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High Officials of the Ming: A Note on the Ch'i Ch'ing Nien Piao of the Ming History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

O. Beekelbach V. D. Speenkel
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Extract

The Ming History compiled by Chang T'ing-yü and his colleagues and completed in 1736 is the first of the Standard Histories (īE Chêng Shih) to include among its tables a Ch'i Ch'ing Nien Piao or Chronological Table of the Seven High Officials. This table, which occupies two chapters of the Ming Shih (111 and 112; 12 and 13 of the section Piao), lists all the officials who successively held office as Presidents of the Six Boards (Liu Pu Shang-shu) and Censors of the Left and Eight (T so Yu Tu-yu-shih).

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 1952 , pp. 87 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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References

page 88 note 1 Pên-chi 2, 3a 5. The Ming Shu by Fu Wei-lin lists a number of Presidents of Boards for the Hung-wu period who served prior to the changes of 1380 and whose names therefore do not appear in the Ming Shih table. There are 93 names in all, divided as follows: Civil Office, 22; Finance, 20; Rites, 10; War, 11; Justice, 18; Public Works, 12. See Ming Shu (Kuo-hsüeh Chi-pên Ts'ung-shu ed.), Piao 7, ch. 30, 31, pp. 470–6, 503–7.Google Scholar This comparatively large number is in part due to the fact that in Hung-wu 6 (1373) the number of Presidents was increased from one to two for each Board. The number was again reduced to one in the reorganization of 1380 (Ming Shih, ch. 72, 5b 13).

page 88 note 2 Ming Shih, ch. 72, Chih-kuan I, 3a 4. All references to the Ming Shih are to the Ss Pu Pei Yao edit.

page 89 note 1 Hu Wei-yung's biography is in the Ming Shih, ch. 308, the chapter devoted to Traitorous Officials (Chien-ch'ên). See also Ming Shih Chi Shih Pên Mo, ch. 13, 1a–6a. In his Nien-êrh Shih Cha Chi (ch. 32, Shu-chü, Shih-chieh ed., p. 468)Google Scholar, Chao Yi quotes the Chao-shih Chien-tang Lu as giving the number of persons put to death for participation in the conspiracy as more than 30,000. Chao Yi himself regards this figure as unreliable. The Ming Chi (ch. 4, SPPY ed., p. 59b) speaks only of a great multitude. See further a brief account in Delamarre, Hut. de la dynastie des Ming (Paris, 1865), pp. 69–71Google Scholar, and a characteristic comment in Wieger, , Textes hist., ii, p. 1745.Google Scholar

page 89 note 2 Ming Shih, ch. 2, Pên-chi 2, 18a. See also ch. 72, Chih-kuan 1, la. We are told by Lei Li in his Kuo-ch'ao Lieh-ch'ing Nien-piao (published Wan-li) that when the Six Boards were established in Hung-wu 1 (1368) their Presidents received the rank 3a and Vice-Presidents 4a; and that later, when the Imperial Secretariat (Chung Shu Shêng) was abolished in Hung-wu 13 (1380) and its powers distributed between the Boards, the ranking of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents was advanced to 2a and 3a respectively. … … see Kuo-ch'ao Lieh-ch'ing Nienpiao, preface Liu Pu Shang-shu Tsung-hsü preceding ch. 8 (Libr. of Congress Microfilm Copies of Peking Nat. Líbr. Series A; reel 453). This up-grading seems reasonable in view of the enlarged powers entrusted to the Boards. The Pai Kuan Chih of the Ming History (ch. 72, 5b 11–12) mentions in a note the original rankings (Shang-shu 3a, Shih-lang 4a) instituted when the Boards were set up in 1368, and adds (loc. cit., 6a 1) that in 1380, “following the system of the ‘six officials’ of the Chou, the Six Boards were advanced in rank” and leaves it at that.

page 93 note 1 Transfers are analysed in Table XII below.

page 95 note 1 The category is Wittfogel's. The dynasties included in it are the Wei and its succession states (386–587), Liao (907–1125), Chin (1115–1234), Yüan (1206–1368), and Ch'ing, (1616–1912).Google Scholar See Wittfogel, K. A. and Chia-shêng, Fêng, History of Chinese Society: Liao (Philadelphia, 1949), General Introduction, pp. 24–5).Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 For a well-documented analysis of the incidence in the Ming period of “natural disasters and human calamities” see Ch'ên Kao-yung, etc., Chung-kuo Li-tai T'ien-tsai Jên-huo Piao (Shanghai, editor's preface, 1939), pp. 1217–1438Google Scholar, and statistical tables at the end of the work.

page 95 note 3 Eunuch influence played an important rôle in the Ming period. Disturbances fomented by them began in the reign of Yung-tsung (T'ien-shun, 1457–1464), increased notably in the reign of Wu-tsung (Chêng-tê, 1505–1521), and reached their climax in that of Hsi-tsung (T'ien-ch'i, 1620–7). See Chien Po-tsan, Lun Ming-tai ti Yen-huan chi Yen-tang Chêng-chih, in Chung-kuo Shih Lun-chi, 1st Series (Shanghai, 2nd ed., 1947; author's preface, 1943), pp. 180–195.

page 102 note 1 For Fu Wei-lin, see Hummel, , Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, i, 262–3, ii, 776.Google Scholar He was a chin-shih of 1646, and after service as an official historiographer eventually rose to be Left Assistant Censor and President of the Board of Works (not of Finance, as stated in Hummel, , op. cit., 263).Google Scholar He died in 1667. His Ming history was published by his son, Fu Hsieh-fên, some time before 1679, and was later reprinted in the Chi-fu Ts'ung-shu (1879–1892)Google Scholar, a literary collection by Chih-li authors compiled by Wang Hao (1823–1888). There are two handy modern reprints in the Kuo-hsüeh Chi-pên Ts'ung-shu and the Ts'ung-shu Chi Ch'êng (vols. 3929–3957). I have used the latter, where the material occupies vol. 6 (3934), pp. 589–630, and vol. 7 (3935), pp. 631–677. See also the notice in the Ssŭ K'u Ch'üan Shu Tsung Mu, ch. 50, Shih Pu 6Google Scholar, Pieh Shih (C. P. edit., ii, 1119–1120) which, from its orthodox viewpoint, is critical of Fu's historical method.

page 102 note 2 The last Vice-Presidents mentioned in the Ch'ing Érh Nien Piao who became Presidents of Boards received their first presidential appointments in the following years: Civil Office, 1592 xii and 1593 xi; Finance, 1591 xii and 1598 v; Rites, 1589 vii and 1591 xi; War, 1591 viii and 1595 v; Justice, 1592 iii and 1595 v; Public Works, 1593 ix and xi; Censorate, 1577 xi and 1587 iii. All these dates fall into the Wan-li period. Their mean is 1591 x. As these are dates of presidential appointments, and the table is concerned with vice-presidential tenures, we are safe in assigning it a rather earlier terminal year than 1591.

page 103 note 1 Of the 315, 231 held one presidential office only; sixty-one held two successively; twentytwo held three; one held four.

page 110 note 1 The connexion between the Censorate and the Board of Justice is also shown in the paragraphs below dealing with the Censorate. See also Table XXV.