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Frontiers of History in China

ISSN 1673-3401

ISSN 1673-3525(Online)

CN 11-5740/K

Postal Subscription Code 80-980

Front. Hist. China    2019, Vol. 14 Issue (4) : 575-630    https://doi.org/10.3868/s020-008-019-0027-5
RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Qing Dynasty Ministry of Justice Memorials and “The New History”
Chang Jianhua()
Key Research Center of Social History of China, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
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Abstract

The Qing Dynasty Grand Secretariat Archives are considered to be among the four great ancient texts discovered in modern Chinese history, and the memorials from the Ministry of Justice have garnered particular attention due to their well-preserved socio-economic content(s). From the 20th century onwards the New History, with its emphasis on drawing upon the social sciences’ discussions of citizens, communities and society, came to replace the more traditional “Imperial Genealogy” style of historiography, affording us a grander view of history. Progressing forward with “the times,” the New History continued to innovate and diversify the field; in terms of Qing dynasty social historical research, it brought about constant exploration and change within the field, first having shifted from socio-economic history to social history, then moving on to life history, the investigation of the “seeds of capitalism,” class relations, lower-class society, marriage and family relations, law and justice, gender studies, daily life (“life, livelihood and environment”), and so on, continually pushing the boundaries of academic research. Yet, underlying all this change was a close relationship between the use of the Ministry of Justice Memorials and the field’s overall development. This article not only introduces several findings made by academicians in using the Ministry of Justice Memorials, but also sets out to further reveal the relationship between the New History and the memorials themselves, probing into the deeper question of broader changes in historiography and their relationship with generational shifts in intellectual thought.

Keywords socio-economic history      social history      life history      legal history      land debt      marriage and adultery     
Issue Date: 17 January 2020
 Cite this article:   
Chang Jianhua. The Qing Dynasty Ministry of Justice Memorials and “The New History”[J]. Front. Hist. China, 2019, 14(4): 575-630.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fhc/EN/10.3868/s020-008-019-0027-5
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fhc/EN/Y2019/V14/I4/575
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