96
R. G. IRWIN
"publishers for advertisement of spurious writings." In any case this work was subsequently proscribed by the Ch'ien-lung emperor, exception being taken especially to the last four chuan, written by Wang Ju-nan (T. Chi-yung), a fellow townsman of Chung Hsing, whose preface is dated 1660. It furnishes a record of the final years of the Ming and the advent of the Ch'ing. The sympathy of the author for the former is manifest by the preservation of its chronology throughout, i.e. to 1645/6. Copies of this work are available in several important libraries, such as the National Central Library (Taichung), the Naikaku Bunko (Tokyo), the Library of Congress (Washington), and the University of Leiden. The copy at Columbia University lacks chuan 11 and 12, and that at the Library of Congress has had its objectionable features partially effaced, "but in no case sufficiently as to be illegible."
4. The modern romanization of "Ming-kouron-hong-vou-y-oyongo Taisi-yen” is “xoeng u i oyonggo tacixiyan," which proves to be a Manchu version of Hung-wu pao-hsün, the translation having been done by Kang Lin and others. It is in 6 chuan, and was published in 1646, the 3rd year of Shun-chih.
de Mailla, who was in China from 1703 to 1748, relied on three sources, in addition to his personal observation, for the account of the early Ch'ing period which comprises Vol XI. The editor's introductory note (Vol. XI, page 2) refers to them as follows:
On a déjà parlé, dans un note sur les MING, du Tong-kien-ming-ki-tsuen-tsai, publié la quinzième année de Kang-hi: le docteur Tchu-tsiny-yen, qui en est l'auteur, a conduit ce morceau d'histoire jusqu'en 1659, que les princes de la famille des MING perdirent tout-à-fait l'espérance de recouvrer le sceptre impériale. Le P. de Mailla a écrit d'après lui; & quand cette source a tari, il a en recours au Tsin-tching-ping-ting-sou-han-fang-lio, ou relation des guerres que l'empereur Gin-ti (Kang-hi) fit au Kaldan des Eleutes. Ces Mémoires, rédigés par quatre ministres d'état & par soixante-dix mandarins tant Chinois que Mantchéous, choisis dans le tribunal des Hanlin & parmi les docteurs du premier ordre, sont écrits dans les deux langues, Chinois & Tartare; ils contiennent le détail de l'expédition contre les Eleutes, & l'abrégé des autres événemens du règne de Kang-hi