot be ignored." It directly points out that the rationality of the chieftain's authority comes from the central dynasty, In addition, at the time of the change of dynasties, if the chieftain can be attached first, it is also a means of obtaining hereditary official positions. For example, Jiaqing's "Huangping Prefecture Annals" says: "The country is determined, and salt can be the first to be successful, so it has a long seat, and its influence will never be replaced." With regard to the history of Guizhou when there was no official position, the editors of Guizhou local chronicles often record "chieftain" to replace the official position, For example, Daoguang's Annals of Anping County said: "Since the establishment of the Wei in the former Ming Dynasty, the rank of officials has not been prepared, and the lineage of local officials is often recorded." It can be seen that Guizhou's local chronicles not only record the rationality of their access to power, but also reflect the governance at the national level when writing other relevant contents, such as whether the chieftain has seal The return of soil improvement and inheritance.

Second, it is regarded as an important part of the national administrative division system. One example is very interesting. The "Guizhou General Annals" written by Wei Jiqi in the 12th year of Kangxi (1673) and the "Guizhou General Annals" written by Cao Shenji in the 31st year of Kangxi (1692) both contain "Chieftain" items, which are classified according to their respective prefectures, prefectures and offices, recording the lineage, inheritance and conversion of subordinate Chieftain, but the latter has increased compared with the former, It is worth noting that the chieftains in Shuixi area who were not included in the Tongzhi compiled in the 12th year of Kangxi's reign (1673) were recorded in the Tongzhi compiled in the 30th year of Kangxi's reign (1692), which was included in the "Weining Prefecture": "Shuixi preaches consolation to An Shengzu, inherited within the 23rd year of Kangxi's reign; Shuixi chief Si Ah Wu, inherited within the 23rd year of Kangxi's reign." It can be seen that, With the improvement of the administrative division system in Guizhou, it is self-evident that the editors intended to bring the chieftains into the unified administrative system. In addition, in today's Qiandongnan, the Qing Dynasty set up six halls for management: Guzhou, Qingjiang, Taigong, Danjiang, Bazhai and Dujiang. In order to consolidate these newly established areas, the Qing Dynasty set up a large number of grass-roots chieftains here. Among them, the ancient prefecture hall, the Qingjiang hall and the Dujiang hall left records. The "Records of Ancient Prefecture Hall" and "Records of Qingjiang" detailed the jurisdiction, functions and powers of this chieftain. Both old and new chieftains, the compilers of Guizhou local chronicles recorded them as an indispensable part of the national administrative division system.

The image of "Zhaikou" in the Painting of Hundred Seedlings.

In a word, when recording the image of Guizhou chieftain, the editors of Guizhou local chronicles often take the positive image to highlight its value. For example, Qianlong's Qingjiang Annals bluntly pointed out the chieftain's pioneering work, which cannot be ignored: "At the beginning of the pioneering work... his work can never be lost." Another example is Daoguang's Guangshun Prefecture Annals, which recorded that "as for the great festival, the political voice is outstanding, although the local officials have the right to seal, it is hard to lose its truth. Although in the compilation of local chronicles, it is sometimes necessary to reflect the concept of "praising beauty and suppressing evil", some compilers of Guizhou local chronicles also listed illegal chieftains, wrote negative examples, and played a warning role. For example, Qianlong's "Guizhou General Annals" in "ordinary cases" It is pointed out in the middle that "those who have already been eliminated should also take the beginning and end of the book for reference, while the Shuixi family and the Bozhou Yang family are particularly harmful. The details of their origin and end are attached later." For the rebellious Shuixi (today's Bijie, Liupanshui and other northwestern Guizhou regions) and Bozhou (today's Zunyi and other northern Guizhou regions) chieftains' deeds, they have been written in capital and in detail. Such a positive and negative image of the chieftain not only shows the national grace, but also highlights the law and discipline.

It is of typical significance to extract the writing of "Chieftain" to understand the writing logic of Guizhou local chronicles. The chieftain writing and chieftain image in the old chronicles of Guizhou explained how the "official script" local chronicles became the "local" chronicles, that is, the compilers of Guizhou local chronicles created the "chieftain" catalogue according to the local conditions of Guizhou, and wrote the chieftain group according to the actual situation at that time, reflecting the regional characteristics and image of Guizhou in the local chronicles.

(Author Department Doctoral Candidate of Southwest Border Minority Research Center of Yunnan University ）

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