Zhang Yuxuan: The transmutation of the Qing Dynasty official Xiu's "History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Li Zicheng".

Editor's note: This article delves into the changes in the writing of the Qing Dynasty's official revision of the Ming Shi Li Zicheng Biography between different editions, revealing the interaction between the historian's personal stance and the official will in the writing of history. Through the comparative analysis of the two versions of Li Zicheng's Biography by Wan Sitong and Wang Hongxu, this paper points out the differences between the two in terms of historical fact selection, narrative mode and value judgment. Wan Sitong's manuscript embodies the consciousness of the remnants, while Wang Hongxu's manuscript dispels this consciousness of the remnants, which not only enhances the academic value of the historical books, but also caters to the will of the Qing Dynasty officials.

Abstract:The differences between the Qing Dynasty official revision of the Biography of Li Zicheng in the Ming Dynasty are mainly concentrated in the manuscripts of Vance and Wang Hongxu. From the perspective of inheritance relationship, Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling laid the framework of "The Biography of Li Zicheng", and Wang Hongxu established the appearance of "The Biography of Li Zicheng". However, Vance's manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" reveals a clear sense of the remnants, while Wang Hongxu's manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" fully implements the official will of the Qing Dynasty. The diminishing of the consciousness of the remnants and the official will in the two manuscripts reflects the influence of the historian's personal position and realpolitik on the writing of history, and also reflects the ultimate trend of official historiography. Li Zicheng's uprising profoundly affected the course of history at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In order to record this history, the Qing Dynasty's official "History of the Ming Dynasty" pioneered the establishment of a biography of thieves. "Break and sacrifice the two cowards, as for the death of the Ming Dynasty, the loss of suppression is enough to be a good example, not the comparison of his clowns, nor the ratio of separating the heroes, so don't stand it." The Qing Dynasty officials believed that the identities of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were different from those of ordinary rebels and separatists, and that they could learn the lessons of the Ming Dynasty from this period of history, so they wrote them separately. As we all know, in the process of compiling the History of the Ming Dynasty, three versions of Wan Sitong, Wang Hongxu, and Wu Yingdian were formed successively, so there are also three texts in the Biography of Li Zicheng, and there are both connections and differences between the three. How to view this change, what are the root causes behind it, and clarify these issues will help to further understand the complexity of the formation of the text of the History of the Ming Dynasty and grasp the characteristics of the official history revision in ancient China.

1. Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling laid the framework of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" and "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is the first existing official historical manuscript of the Qing Dynasty that completely records the beginning and end of Li Zicheng's uprising. This article is taken from the 416-volume History of the Ming Dynasty in the National Library. "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is called "The Thief", there are two volumes, the first volume records the deeds of the peasant uprisings from Hongwu to the Apocalypse such as Chen Yongding and Tang Sai'er, and the second volume contains the deeds of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. The specific compilation process of the 10,000-manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" has been lost, but circumstantial evidence can be obtained from the relevant materials and research results of the compilation and revision of the "History of the Ming Dynasty".

Although the compilation of the official History of the Ming Dynasty began in May of the second year of Shunzhi (1645), the actual historical revision activities were not carried out until the Qing court reopened the Ming History Museum in the eighteenth year of Kangxi (1679). Emperor Kangxi appointed Xu Yuanwen as the supervisor, Ye Fangwei and Zhang Yushu as the president, and specially selected Zhu Yizun, Mao Qiling and other 50 erudite Confucians to participate in the revision of history. In the nineteenth year of Kangxi (1680), Xu Yuanwen added sixteen people including Wang Shizhen and Wang Hongxu as compilation officials, and later recruited Xu Qianxue, Tang Bin and others into the museum, constituting the team of the compilation and revision of the History of the Ming Dynasty. In the same year that Xu Yuanwen was appointed as the supervisor, Vance was invited by Xu to enter Beijing to participate in the "History of the Ming Dynasty". Although he has always been a cloth cloth, Vance has had a great influence on the compilation and revision of the History of the Ming Dynasty. Quan Zuwang of the Qing Dynasty wrote: "All the compilers and repairers sent the manuscript to Mr. for review...... 500 volumes of the "Ming History Manuscript" were all hand-made. According to Quan's description, Vance Tong undertook almost all the review work of historical manuscripts. Huang Yunmei, a close friend, said: "Si Tong Gu is under the special commission of the Xu Wang's family, when initiating ordinary cases, most of them must be advocated by Si Tong, and the contribution of the opinions of the librarians can also be thought to be half dependent on Si Tong." He pointed out that Vance played a decisive role in the formulation of the style of the History of the Ming Dynasty. Huang Aiping said more conclusively that the biography of the "History of the Ming Dynasty" was preliminarily drawn up by Vance. Therefore, the leaders of the peasant uprising in the Ming Dynasty were listed separately, and it is likely that they were also planned by Vancetong. The writer of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is Mao Qiling. According to Xu Yuanwen's plan of "writing the first draft in stages, and then co-editing and proofreading", "The Biography of Li Zicheng" was first completed between June of the 20th year of Kangxi (1681) and April 21 (1682). Mao's private book "Later Records" is dedicated to the deeds of "thieves" in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing people said that "their deeds are now seen in the official history, and there is no big strange news". Scholars generally believe that this work is a deleted manuscript of Mao Qiling's history. Wang Xingya once compared the "Biography of Li Zicheng" with the 10,000 manuscripts, and found that the content of the two drafts was almost the same, but part of the narrative of the 10,000 manuscripts was more detailed in the "Later Commentary". So to be more precise, the "Biography of Li Zicheng" in the "Later Records" is a draft written by Mao Qiling in the Ming History Museum. In the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi (1685), Mao Qiling left the museum, and on the basis of the manuscript, the historian formed the 10,000 manuscripts of "The Biography of Li Zicheng". Feng Su's "Essays on Observations and Experiences" is the main historical source for Mao Qiling's "Biography of Li Zicheng". (Essay on Hearing and Hearing) written by Feng Su of the National Dynasty...... It is the first edition of "The Biography of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong...... Mao Qiling compiled "The Legend of Liukou", which is roughly based on this. The narrative of "Essays on Experiences and Experiences" written by Mao Qiling also confirms this statement. Feng Su's purpose in writing "The Biography of Li Zicheng" was to explore the reasons for the rise and fall of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, and to investigate "the rights and wrongs of the imperial court's use of the imperial court, and the gains and losses of the feudal territory and the pacification of the territory", so he wrote it very carefully. Feng Su's history has two major characteristics: first, the time is clearly expressed, and the account can be accurate to the day; Second, the historical events are described in detail and all kinds of elements are complete. For example, "Zuo Guangxian defeated Gaoling and Fuping, and cut four hundred and forty strange", carefully counted the number of enemies killed by Zuo Guangxian; For example, Feng Su's account of the Battle of Kaifeng, the details of the battle between the Ming army and the peasant army are far better than most similar historical books; Another example is that Li Zicheng added an official to Xiangyang, and Feng Su did not tire of trivial details of the official positions and the names of the recipients. In addition, every time Li Zicheng broke a city, Feng Su had to record in detail the deeds of the martyrdom of Ming Chen, such as "Wang Mou, the guard general of the West Pass, and Zhao, the guard of the North Pass, fought hard, was invincible, and the two generals set themselves on fire", even if the name of the guard general could not be known, Feng Su had to leave his legacy in history. It can be said that as a source of historical data, Feng Su's "The Biography of Li Zicheng" has smooth logic, complete causal succession, and the richness of historical details is beyond doubt. The time span of the whole manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is from the first year of Chongzhen (1628) to the sixth year of Shunzhi (1649), and from the perspective of the narrative framework, it is basically born from Feng Su's "Essays on Seeing and Hearing", but there are also discrepancies. According to the stage of the uprising, the 10,000 manuscripts of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" can be divided into four parts: "Li Zicheng's life experience", "Li Zicheng's uprising", "the activities of the Dashun Army in Beijing", and "the entry of the Qing army into the customs and Li Zicheng's failure", including Li Zicheng's young deeds, recruiting Yinchuan Station, killing officials and joining the army, mutiny due to lack of pay, defection to Gao Yingxiang, the trap of the Carriage Gorge, the Xingyang Conference, the burning of the imperial mausoleum, the evil Zhang Xianzhong, the disloyalty of his wife and concubine, the relatives of Mizhi Province, the succession of the king, the army entering Sichuan, the eighteen horsemen rode away from Shangluo, Gucheng was in distress, the Yubelly Mountain committed suicide, the strategists took refuge, Sanwei Kaifeng, The ancestral tomb was excavated, the persimmon garden was defeated, the Xiangyang system was established, Sun Chuanting was defeated, Xi'an was conquered, the three sides of Jinglu were trilateral, Xi'an was reformed, the Eastern Expedition of Xingshi, the battle of Ningwuguan, the fall of Beijing, the wanton plunder, the battle of Shanhaiguan, the defeat of Beijing, the disintegration of the Dashun army, the death of Jiugongshan, and Li Guo's resistance to the Qing Dynasty. The 10,000-manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is as a whole simplified in "Essays on Seeing and Hearing: The Biography of Li Zicheng", but it inherits Feng Su's writing principle of taking history as a mirror, focusing on describing the activities of the peasant army and the deeds of the Ming ministers. The article retains many details of Li Zicheng's peasant army's organization, discipline, strategy and tactics. "Thieves attack the city, there is no ladder to rush, but the city is demolished. Charge a soldier to dismantle a brick, and the winner will return to the camp to remove the armor, and the lying fold has been pierced. At the beginning of the hole, there was one person, and it gradually reached ten hundred. The second pass of the earth came out, leaving a pillar of earth, between the giant pillars, ten thousand people were overwhelmed, and the city collapsed with a call. The 10,000-manuscript "Biography of Li Zicheng" records the operation process of the "city demolition method" used by Li Zicheng's peasant army. "Fill the city with nitrate and charcoal treasure urns, fire urns crack, and name and size burst", describing the blasting tactics of Li Zicheng's peasant army; "There are 30,000 horses in the array, and there are three walls. And each has its own color, red one, black one, white one, looking like a cloud. After fighting for a long time, Ma Zhan stepped forward. There are 30,000 spears, and the stabbing blows are like flying. If it is reached, the horse soldiers will be reunited, and there will be no survivors", describing the horse and foot coordination tactics of Li Zicheng's peasant army; "The water is only blocked by the Yellow River, and he crosses all the horses, and the latter is beheaded", and those who lag behind in crossing the river will be beheaded, which reflects the organization and discipline of Li Zicheng's peasant army. The 10,000 manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" records the deeds of Ming Chen's suppression, with a clear attitude of praise and criticism. For example, "Shaanxi Fu Qiao should be a eunuch party, greedy and trade." There are robbers of Taoist ministers Wu Yanghe, anti-coercion and take a thousand gold, and ignore the theft. Stealing is self-beneficial, and those who are stolen dare not sue", criticizing Shaanxi Governor Qiao Yingjia for dereliction of duty and letting thieves take their responsibility, and also pointed out the eunuch party's poison to the country. mentioned the battle of Ningwu Pass, "Ningwu General Soldier Zhou Yu Ji Shu fought to the death, where tens of thousands of thieves were killed in ten days, and the thieves were executed in repeated battles, and they did not give in." His wife, Mongolia, fought in the streets and burned to death. Zicheng sighed and said: "Let the guards be as good as General Zhou, and I can come here", not only describing Zhou Yuji's battle in detail, but also especially through Li Zicheng's mouth, expressing his praise for Zhou Yuji's death, from which we can see the historian's allegorical discussion in history, with "individual examples to praise and depreciate the law" intention. Although this way of writing is rich in meaning, it also brings the defect of narrative redundancy, such as "When the lamp is lit and the water is flooded, there is no one who guards the fort within a thousand miles." Duzhang Zhongliequan and his wife Huo Shishou did not go. It is known as Lady Fort", which tells the story of Huo Shi, the wife of Zhang Quan, the martyred Liaodong Inspector, who fought bravely with Zhao Sheng, the leader of the peasant army, and has nothing to do with Li Zicheng in content. This kind of plot occupies too much space, which affects the development of the main narrative of Li Zicheng's uprising. In addition, the 10,000 manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" also has hard flaws in style, such as vague time information, except for the beginning of the "first year of Chongzhen" and "is the year" and other labels, there is no time information throughout the text. Colloquial and popular writing are also frequent problems, especially reflected in the official titles, such as "Xifu Geng Ruqi", "Kechen Liu Mao", "Border General Cao Wenzhao", etc., are all abbreviations, and even more so, there is a common name for the military department's Shangshu. The 10,000-ton manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is also suspected of scandalizing Li Zicheng, and the article calls him "born evil", believing that it is Li Zicheng's nature to be vicious. Moreover, insulting the private life of the person concerned is the usual method used by ancient historians to attack characters, such as the 10,000 manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" said that "his wife Han, so the prostitute, and the county soap prostitution", and later said that "Xing's wife, Xing, is wise and in charge of military resources...... with Jetton". Although these two sentences are also taken from "Essays on Seeing and Hearing", it is difficult to judge whether a wife is unvirtuous and secretly fornicates with others, and whether it is recorded or not is not related to the overall situation of the uprising, but only adds stigma to Li Zicheng. In addition, the 10,000 manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" skillfully used penmanship to lower Li Zicheng's historical image, saying that the Dashun army in Beijing "sent the right general to torture and plunder Suojin, since Jiadingbo, Cheng Guogong, Chen Yan, and Wei Zaode, they all ironed, burned, clamped, and hooped brains, and there was no peace...... Where tens of thousands of cakes include mules, carts, and gallops, they seek to return to Shaanxi. Taste said: Shaanxi parents and the country are victorious, and I will build the capital. Ma Fugui returned to his hometown, and it was not easy for Shiyanjing to be in Xi'an", creating a discourse atmosphere in which the Dashun regime had no intention of governing the country and the people, and was only looking for gold and silver. The "Pingkou Zhi", which also narrates from the position of the Qing Dynasty, expressed it like this: "And Pingxi Shizhi, he changed the map and said: Shaanxi, my parents' country is also, wealth and nobility will return to their hometown, that is, how can Shiyanjing be a Xi'an?" What prompted Li Zicheng to make the decision to return to Shaanxi was not that Beijing's money had been exhausted, but that it was a military decision made in response to Wu Sangui's support for troops to enter the customs. In this way, the historical image of Li Zicheng in the 10,000 manuscripts is obviously lower than that of "Ping Kou Zhi". In short, Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling took material from Feng Su's "Essays on Observations and Experiences" and laid the narrative framework of "The Biography of Li Zicheng". When writing, it takes into account the activities of the peasant army and the deeds of the Ming ministers, presenting the complete process of the peasant uprising from sitting big to getting out of control, and the historical significance is strong. However, the imperfection of the style, the procrastination of some plots, and the lack of coherence of the narrative are also more prominent. In terms of the quality of the text, the 10,000-manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" cannot be regarded as a qualified biography of the official history of the previous dynasty, and it is reasonable that it failed to pass the review. After that, the historian Wang Hongxu took 10,000 drafts of the History of the Ming Dynasty, supplemented by other works on the history of the Ming Dynasty to continue to revise. 2. Wang Hongxu established the appearance of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" Wang Hongxu's "Manuscript of the History of the Ming Dynasty" was written when the Ming History Museum was in decline. In the thirty-third year of Kangxi (1694), Wang Hongxu was promoted to president, and Wan Sitong was still assisted. After Wan Sitong's death, in the first year of Yongzheng (1723), Wang Tuwei, the son of Wang Hongxu, presented the "Ming History Manuscript" to Emperor Yongzheng, and Wang Hongxu completed the repair of this historical manuscript almost alone. During this period, Wang Hongxu's career was affected by political turmoil, but he did not drop out of historical work. Wang Hongxu's compilation line of thought is different from Mao Qiling's. Mao Qiling included Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the list of thieves along with Chen Yongding, Tang Sai'er and others, but in fact ignored the special nature of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's uprising. Wang Hongxu saw this problem, changed the title of the article from "thief" to "thief", and classified the deeds of Chen Yongding, Tang Sai'er and others into the biography of the thieves, and let the biographies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong be a separate article, called "those who are determined to die in the world", highlighting the great impact of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's uprising on the Ming Dynasty, and the awareness of taking history as a mirror is stronger. Subsequently, Wang Hongxu rewrote an introduction of more than 600 words, and published his understanding of the peasant uprising and the fall of the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Hongxu revised "The Biography of Li Zicheng" from the following aspects. First, standardize the writing. Wang Hongxu carefully edited 10,000 drafts, enriching the time information of "The Biography of Li Zicheng"; The abbreviations used in "Xifu Geng Ruqi", "Kechen Liu Mao" and "Bian General Cao Wenzhao" have also been adjusted to official titles such as "Shanxi Governor Geng Ruqi", "Liu Mao in the matter", "Cao Wenzhao, deputy general of Gushan". Second, cut out the complicated and simplified sentences and polish the sentences in order to refine the text. This change can be seen in many places throughout the text, and Wang Hongxu's streamlining of "The Dilemma of the Trunk Gorge" is very typical. Wan Draft's description of the "Carriage Gorge Trap" is as follows: Self-Formation is the king of Chuang and runs into the Carriage Gorge of Xingping. The gorge is surrounded by four mountains, and there is no way out for forty miles. And the native soldiers used stones and rolling wood to enclose them, and the view was like a well. In spring and summer, it rains in the moon, food and clothing are scarce, bows and arrows are rotten, more than half of the people and horses are dead, and the thief has to bribe Qiyu to surrender left and right. And Qi Yu is a fool of himself for his own use, and he has 36,000 people who have made a name for himself in the military through the ugly party. Finger Gu dissolved, thought to be God. And the road army pressed the soldiers, and the prefectures and counties they passed through were transmitted to the embarrassment. And the thief made a big noise, killed fifteen members of the guard, and broke through the county seven. Wang Hongxu omitted the introduction of Chen Qiyu's character, and also omitted the description of the Ming army's combat situation, and only retained Li Zicheng's escape process: Zicheng and others were trapped in the Carriage Gorge of Xing'an. It will rain heavily for two months, the horses will die a lot, the bows and arrows will be taken off, and they will use Jun's grace to bribe Qiyu left and right, and deceive them. Qi Yu is a light thief, Xu Zhi, the generals will not be killed, and the states and counties they pass through are transmitted to Gu Miao. The thief crossed the stack, that is, the big noise, and slaughtered all the seven counties of the state. With such a change, the narrative center shifts to Li Zicheng, and the development of the situation in the Carriage Gorge is clearer. Another example is "the twelve people who are loyal to the small yellow gate, the name is 'ringing hands', and the wine is half a trick." It is self-satisfied, and loyalty is not with". The 10,000 manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" explains the reasons for the conflict between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, but inserts a description of Xiaohuangmen, which lacks coherence. After Wang Hongxu polished the sentence, the text became concise and to the point: "Self-confessed from the loyalty of the imperial mausoleum eunuch Xiao Gelding good advocate, dedication to loyalty." In addition, Wang Hongxu also deleted the praise part of the 10,000 manuscripts, believing that the text already implied an evaluation of historical events and did not need to be written. Third, the narrative is enriched by supplementing historical events. For example, when it comes to the Xingyang Conference, the account of the 10,000 manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is slightly brief: "Zicheng is to call on all thieves to join the seventy-two battalions." Wang Hongxu added: "The proposal to reject the enemy is undecided." Zicheng Jin said: 'The husband is still excited, and there are 100,000 people!' Officers and soldiers are powerless. It is advisable to divide the troops and determine the direction, and listen to the sky with obtuseness. They all said, 'Good'. It shows the role played by Li Zicheng in the conference. And the most added is the plot about the change of Jiashen. This plot will be discussed later, so I will not repeat it here. Some critical content was also added to "The Biography of Li Zicheng". When it comes to the leader of the peasant army, the 10,000-drafted "Biography of Li Zicheng" is more calling, and less is the real name. Wang Hongxu paid attention to this, and corresponded a variety of complex nicknames with his real name, including "Rucai is Cao Cao", "Ma Shouying, He Yilong, He Jin, Liu Xiyao, Lin Chengcheng, etc. That is, the thief Kui called the old Huihui, Ge Li Eye, Zuo Jin King, the king of the world, the king of troubled times" and many other places. Li Gongzi saved the people is a well-known legend in the late Ming Dynasty, from Ji Liuqi's "Ming Ji Beiluo" learned: "When I was young, I heard that the thief was in a hurry, and Li Gongzi was in chaos, but I didn't know that there was Li Zicheng." and self-contained into Beijing, the world hesitated that Li Gongzi was Li Gongzi, but he didn't know that Li Gongzi was Li Yanye. Therefore, it is detailed. "At that time, people did not know the identity of Li Gongzi. Wan Manuscript said more absolutely that Li Gongzi is Li Yan: "The letter is returned from time to time, and he is imprisoned in the official." The red lady came to the rescue and broke the prison. The hungry people from Lourdes said: Li Gongzi lives me. Wang Hongxu cautiously wrote: "Self-reliance, slaughter is reduced." and scattered the plundered finances to help the hungry. The people who receive salaries do not distinguish between rocks and self-contained, and they say: Li Gongzi lives with me. "I noticed the confusion between Li Zicheng and Li Yan among the people. Regarding Li Zicheng's death, Wang Hongxu retained the statement of "hoeing and dying in the quagmire" in the 10,000 drafts, and added the statement that the Qing general Azig reported that "Li Zicheng hanged himself". Fourth, Wang Hongxu corrected some historical errors. "The thief begs for tricks, and the ministers often believe in it, because the eunuch Lu Jiude of the prison army invites him to meet the cold river, and the thief descends and goes, and suddenly crosses the horse from Mianchi County." Wan manuscript "The Biography of Li Zicheng" believes that the culprit that led the peasant army to enter Henan was the governor Chang Daoli and the eunuch Lu Jiude. Wang Hongxu refuted the correct as: "Yang Jinchao, the eunuch of the supervising army, believes in it, and it is a play." The cold river will be frozen, and the thieves will cross into Henan from Maojiazhai on a horse trail. The 10,000 manuscript of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" reproached the overseer Yang Sichang for his rigid and rigid tactics: "The thief protected himself a little, and he was surrounded by the officials and soldiers. Overseer Yang Sichang ordered that there must be a shortage of besiegers, and if there is a lack of it, it will become a self-defeat. Wang Hongxu helped Yang Sichang clear his responsibilities and corrected it as: "Zheng Chongjian, the governor of Shaanxi, sent troops to surround him, so that there must be a shortage of siege divisions." Self-becoming is to take the intermittent walk, break through the Wuguan, and go to Yiyi to offer loyalty. Wang Hongxu's improvement in the quality of the text of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is obvious to all. After the revision, the writing of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" has become more standardized, the defects of the original style have been basically eliminated, Li Zicheng's deeds have been highlighted, and the fluency and readability of the text have been greatly improved. After the addition of critical content, the historical value of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" was further enhanced. Zhang Tingyu and other historians used Wang Hongxu's manuscript as the basis for revising the palace version of the "History of the Ming Dynasty", but only made minor changes to the "Biography of Li Zicheng". Some deletions are very subtle, such as changing "the thief then went west from the Xingtai Motianling and arrived at Wu'an" to "the thief went west from the Xingtai Motianling and arrived at Wu'an", and the imaginary words were deleted; The subject was omitted from "self-contained to really obtain the mandate of heaven, Venus led the thieves to persuade the three tables and obeyed it" to "self-made to say that it really has the mandate of heaven, and Venus led the thieves to persuade the three tables to advance, and it was from it", and the subject was omitted from the previous period. Some of the sentences were further condensed, such as "self-defeating, alone with Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Zhang Nai, Li Guo, Li Shuangxi, Gu Kecheng, Zhang Shijie, Li Michang, Ren Jirong, Ren Jiguang, Wang Hu, Liu Wenkui and other eighteen cavalry broke the siege, and went to ambush Shang and Luoshan" was changed to "self-defeated, alone with Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu and other eighteen cavalry broke the siege, and ambushed Shang and Luoshanzhong", and deleted some names; changed "the emperor was worried about his own success, and he specially took the late Shangshu Fu Zonglong as the governor of Shaanxi, so that the special office became self-contained" was changed to "the emperor took the late Shangshu Fu Zonglong as the governor of Shaanxi, so that the special office became self-contained", and the description of Emperor Chongzhen was deleted; There were only a few things that had little impact, such as "the edict was assigned to the eunuchs to supervise the generals to supervise the war", "Yunyang governed Jiang Yunyi's department, with only 750 soldiers, and was no match for other thieves". In short, although the palace version of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" has revised Wang's manuscript, it has basically maintained its original appearance, and there is no such drastic change as Wang Hongxu's manuscript, which shows the official recognition of Wang Hongxu's manuscript in the Qing Dynasty. At this point, the process of writing and transmutation of the Qing Dynasty's "History of the Ming Dynasty and the Biography of Li Zicheng" has been very clear. The narrative framework of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" was laid by Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling. Wang Hongxu's revision of the 10,000 manuscripts was officially recognized and established the textual appearance of "The Biography of Li Zicheng". The temple book has only made simple deletions and additions to the king's manuscript. So is the recognition of Wang Manuscript's "The Biography of Li Zicheng" due to its higher text quality? I believe that this reason cannot be ruled out, but the root of the problem lies in the ability to implement the will of the rulers. III. The Influence of the Official Will of the Qing Dynasty on the Historical Writing of the Biography of Li Zicheng Wang Hongxu improved the quality of the text of the 10,000-manuscript Biography of Li Zicheng by deleting and simplifying the complex and adding historical events. These changes seem to remain at the level of historiography, but in fact they have deeper political roots. Just as Sun Weiguo said: "Wang Hongxu was an important minister of the Qing Dynasty, and he tried his best to eliminate the consciousness of the remnants in the ten thousand manuscripts, and tended to implement the official will of the Qing Dynasty." "The complete implementation of the will of the ruler is the key to its official recognition. As a minority regime, the legitimacy of the Qing Dynasty's rule has always been challenged by traditional concepts such as "Yixia Zhifen". In the eyes of some remnants, the Qing Dynasty was "Yidi stealing the throne" and refused to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty. In order to demonstrate the justice and legitimacy of the regime's entry into the Central Plains, the Qing emperor repeatedly expressed his opinions on the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The expressions of Emperor Kang and Emperor Yong are representative. Let's look at Emperor Kangxi first. Since ancient times, the world has been right, as good as my dynasty. Taizu and Taizong did not have the heart to take the world at the beginning. Taste the soldiers and the capital, and the ministers should take it. Emperor Taizong said: "Ming and the mainland, never reconciled, now it is very easy to take." But thinking of the Lord of China, I can't bear to take it. After the thief Li Zicheng broke through the capital, Chongzhen hanged himself. The subjects came to greet each other, but they cut off the invaders and entered the great unification...... I will accept the martyrs, and I should obey the heavens, and I will have the Ouyu, so that I can see the thieves of the troubles, and it is nothing more than to drive out the ears of Allah. Emperor Kangxi traced the history back to the period of Nurhachi and Huang Taiji, showing that the Qing Dynasty never coveted the world and recognized the Ming Dynasty as the lord of China. The entry of the Qing army into the customs was an invitation of the Chinese subjects to eradicate Li Zicheng's rebellion, and put the moral superiority of the Qing Dynasty in the world. Emperor Yongzheng further said: This dynasty won the world, compared with the release of Chengtang and the destruction of Zhou Wu, it is more justifiable. In addition, this dynasty did not take the world from the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen was martyred, and the Ming Zuo was over. Li Zicheng was under the false name of Beijing, the Central Plains was ruined, and Allah was cruel and cruel to the people. Emperor Taizongwen couldn't bear to indulge in fire and water, and ordered the general to rejuvenate the division in order to fix the chaos. As Gan Ge refers to, the thieves flee from the wind. Li Zicheng was killed by the pursuers, and the remnants of the party were disbanded. Emperor Shizuzhang drove into the Beijing Division, and Anji Jifu was assisted. Hundreds of millions of people were fortunate to be reborn, and Emperor Chongzhen was able to be buried. This dynasty is a clear report of grievances and shame, and there are great achievements in the Ming Dynasty. On the basis of Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng pointed out that "Chongzhen was martyred, and Mingzuo has ended", making it clear that the Jiashen Revolution was a sign of the demise of the Ming Dynasty and denying the legitimacy of the Southern Ming regime. He also discussed in detail the merits of the Qing army in expelling the Liukou, pacifying the common people, and burying Emperor Chongzhen, in order to show that the transfer of power was more reasonable and legal than the Tangwu Revolution, and to refute the unorthodox arguments of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in society. The expression of the Qing Emperor refers to the change of Jiashen as the key to the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In fact, the Qing Emperor began to pay attention to the history of Jiashen very early, and Emperor Shunzhi once asked the Ministry of Rites to record in detail the martyrdom deeds in the Jiashen Change. "At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the capital was trapped, and the monarch died. It is difficult to be loyal, and the festival is windy. The Ministry of Er, together with the officials of various ministries and courts, visited in detail to confirm the names of the dead festivals, and performed the actual deeds, so as not to leave them behind. Emperor Shunzhi hoped to call on his subjects to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty by publicizing the deeds of loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty. In the fifty-second year of Kangxi (1713), Emperor Kangxi said to Zhang Yushu and others: "The end of the Ming Dynasty is not far from the present. It is rumored that Li Zicheng has arrived, and the people of the Beijing division are dedicated to the city. I also heard that Li Dingguo, the general under Li Zicheng, went up to the city in Xibianmen, from this point of view, it is still an attack, but the cloud is dedicated? These are recorded in the history books, and they are very relevant, and they will be realized. He ordered Shi Chen to record the detailed process of Li Zicheng's capture of Beijing in the history books. As the official history of the previous dynasty, "The Biography of Li Zicheng" has the responsibility to interpret the inevitability of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the transfer of the Mandate of Heaven, and to describe in detail the historical events of Jiashen that the emperor cared about. Feng Su's "Biography of Li Zicheng" does this very well, and the list of martyred officials in Jiashen he compiled is very detailed. More directly, Feng Su made it clear that Ming's death "is not a self-made loyalty." It is the destiny of heaven, and the special products of Erkou drive away the calamity", leaving enough room for the Qing Dynasty to undertake the mandate of heaven. However, the 10,000 manuscripts of "The Biography of Li Zicheng", which is based on this historical material, have a distinct personal standpoint. Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling are both relics of the Ming Dynasty. Jiang Shengli pointed out that the history of the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty mainly revolves around the "relationship between Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty", "the responsibility of the ministers of the Ming Dynasty", and "the deep reflection on the reasons for the Ming Dynasty". This tendency can also be seen in the writing of the 10,000-manuscript "Biography of Li Zicheng", for example, the article sharply criticizes Chen Qiyu, Yang Sichang, Chang Daoli and other ministers of the Ming Dynasty for dereliction of duty and delay of warplanes, and the meaning of accountability is very obvious. For example, in addition to praising the sacrifices of Huo, Zhou Yuji and others, the martyrdom of the leaders of the peasant army of the Ming Dynasty is also particularly praised. Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling tirelessly discussed such issues, which also indirectly led to the lack of redundant narrative in the 10,000-draft "Biography of Li Zicheng". More direct evidence of this is the deliberate denigration of Li Zicheng. The remnants of the Ming Dynasty generally hated Li Zicheng's death in his homeland, so Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling were relatively emotional in their narratives, deliberately discrediting Li Zicheng's historical image. After deep reflection, Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling blamed the fall of the Ming Dynasty on too light military force in the past three hundred years, but they did little to discuss the legitimacy of the Qing Dynasty's rule. Describing the fall of Beijing, the two of them only scribbled over with the sentence "The Fall of Beijing and the Emperor of Gulie". Describing the activities of Li Zicheng's peasant army in Beijing, Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling spent almost all their pen energy on highlighting their greed and brutality, and did not defend the Qing army's entry into the customs. Naturally, this kind of writing did not please the rulers. Wang Hongxu lived in a different era from Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling, Wang Hongxu was born in the second year of Shunzhi (1645), and he and his father Wang Guangxin were both admitted to the imperial examination in the Qing Dynasty. Wang Hongxu was highly appreciated and supported by Emperor Kangxi. He had no affection for the Ming Dynasty and had a more thorough understanding of the ruler's intentions in revising history. In order to promote the legitimacy of Qing rule, Wang Hongxu added a narrative of the activities of the Qing army. For example, "on May 2, the Qing Dynasty soldiers entered the Beijing Division, ordered the people to be peaceful, mourned for the emperor and queen, and sent the general to chase after Sangui." On the one hand, it highlights the merits of the Qing army in protecting the territory and the people, and on the other hand, it highlights the Qing court's respect for the Ming regime, confirming that the Ming regime died at the hands of Li Zicheng, and that the Qing army entered the customs to avenge the Ming and was morally blameless. Wang Hongxu also added many descriptions of Li Zicheng and the Dashun regime that did not have the mandate of heaven. "Zicheng ascended to the throne, and suddenly saw the man in white several feet long, the sword in his hand glared, and the dragon claws under the seat moved, and he became fearful. Cast gold seal and Yongchang money, and not enough. "In August, the temple of the ancestors will be built, and it will be worshipped, and I can't pay tribute when I shudder." Ascending the throne, minting gold seals and coins, and sacrificing to the ancestral temple were all acts that symbolized imperial power, and in the ancient society that attached importance to the orders of heaven, Li Zicheng's failure in these activities completely denied the legitimacy of the Dashun regime. Since Li Zicheng is not the true son of the dragon, it is very righteous for the Qing army to be begged by the Ming general Wu Sangui to enter the customs and drive away Li Zicheng, who stole the throne. It should be noted that the so-called "suddenly seeing a man in white several feet long" here happens to be the color advocated by the Manchus. Wang Hongxu's description of the Jiashen Revolution is more detailed, adding plots such as "the Dashun Army investigates Beijing" and "the thief and eunuch Du Xun enters to see Chongzhen", and includes the martyrdom deeds of more than 40 Wenchen, Xun Qi such as Fan Jingwen and Liu Wenbing, and more than 200 palace people such as Wei, and even records the affection of the elephants raised in the palace who roared and shed tears after the death of the Ming Dynasty: "Wenchen from Fan Jingwen and Xun Qi from Liu Wenbing, more than 40 martyrs. The palace maid Wei threw himself into the river, and there were more than 200 servants. The elephant house and the elephants all wailed and wept. The following paragraph describes the scene of the ridicule of the second ministers Zhu Chunchen, Wei Zaode and others who came to Li Zicheng to seek officials, reflecting the criticism of the second minister: "On the third day of the Yue Dynasty, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, and Wei Zaode, a scholar, led hundreds of civil and military officials to congratulate, and they all sat in front of the palace in plain clothes. Self-contained, the group of thieves fight and insult, for the vertebral back, take off the hat, or raise the foot and neck, laugh and laugh, and the officials dare not move. The eunuch Wang Dehua commanded the ministers and said: 'The country is dead and the king is mourned, if Cao does not think about the funeral of the first emperor, it is here! Because of the crying, dozens of the attendants cried, and Zaode and others also cried. The Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs did not know what it meant to be loyal to the monarch as well as a eunuch, and the attitude of praise and disapproval was clear, which further enhanced the educational significance of "The Biography of Li Zicheng". Wang Hongxu tried his best to clear the consciousness of the remnants in "The Biography of Li Zicheng". This starts with his statement to Wan Draft, "The sky will be cold and the river will be frozen, and the thief will descend and go, and suddenly cross the horse trail from Mianchi County." And so the Central Plains thief disaster from now on" can be seen from the modification. Wang Hongxu restated this passage as: "The cold river will be frozen, and the thieves will cross into Henan from Maojiazhai on horseback, and the armies will not choke the river." The tone described the process of the peasant army's entry into Henan more gently, without the grief and indignation of "the Central Plains thief disaster began here". In Wang Hongxu's pen, Li Zicheng's historical image has also changed, and there has been a "self-made bad wine color, demillet and coarseness, and the joys and sorrows with his subordinates." Rucai has dozens of wives and concubines, has been served, has several female music under the account, is self-supporting, and has become a contempt", but the space is very limited, and it is still commensurate with stigma such as "thief" and "coward", after all, peasant uprisings have always been a big problem for the feudal dynasty in ancient times. All in all, Wan Sitong and Mao Qiling did not fully understand the political requirements of the rulers to revise history, while Wang Hongxu had a very thorough understanding of the official stance on historical revision, and gave a reasonable explanation and writing of the issue of the Ming and Qing dynasties in the Biography of Li Zicheng, which was officially recognized. His improvement in the technicality of the text of "The Biography of Li Zicheng" is the icing on the cake. Through the transmutation of the Qing Dynasty's official revision of the "History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Li Zicheng", we see the ups and downs of the historian's personal position and official will. This not only reflects the influence of personal, political and other factors on the writing of history, but also presents the process of the Qing Dynasty officials seeking to grasp the right to speak in history writing. Objectively speaking, although ancient historians advertised that they should seek truth from history and write straightforwardly, the writing of history was inevitably restricted by various factors, especially official historiography, which would inevitably move towards the road of maintaining the rule of the dynasty and serving realpolitik. About author:Zhang Yuxuan is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of History, Nankai University, with a research interest in the history of Chinese historiography. Article source: Historical Theory and Journal of Historiography, No. 2, 2023, pp. 143-156.