China has a fine tradition of compiling local chronicles. Zhang Xuecheng, a local chronicler in Qing Dynasty, said that "local chronicles are the whole history of one side". Local chronicles are comprehensive works that record the natural and social history of a region. They made a detailed description and textual research on the local territory, mountains and rivers, organizational evolution, historical events, products, resources, astronomy, climate, water conservancy, transportation, household registration, wealth, officials, elections, people, nationalities, folk customs, cultural education, places of interest and so on. Because of its extensive and all-encompassing content, it was later known as the "Encyclopedia of Geographical Names".
Local chronicles are not only comprehensive in content but also scientific and reliable. In addition to official history, local chronicles are based on local official documents, genealogy, stone carvings, notes and letters at that time, and some materials are also from wild mouths and field investigations and interviews. Many useful materials that are not valued by official history are often kept in local chronicles. Zhang Xuecheng said: "There are two conveniences in compiling local chronicles, one is that the earth is close to the core, and the other is that it is close to the truth." Because the hosts of compiling local chronicles are generally the highest local administrative officials at that time, and the authors are generally local gentry writers, it is convenient in investigation, data collection, textual research, textual research and so on. For example, Yang, the author of "New Records of Xining Mansion" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, was the local administrator of Xining Road at that time. He takes compiling records as his responsibility, and investigation, compilation and proofreading are all done by one person. This kind of local literature about local affairs written by contemporary people is close to reality and has a large amount of information, and its reliability is often higher than other documents.
1958, Premier Zhou Enlai pointed out in "Instructions on Sorting Rare Books": "China is a big country with a long culture, and all counties have county records, which contain a lot of information about local economic construction. In addition to compiling the catalogue of local chronicles collected nationwide, it is also necessary to systematically sort out the relevant scientific and technological information in books such as county chronicles, so as to make the past serve the present. " At a tea party in April, Premier Zhou said, 1959 China People's Political Consultative Conference invited a member over 60 years old: "... Now, of course, we must first study the practical problems and reflect the new situation, but we also need to study the past. New things always develop from the old foundation. The government records and county records compiled in past dynasties have preserved many useful historical materials. " There are many useful materials in ancient local chronicles for modern social and economic development and scientific research, such as economic historical materials about native products, native products, land, land tax, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. Scientific historical data on mineral resources, water resources, astronomical phenomena, river hydrology, climate change, floods and droughts, earthquakes, water conservancy, transportation and medicine; Geographical historical materials about territory, mountains and rivers, topography, rivers, lakes and seas, and chengguan; Military and political historical materials such as class struggle, peasant uprising, historical evolution, military system and defense, historical events and historical figures; Social historical materials such as registered population, folk customs, ethnic religions, dialects and proverbs; Cultural historical materials such as local literature and art, stone carvings, ancient city ruins, cultural relics and historic sites … These precious materials have both historical value and practical scientific research value. With the passage of time, many things have changed a lot. It is difficult for modern people to know what happened a long time ago, but the local records have preserved the local conditions at that time.
As early as 1930s, Mr. Gu Jiegang, a famous historian, lamented that the rich and precious cultural heritage of local chronicles had not been paid attention to and utilized: "It is a great pity for the academic circles that such detailed and systematic records can not be fully utilized regardless of others!" (Preface to Local Records of China) After the founding of New China, with the attention of the Party and the government, many scientific research departments and local chroniclers compiled many monographs and other scientific research achievements, covering history, geography, economy, culture, astronomy, earthquakes, water conservancy and so on. It has made a useful contribution to making the past serve the present. Since 1980s, China has compiled new local chronicles of socialism on a large scale, and a large number of new local chronicles have been published in various places, constantly enriching local historical and cultural treasures. In these important historical and cultural construction projects, ancient local documents have played a fundamental role.
Today's history is a continuation of the past. It is a very important job to sort out and publish ancient local historical records, which is conducive to our understanding of local history and familiarity with all aspects. Reading local historical records and documents is a convenient channel for people engaged in local work to understand all aspects of local conditions. As soon as many thoughtful feudal officials took office in ancient times, they dismounted to observe local chronicles and regarded local chronicles as a "guide to auxiliary governance." In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu made a southern tour, passing Meiling, and first borrowed Shaozhou's maps; In the Song Dynasty, I went to work in Nankang Junzhu. As soon as he got off the bus, he looked for Nankang Junzhi. Local chronicles, which are valued by scholars in these universities, are still praised by people. After the founding of New China, many leading cadres of insight often use local chronicles to understand the history and present situation of the region and get familiar with the situation of provinces, prefectures and counties. Reading and studying local historical records can provide historical basis for us to proceed from reality, give full play to local advantages and make scientific decisions, and find the law of things' development from the historical development of local society, so as to avoid detours.
Qinghai is located in the northwest, bordering Qinlong in the east, the western regions in the west, Sichuan and Tibet in the south, and Gansu and Liangliang in the north, and its strategic position is very important. Since ancient times, it has been a place where many regimes and nationalities compete, so wars have been frequent in past dynasties. The natural conditions in Qinghai Plateau are harsh, the ancient traffic is blocked, the culture is relatively backward, and the historical documents themselves are less preserved. Coupled with frequent wars, chaos and other reasons, some of the earliest historical documents in history have long been lost. Before the middle of Ming Dynasty, there were no local chronicles in Qinghai. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the compilation style of local chronicles prevailed. In Qinghai, Zhang Zhi created the Annals of Xining during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and Liu Minkuan and Ying Long edited the Annals of Xining. Unfortunately, these two records of the Ming Dynasty were either lost or soon damaged. In the 12th year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1655), Zhang, a former judge of Xining, prefaced the local chronicles of Xining in the early Qing Dynasty, saying that he had collected local classics when he arrived. "To compile a book for a generation, you can go to the old news, but you can't find any survivors. Hey, Song Wuzheng, the literature is ruined! " During the Shunzhi period, when Su, an official, edited Xi Ning Zhi, two local chronicles of the Ming Dynasty were all lost. Angelababy, A Qing, said: "The old records of Huangzhong have been lost for a long time, but those who see them are absurd and uninhibited ... and the documents are not collected, especially the authors of Xining County Records." (Preface to Xining Fuzhi Yang Yingju). In the Qing Dynasty, the Summary of Sikuquanshu said: "Xining was the commander-in-chief of the army and the people at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it was a nearby place with few documents." Ancient officials lamented that Qinghai is located in the border area, and there are few local historical books handed down, so the local historical documents handed down to this day are precious.
Qinghai ancient local chronicles are generally in a state of small quantity, small circulation and inconvenient use. Since 1980s, Qinghai People's Publishing House has published some local chronicles. Now that twenty or thirty years have passed, the social needs are still very extensive. In order to systematically preserve and spread this precious historical and cultural resource, Qinghai local chronicles are compiled and published in the form of series. This series of books was carefully planned by Dai, deputy editor-in-chief of Qinghai People's Publishing House. He screened the selected books one by one, ran among experts and scholars in the province, carried out collation tasks, carefully edited and edited, and did a lot of work. On the basis of the original publications, most of the local chronicles collected in this series have been re-punctuated, proofread, revised and annotated, some misspelled words, derivatives and articles have been corrected, punctuation of sentence breaks has been further revised, important historical events, names and places have been checked, and notes and explanations have been added to inaccurate and suspicious accounts. This necessary sorting and collating work has improved the utilization value of these ancient books and documents, which is conducive to better utilization by present and future generations, and is conducive to long-term circulation and preservation. The publication of this series of books is really an immortal achievement and a blessing to save and preserve local culture! This series will play an important role in Qinghai's history for a long time.
Before this series came to Fu Zi, my colleagues in the publishing house asked me to preface it. Although I have been engaged in literature and history research for many years, my knowledge is still relatively shallow and I have refused many times, but I still can't resign. In order not to bear the great trust, but also to have a preference for Qinghai local chronicles, the above words are specially used as the preface of the series.