If you look at it from the timeline, the editing time of the Qingshi manuscript is actually quite long. From 1914 to 1927, a total of 13 years.
This length of time, given to the late Yuan Dynasty, or the early Ming Dynasty Song Lian, the Qing history should have been completed a long time ago. But in fact, in the past 13 years, the progress of Qing history revision has been very slow.
The first is that the editorial team inside the Qing History Museum is very chaotic. They quarreled as soon as the museum opened. The reason for the quarrel is very simple, that is, whether the Qing Dynasty is dead or not. The topic looks funny. But back then, these old people made a lot of trouble.
For example, Zhao Ertian, who participated in the compilation at that time, once described that a considerable number of people in the Qing History Museum refused to admit that the Qing Dynasty had ended.
The reason for this opposition is none other than the first clause of the preferential treatment conditions of the Qing dynasty that was set at the beginning - the Qing emperor will not abolish the title and treat him with the courtesy of the monarchs of various countries. They believed that Pu Yi had the right to pass on the throne to his descendants, which meant that the Qing Dynasty's state was not over. If the history is cleared, it will be equivalent to denying the legitimacy of Pu Yi's current throne, which is not disrespectful to the Son of Heaven. At that time, Liu Tingchen, a literati, persuaded Zhao Erxun, the editor-in-chief of Qing history, "The Qing Emperor is still living in the deep palace, so why endure it is to repair history.""Our emperor is still here, can you bear to cover him with a coffin board?
As soon as these people are a**, that person's heart will be confused. As soon as the Qing History Museum opened, more than 100 people finally gathered, and more than 40 Qing Dynasty veterans jumped out to oppose it. Especially when how to record Puyi's dynasty, the famous literati Miao Quansun actually proposed to imitate Sima Qian's historical records to write Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and adopt the writing method of "Jinshang Benji" to show loyalty to the Qing Dynasty clan in disguise. As a result, the Qing royal family was very uncooperative with the compilation of the Qing history. In this way, the speed of compiling the history of the Qing Dynasty has also slowed down.
If it's just the infighting of the creators, forget it, the key is that Party A of the Qing History Museum is not in a hurry. The history of the Qing Dynasty was originally proposed by Yuan Shikai in order to curry favor with the elders of the Qing Dynasty. After the opening of the Qing History Museum, Yuan Shikai was not in a hurry and did not dare to urge the draft. The entire Qing History Museum is like herding sheep. Everybody's coming back is grinding.
This can force the curator Zhao Erxun to be anxious. He was tasked with completing the manuscript by the end of 1922. With his urging, a large number of people left the people who were eating and fishing. In the end, there were more than 20 people left in the Qing History Museum. When there are fewer people, the progress of work is even slower. These people dragged on until 1926, and reluctantly came up with a "Qing History Manuscript".
At this time, the content of the "Qing History Manuscript" was not comprehensive at all, but no matter how much you wanted to repair it, you couldn't fix it. One is because there is no money, and the other is that when the Northern Expedition broke out, there was chaos in the capital, and no one sorted out what happened to Shi Xiu. In the end, Zhao Erxun could only reluctantly regard it as finished.
Zhao Erxun, the editor-in-chief of the Qing Historical Manuscripts, served as governor of Hunan, general of Tianjin, and governor of Sichuan, and served as governor of the three eastern provinces in 1911, a year before the fall of the Qing dynasty. Emotionally, this person's attitude towards the Qing Dynasty is very close. So as soon as this book came out, it was met with very strong resistance, and was even listed as *** for a time. Therefore, to this day, the "Qing History Manuscript" only has reference value, and has not been regarded as the official history of the Qing Dynasty.