The Genre of Qing History

After the establishment of the Committee for the Compilation of Qing History in 2002, the study of the genre and style of the new History of the Qing Dynasty began, and by 2004 the general framework of the book had been largely determined. The new Qing History consists of five major parts: the General Chronicle, the Canonical Records, the Biographies, the Historical Tables, and the Illustrated Records, and consists of ****92 volumes and more than 30 million words. The book is written in a "new synthesis" combining the classic style of the Twenty-four Histories with the internationally recognized chapter and verse style, in which the general chronicle is written in chapter and verse style, and the rest is written in the traditional style.

The General Chronicle is the core of the whole book, which is divided into the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the entry into China, the reign of Kangxi, the reforms of Yongzheng, the unification of China by Qianlong, the mid-decline of the Qing Dynasty, the foreign invasions and the Peasant War, the Qing self-improvement movement, and the final demise of the Qing Dynasty, describing the history of the Qing Dynasty's prosperity and decline for the past 300 years. The Canonical Journal describes the canonical system of the Qing Dynasty and various aspects of social life, including astronomy and calendar, geography, population, ethnicity, law, agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, foreign trade, transportation, finance, academics, Western studies, poetry and novels, operas and paintings, etc. The Biography section is divided into 22 volumes. The Biographies section is divided into 22 volumes, including biographies of more than 3,000 representative figures of different classes and fields in the Qing Dynasty. The Historical Tables include "Thirty-one Tables" (actually containing 35 types of tables), and in addition to the 14 types of tables in the Qing Historical Manuscripts (except for the Table of Foreign Relatives), there are 21 new types of tables. The Atlas is one of the important innovations of the Qing History, which is divided into ten categories: public opinion, production, trade, military, folklore, architecture, art, religion, and portraits, and includes various historical maps, paintings, pictures of cultural relics, and historical photographs.