A Study Of Jiajing And Longqing Chronicle Comprised By Ming Private Historians

Private historians comprised Jiajing and Longqing chronicle is a very important phenomenon in the development process of the late Ming history. The academic motivation of Ming private historians comprising chronicle about Jiajing and Longqing period is the wrong records of the Jiajing and Longqing history written by the official or the private historiography, and the content of Huangmingtongji and Xianzhanglu only end up in Zhengde period. We currently know that there had emerged ten chronicles about Jiajing and Longqing period. The historical data of this ming historiography achievements is very diversified. They not only used the Shizong Shi-lu, Muzong Shi-lu and government archives, but also made use of the relevant history books, memorials, the personal experiences of some authors, and oral historical materials. Compared with the two dynasties’ Shi-lu, these private chronicles have very high historical value. Firstly, they can correct some mistakes about official position, war and figure evaluation in Shi-lu; Secondly, some of the political institutions, memorials, major political events and local events in these chronicles are more detailed than those in Shi-lu; Thirdly, these chronicles record some official records, memorials, political institutions, the background of major political events and orders, and conversations between emperor and ministers. In the meantime, there are a lot of historical thoughts in these private chronicles. The authors were not only brave to praise virtue and punish vice, but also recorded the contribution not because of his inferior personality. For the more and more serious tendency of empty talk in the intelligentsia, these authors opposed the malpractice of Wang Yang-ming’s philosophy on the one hand, and criticized the unrealistic political views on the other hand. Besides, as these books were written after the mid Wanli period when the social crisis was more and more worse, the authors follow the tradition of learning from the history and concerning reality and applying, paid more attention to study the strategy of selecting government officials and consolidating border, and suggested that rulers learn lesions from the history of Jiajing and Longqing period to make the country wealthy and powerful.