The Research Of Ming Xiaozong Shilu

Ming Xiaozong Shilu is recorded in chronological order about the history of the period of the reign of Ming Xiaozong(from August,ChengHua the 23 rd year to May,HongZhi the 18thyear)documental annuals.It had been compiled from the beginning of the the first year of Zhengde(1506 AD),and been finished in Zhengde four years(1509 AD).The whole book has two hundred and twenty-four volumes in total,and is the most important file to understand and study the history of this historical period because of its large number volumens and rich contents.The book contains a large amount of Zoushu,compiled a lot of biographies,and also recorded law system and all kinds of incidents in this period.There was a certain kind of standard to collect Zoushu of Ming Xiaozong Shilu,which included the contents about government affairs and emperors,but also involves feasible discussions and benificial suggestions.The advantages of extracts are very obvious with huge amount,rich contents,timing clearly and complete processing opinion on Zoushu.However,compared with other Zoushu such as related essays written by people in Ming Dynasty,there are also some shortcomings.For example,some materials have been omitted,some only picked the abstract,and there was even some mistakes that needed supplements and correction with the aid of other literature.Ming Xiaozong Shilu recorded considerable amount of dead minister biographies based on a great deal of facts,including Shilu of former dynasties,biographies,tomb inscriptions,gravestones as well as letters,articles and essays written by protagonists.According to different situation of progagonists in biography,Ming Xiaozong shilu selected,cut and polished related materials,finally developping a unique record style.Some rare files became the important sources of biographical sources provided to other historical literatures,such as Guo Chao Xian Zheng Lu,Ben Chao Fen Sheng Ren Wu Kao,Zui Wei Lu,Mingshi etc.The evaluation of the protagonist is more objective and more accurate than the epitaph inscriptions while there are some wrong records,even intentional slander ior excessive praise ofprotagonists,which we need to review these biographies when we read them.Ming Xiaozong Shilu records events in detail or briefly in a causual way.Important events such as nominating the next emperors,sending troops against the enemy,interrogating vital cases etc,are described in details.Routine affairs,including promoting officials,rewarding aliens,sending officer to local government and offering sacrifice,are depicted briefly.In addition,it presents relations among different events through tracing methods,making the ending echo to the beginning.Besides,this book focuses reasons,process and results of certain evens.Through comparing the related literature written by those who recorded their own experiences,we can find some record of Ming Xiaozong Shilu have been omitted in other books or lack of details,which also could show the former book’s high accuracy.The disadvantage of event records is errors,improper words and too abstract illustrations,which need us supplement and correct.Ming Xiaozong Shilu were jointly compiled by many historiographers,and only copy versions have been passed down.Therefore,it is inevitable for the book to have some mistakes that needs to find and correct all errors of the records.This paper differentiates theose errors of the book fully and carefully,classifies improtant cases,and illustrates and analyzes the causes of errors by specific emaples.The categories include mistakes of people names,place names,time,official position names,numbers,event records,and incorrectly used character.Through the research on the compilation of Ming Xiaozong Shilu and differentiation of mistakes in the historical records,I find the book compilation provides an important inspiration for the history of literature compilation.First,we can borrow some ideas from the compilation process,which include most complilers with high historical research reputation,a clear division of labor,and explanatory notes written in a clear,definit,diverse narrative way.On the other hand,there are also some deficiencies that need future scholars to take.such mistakes as a kind of lessons.For examle,the notice provisions of Ming Xiaozong Shilu lack of detailed rules,and the compilers’ history moral requirements.The compilers were nominated temporarily and often replaced.Moreover,no refined version has been published after the book compiling,resulting to missing words,and absurd characters.