20 juan in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: n.d. but 1893-1934.

A scholarly edition of this imperially authorized examination of the origins of the Manchus; it is a major work of court historiography produced under the Qianlong emperor.

This work, completed in 1783, “aimed to establish a grand narrative of Manchu history linking the founders of the Manchu Qing dynasty to those of the Jurchen Jin centuries before, both in terms of ancestry as well as in terms of shared geographical origins in the Changbai Mountains…By grounding the Manchus firmly in Chinese antiquity and by framing the... More