A Textual Research On The Course Of The Emendation And Print Of The Wuying Palace Twenty-Four Histories

The emendation and print of the Thirteen classics with commentaries and subcommentaries and Twenty-four histories in the period of Qianlong, Qing Dynasty, is a large-scale publishing activity, which holds an important position in the history of textual criticism and publishing. Every Confucian classic and history book has "kaozheng"(考證),namely collating note, which is a pioneering work and embodies the academic level of the day. The Wuying Palace edition became the main edition of scholars’reading and studies instead of the edition of Peking and Nanjing imperial college in Ming Dynasty, and thus affected the whole Qing Dynasty. So "dianben"(殿本)became another name of the Qing imperial palace edition. The course of the emendation and print of the Wuying Palace edition of Confucian classics and history books was very complicated. The work progressed mainly in the early years of Qianlong, but then they adapted a huge of proper nouns in Liao history, Jin history and Yuan history and edited new Guoyujie((國语解of the three histories. During this period, they collected and compiled the lost Old History of the Five Dynasties and revised the Ming history. In the reign of Daoguang, they repaired the woodblocks of twenty histories. The whole course lasted for nearly one hundred years and it is a very important event in the history of official emendation and engraving books. The emendation work in the early years of Qianlong was in the charge of hanlins(翰林),who were from boxuehongci(博學鴻詞)or jinshies(進士),thus ensuring the quality of the edition. Dianben Thirteen classics and Twenty-four histories became the best edition at that time, far exceeding the past ones. As for the adaptation of Liao history, Jin history and Yuan history, the work contained political factors. But at the same time, the editors also corrected some original errors. It is hard to estimate the quality of the twenty histories of Daoguang edition, which did not spread widely and was not tested by the academics. During the late Qing dynasty, labor power and financial resources of the empire were not as good as before, so the quality of this edition is unlikely too high. Certainly, the human factor is one reason for the long time of the whole course. But we cannot ignore the complexity of this academic cause itself which is the important internal reason. As the official definitive edition which was accurate in emendation and exquisite in print, dianben was widely reprinted. But all kinds of reprinted editions were actually the mix of early-printed, late-printed and even Daoguang adapted editions. There is no reprinted edition that its master copy is Qianlong early-printed edition.