The Official Writing of Dynastic History in the Qianlong Reign

This paper sees the official writing of history as a cultural policy, which tends to be affected by the realpolitik per se. The imperial power in the reign of Qianlong had been centralized and increased to the fullest. By analyzing the official writing of dynastic history in the Qianlong reign, not only can we comprehend how Qianlong defined the Qing dynasty, but we can also dig into the political issues he concerned about. The Manchu regime had developed its own way of historical writing before the conquest, and the Manchu princes had acknowledged the relation between manipulating the official writing of history and predominating ruling legitimacy. From Hong Taiji to Kangxi Emperor, the official writing of history reflected the political combats between several Manchu princes in early Qing. In addition, the establishment of bureaucracy in early Qing also impacted directly on the operation of the official writing of history. Before the conquest, there was once a specialized institution responsible solely for the official writing of history. After Kangxi Emperor reinstated his power in the court, he transformed the central bureaucratic institutions once again, marking the beginning of Bureaus of Historiography which was governed by different institutions. This incident was also the background of the founding of Dynastic Bureau of Historiography (DBH) in Qing dynasty. The official writing of dynastic history in the reign of Qianlong can be divided into two stages. The first stage reflected the imperial image the emperor wished to display. The compiling activities including the standard history, as well as political and geographical writings of the Qing dynasty- which were included in Siku Quanshu (The Complete Library of the Four Treasuries). The second stage was marked by the re-establishment of DBH in 1765. Comparing to the previous stage, Qianlong interfered even more directly, so that he could ensure the evaluation of the Qing subjects would meet the interests of his empire. However, Qianlong did not have a clear blueprint to use the cultural policy as a mean to propagate certain ideas in 1765; he fortified the official discourse of the Ming-Qing transition in the process of reading the drafts that the official historiographers delivered. Along with the climax of burning of books and modification of texts in 1770s, Qianlong tried to ban all private historical writings of Ming-Qing transition, and made the official discourse the only memory that all subjects should remember. At the same time, DBH also underwent other compiling activities, with the re-writing of the founding history of Manchu regime being of most significance. In this paper, I try to argue that the reason Qianlong gave order to re-write the founding history of Manchu was not because he thought the root of the Manchu rule was frightened by the loss of Manchuness into the Hanness of the Manchus, but because he witnessed the loss of Manchu identity of the Manchus during the reform of the banner system: the Manchus were reluctant to move from the capital to the garrison. Unlike stressing the legitimacy of the Qing empire in the biographies writings, Qianlong laid most emphasis on depicting the epic stories of Nurhaci, Hong Taiji and other imperial members before the conquest. In this way, Qianlong successfully combined the thrive of the Manchu identity with the prosper of the Manchu regime. In this dissertation, the official writing of history is concerned as a cultural policy, which is highly affected by realpolitik. With the involvement of the imperial control of the historical writing and memory, the official writing of dynastic history becomes especially politically sensitive. The relation between the development of the imperial power in the Qianlong reign and the flourish of the official writing of history is self-evident. After his experience of interfering with the official writing of history in the first stage, Qianlong furthered the intervention into creating the new discourse on Ming-Qing transition and the memory of the Manchus, working both lines to protect the interests of the Qing empire.