A Study Of Qing Dynasty Sichuan Emei Mountain’s Local Chronicles

The Mount Emei’s local chronicles are based on The Emei Mount in Sichuan Province,recording the mountain’s scenery,monuments,poetry and monasticism.It is a pity that there are so many lost local chronicles and the overall number of surviving local chronicles is slightly smaller.This paper discusses the existing Mount Emei’s local chronicles in the Qing dynasty.In the Qing Dynasty,Emei Mountain became one of the famous Buddhist mountains in China,and the existing Emei’s local chronicles were mainly compiled in the Qing Dynasty,so the Qing Dynasty Emei’s local chronicles are particularly important in the entire Emei’s local chronicles system.Among them,Jiang Chao’s "Emei Mountain’s local chronicles",which was compiled during the Kangxi period,was not only the most complete but also the most influential of the Qing dynasty Emei’s local chronicles due to its grand content and clear style.The Qing dynasty Emei’s local chronicles have undergone a long history of successive compilations.Through the study of the evolution of the four Emei’s local chronicles,it is found that the flourishing of Emei’s local chronicles in the Qing Dynasty were not only related to the popularity of local’s chronicles compilation at that time,but also inextricably linked to the development of Buddhism in Emei Mountain and the impetus of the later local chronicles to add to the omissions of the former local chronicles,which together contributed to the development of Emei’s local chronicles in the Qing Dynasty.From the perspective of the evolution of the local chronicles,the Qing dynasty Emei’s local chronicles show the characteristics of the gradual standardization of the names of the mountain records,the low frequency of renewal,and the form of private revision,which distinguish the Emei’s local chronicles from other local chronicles.In terms of the style of Emei’s local chronicles in Qing dynasty,there are inheritance and innovation among local chronicles,but they gradually tend to be unified,and more and more attention is paid to the role of the mountain map in local chronicles.In terms of the contents of the local chronicles,they are coherent but have their own focus.The authors also had different standards for the content of the local chronicles when they compiled them.The Qing Emei’s local chronicles is rich in content and have a high value in many aspects: historically,it is mainly for the preservation of historical materials on the lives of historical figures and monuments and scenic spots in Emei Mountain;literarily,it is mainly for the inclusion of poems and articles related to Emei Mountain;religiously,it is mainly for the recording of the contents of Buddhism and Taoism in Emei Mountain and the poems of some monks;tourism,it is mainly for the development of the present-day Emei Mountain scenic area and the restoration of the historical landscape.In tourism,it can provide original historical materials for the development and restoration of the historical landscape of Emei Mountain.Inevitably,due to the time period,the Qing Emei’s local chronicles have shortcomings in terms of style,content detailing and material handling.It is important to discuss the values and shortcomings of the Qing Emei’s local chronicles in order to make the best use of them.