From The Draft To The Complementary Code Version——the Research On The Biographic Sketches(Benji) In The History Of Ming

The history of Ming Dynasty is the last volume of the Twenty-Four Histories. It is also the one that has undergone the longest time and owns the largest number of participants in all the Histories compiled by the government. It was famous for its rigorous style and concise narrative in the scholars at that time. There were also some scholars holding the opinion that the History of Ming Dynasty possesses the most impartial commentary and the most detailed description. The Ben Ji is an important part of the history of Ming Dynasty which not only shares a series of characteristics of the history of Ming Dynasty, but also highlights some problems that exist in the process of compiling the history of Ming Dynasty because of its particularity.Of course, the Ben Ji of the history of Ming Dynasty also reflects the disadvantage of Histories compiled by the government. The importance attached to the ideology and the negligence in the checking of historical materials result in many mistakes of the Ben Ji of the Wuying Palace version of the history of Ming Dynasty, which also affect its value.The Ben Ji of the history of Ming Dynasty contains various content about the politics、the military areas、the economies、the culture、the diplomacy and the etc. It is about the emperor only and records the great invents in era of one emperor. The content of Ben Ji concerns the legality of the dynasty and is the most political part of the history of Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty is founded by a minority. The differences among the nationalities and the cultures make its legality widely doubted. So the Qing Dynasty paid great attention on the compiling of the history of Ming Dynasty, especially on the Ben Ji part.The compiling of the Ben Ji of the history of Ming Dynasty has undergone seven stages based on its remain scripts. The first stage is the learned Confucian scholars making drafts of the Ben Ji part respectively. The second stage is the president examining all the drafts. The Tai Zu Ben Ji of the Draft of Ming Dynasty written by Mr Qian’an is one of the achievements of this stage. The third stage is the period when Wansi Tong was hired by the Xu Brothers as the director of the history of the Ming Dynasty. The Ben Ji of the version of the history of Ming Dynasty with416volumes is almost one of the achievements of this stage. The fourth stage is the period of the compiling of the Ben Ji of the version the history of Ming Dynasty with313volumes. The fifth stage is the period when the Ben Ji of the history of Ming Dynasty written by Wanghong Xu was finished. The sixth stage is the period of the compiling of the Ben Ji of the Wuying Palace version of the history of Ming Dynasty written by Zhangting Yu. At the beginning of the Yong Zheng Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty gathered some official historians to compile the history of Ming Dynasty again. Till the fourth years of the Qian Long Dynasty, the Wuying Palace version of the history of Ming Dynasty was printed and the Ben Ji was almost finished. The seventh stage is the period when the Ben Ji was supplied by Ying Lian. At the forty second years of the Qian Long Dynasty, because of the political need to strengthen the controlling of the ideology, the Ben Ji part was selected separately to be supplied. At last, the Ben Ji part was finally finished with24volumes. This is the outline that the Ben Ji part of the history of Ming Dynasty is compiled.In the angel of the Ben Ji part, through contrasting the different scripts of the history of Ming Dynasty, the paper discloses many problems that exist in the process of compiling the history of Ming Dynasty, studies the real situation of the inner link of the different scripts and summarizes the experience and the lesson, so that we can get a more definite comprehension of the history of Ming Dynasty.