What did the Qing Dynasty do to make the History of the Ming Dynasty the most credible history boo

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-30

Many people consider the history of the Ming Dynasty to be the least credible of the 24 histories. If you look at the quality of the book alone, in fact, the quality of the "History of the Ming Dynasty" compiled by the Qing Dynasty is really not bad. Not only did he not have too evil content like the "Book of Jin", but he also did not adopt all the documents of the previous generation like the "History of the Song Dynasty", and he did not make a mess of repairs in order to meet the deadline like the "History of the Yuan". On the contrary, the logical order of the History of the Ming Dynasty is very clear. From the point of view of book revision, this is one of the best books in the 24 histories.

But the credibility of the history of the Ming Dynasty has always been criticized. Because the revision of the history of the previous dynasty mainly relies on the archives left by the previous dynasty. For example, the "History of the Song Dynasty" cultivated by the people of the Yuan Dynasty was very simple and stuffed into all the official records of the Song Dynasty. and "Yuan History", which has been scolded by many people, is the same.

Although part of the rotten "History of the Yuan Dynasty" is due to Zhu Yuanzhang's eagerness to conclude the coffin of the Yuan Dynasty and hastily complete the work of revising history, there is another reason. That is, the official records left by the people of the Yuan Dynasty themselves are also messy. The early Mongol Empire was written in Mongolian. Later, I simply used all the words. In addition, the Yuan Dynasty canceled the imperial examination, so many civil officials of the former dynasties above the Ming Dynasty did not know what had happened in the Yuan Dynasty at all. So they could only look for epitaphs, family heirlooms, and diaries to use as documents for the previous dynasty. But no matter how poorly the document is summarized, at least it can be regarded as an integration of the cultural relics of the previous generation.

However, there has always been a problem in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", which directly erases the words of the previous dynasty and makes history by itself. The "History of the Ming Dynasty" in the "Twenty-four History" we see today was written during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. There are many discrepancies between this version of the History of the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Shilu, which is officially recorded by the Ming Dynasty itself. For example, about the matter of Concubine Wan Guifei of Ming Xianzong, because the smear was too serious, Qianlong couldn't stand it. There are also things like Zhang Xianzhong's massacre of Sichuan, and the "History of the Ming Dynasty" says that he killed 600 million people. But in fact, most people believe that the decline of Sichuan's population in the early Qing Dynasty was caused by the Qing army.

In addition, unlike the previous history books of the previous dynasties, which could be completed a few years ago, the Qing Dynasty revised the "History of the Ming Dynasty" for more than 100 years. The content that has been revised in this regard, especially the tribute paid by the Jurchens to the Ming Dynasty in the early Qing Dynasty, has been reduced a lot.

You will find that the less controversial first few "Historical Records", "Book of Han", "Book of the Later Han", and "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" in the "Twenty-four History" are all privately edited. The influence of official ideology is not high. Although the history books of the Northern and Southern Dynasties are concise, they are not bad. But since the "Book of Jin", the history book is no longer written by private individuals independently. The Book of Jin was built in the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. In order to maintain the legitimacy of the Xuanwumen Change, many contents have been deliberately adjusted logically.

Since then, official thinking has gradually influenced the content of historical revision. The Yuan Dynasty revised the three historical books "History of the Song Dynasty", "History of Liao", and "History of Jin" because it did not want to admit that the Song Dynasty belonged to the Great Unification Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty hurriedly completed the "History of the Yuan" in order to quickly announce the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The "History of the Ming Dynasty" can only be said to be the most comprehensive implementation of the ideology of the new dynasty among the official revisions.

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