Literature on Statecraft and Administration (zhengshu lei 政書類)

The section of books on politics and administration (zhengshu lei 政書類) is a sub-category to the literary category of Historiography (shibu 史部) in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書. A history of this bibliographic category can be found further below.

Zhengshu is a relatively new category in traditional Chinese bibliographies. It is found with the name diangu 典故 "statutes and predecents" in the bibliography Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題 from the Song period 宋 (960-1279). The content of this section is quite heterogeneous. It includes canonic texts on all government institutions like Zhenguan zhengyao 貞觀政要, Sanchao zhengyao 三朝政要, Tongdian 通典, Xu tongdian 續通典, Guochao tongdian 國朝通典, Tang huiyao 唐會要, Wudai huiyao 五代會要, Chaozhi yaolan 朝制要覽 or Xianchao zhengfan 先朝政範, collections of memorials like Wei Zhenggong jianlu 魏鄭公諫錄 (also called Wei Wenzhengong gushi 魏文貞公故事), regulations for individual institutions like Hanlin shengshi 翰林盛事 (on the Hanlin Academy) or Neizhi shengjian 內治聖監 (the imperial household), or on specialized topics like Yiguan shengshi 衣冠盛事 (on the robes and caps of the officialdom), Qinzhuan yuxi pu 秦傳玉璽譜 (on state seals), Jingde kuaiji lu 景德會計錄, Changle caifu zhi 長樂財賦志 (on government revenue), Zunhaolu 尊號錄 (on the terminology of titles) or Qingshe zhenji lu 青社賑濟錄 (on disaster relief), imperial instructions like Sanchao baoxun 三朝寶訓 or Renhuang xundian 仁皇訓典, encyclopaedias like Huangchao zhiji tonglei 皇朝治跡統類 or Huangchao shilei shuyao 皇朝事類樞要, and collections of administrative matters on local governments like Tailing gushi 泰陵故事 and Dongjia zaji 東家雜記.

The last two examples show that the section of the diangu texts was partially reserved for texts formerly found in a sub-category called gushi 故事 or, still much earlier, jiushi 舊事, literally meaning "ancient matters". The category must have been created around 500 CE, because such a category is already found in Ruan Xiaoxu's 阮孝緒 (479-536) catalogue Qilu 七錄.

In the Suishu 隋書 bibliography Jingji zhi 經籍志 it is defined as a genre describing the duties and activities of all officials, the archives of which also belonged to the jurisdiction of the grand historiographer (taishi 太史). Like all matters of administration, even this custom was led back to a regulation in the Confucian Classic Zhouli 周禮. It is furthermore explained that during the early Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), Xiao He 蕭何 (d. 193 BCE), the eventual first imperial Counsellor-in-chief, fixed the administrative and penal laws (lüling 律令), Zhang Cang 張蒼 (d. 152 BCE) brought the statutes (zhangcheng 章程) into a clear system, and Shusun Tong 叔孫通 (d. 189 BCE) regulated the court ceremonies (yifa 儀法).

During the Jin period 晉 (265-420), Emperor Wu 晉武帝 (r. 265-290) ordered Jia Chong 賈充 (217-282) to further consolidate these administrative regulations by "consulting all Confucian writings (?)" (bo yin qun ru 博引群儒). He discerned between canonic rules and common rules (faling 法令), of which "those serving to execute rules" were made "statutes of administrative law" (shixing zhidu zhe wei ling 施行制度者為令), while "those serving to classify byelaws" were dubbed "ancient matters [of standard]" (pinshi zhangcheng zhe wei gushi 品式章程者為故事). They were archived in the particular institutions of the bureaucracy. Because they found not entrance into the official histories, they were called "ancient matters [to be consulted in the archives, not in 'public' texts]", but had still the character of precedents serving as models for various administrative matters.

Only few of these survived the ages, the most important being Han Wudi gushi 漢武帝故事 "Ancient matters from the reign of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE) of the Han dynasty" or Xijing zaji 西京雜記 "Miscellaneous records from the Western Capital". From some titles it can be seen what theme they dealt with, like Jin bawang gushi 晉八王故事 (the rebellion of the eight princes), Huan Xuan wei shi 桓玄偽事 (the usurpation by Huan Xuan in 403) or Kaiye ping Chen ji 開業平陳記 (the foundation of the Sui dynasty 隋, 581-618). Some titles show that the records were made concerning a certain office or institution, like Jin donggong jiushi 晉東宮舊事, Donggong dianji 東宮典記 (the Eastern Palace), Shangshu dashi 尚書大事 (the Imperial Secretariat), or Niannan gushi 沔南故事 (local records from Miannan, i.e. the region south of River Han). Yet most books of this type have general titles like Jinchao zashi 晉朝雜事 "Miscellaneous matters from the Jin court" or Jin Jianwu gushi 晉建武故事 "Ancient matters from the Jianwu reign-period (304) of the Jin".

In the bibliographic chapter of the official dynastic history Xintangshu 新唐書, the great texts on the regulation of state administration like Zhenguan zhengyao are found in the section "miscellaneous histories" (zashi 雜事) or enyclopaedias (Du You's 杜佑 Tongdian, Su Mian's 蘇冕 Huiyao 會要 and Xu huiyao 續會要 - both being precursors of the Tang huiyao), while the smaller books on "ancient matters" were found in the jiushi section. A similar arrangement was made in the bibliographic book Junzhai dushu zhi 郡齋讀書志 and the bibliographic chapter of the universal history Tongzhi 通志, where the Tongdian and the huiyao texts are found among the encyclopaedias.

The bibliography Suichutang shumu, in which books written under the then-reigning Song dynasty are separated from older texts, the character of gushi texts as writings on administrative matters can clearly be seen in many titles, like Zhuqian gushi 鑄錢故事 "Old regulations for the production of coins", Jintong yaolüe 浸銅要略 "Concise report on wet copper production", Zhihe fayun chayan xuzhi 至和發運茶鹽須知 "Must-knows about the transport of tea and salt during the Zhihe reign-period (1054-1055)", Fujian daozei xuzhi 福建盗賊須知 "Must-knows about the [control of] bandits in Fujian", Hubu zhudao suishou shu 户部諸道歲收數 "Earnings of the Ministry of Revenue from all provinces", Sichuan xuanfusi caifu bingma shu 四川宣撫司財賦兵馬數 "Tax [revenue] and [expenditure] on troops and horses of the Pacification Commissioner of Sichuan", Guochao yunliang shu 國朝運糧數 "Figures on tribute grain transport of Our Dynasty", Yuanyou fenjiang lu 元祐分疆錄 "On local administrative divisions during the Yuanyou reign-period (1086-1093)", Shen Li beibian lu 沈黎備邊錄 "Shen Li's records on border defence", Huaixi cuozhi shiyi 淮西措置事宜 "Specific regulations and arrangements for the region of Huaixi", Huangyou pingman ji 皇祐平蠻記 "The pacification of the barbarian tribes during the Huangyou reign-period (1049-1053)" or Fengshi bielu 奉使别錄 "Another record on the imperial mission [to the court of the Kitans]".

It can be seen that gushi writings covered all different aspects of state administration. They were often records of specific arrangments that served as models for similar cases in the future. Althought the term diangu, introduced in the , might be better to demonstrate the precedential character of such cases, it continued to be used, although it was also used with the meaning of "fictional story".

The gushi section in the very late Song-period catalogue Jingji kao 經籍考, a chapter of the encyclopaedia Wenxian tongkao 文獻通考, includes books on coin production in the gushi section, and also Zheng Qiao's 鄭樵 (1104-1162) Tongzhi, although the latter has the structure of a history book, written in the biographical-thematical style (jizhuanti).

The introduction to the section quotes from the bibliography Song sanchao yiwen zhi 宋三朝藝文志, where it was said that during the Han period there was an office called zhanggu 掌故, whose occupant had the duty to archive and consult the "ancient precedents". During the Cao-Wei period 曹魏 (220-265), this duty was taken over by no one else than the Counsellor-in-chief (chengxiang 丞相), and during the very late Former Han 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE), Kong Guang 孔光 (65–5 BCE), Censor-in-chief (yushi dafu 御史大夫), was for more than ten years the most influential minister at the court, also made use of gushi regulations during his period of service.

Administrative regulations were mostly subject to actual conditions, and were therefore not necessarily adapted by succeeding dynasties, although it was common that legal or administrative codes were retained and then revised according to actual circumstances. After the Song period therefore, the many administrative regulations mentioned above became obsolete and are not any more found in later bibliographies. The early Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) catalogue Qiantingtang shumu 千頃堂書目 therefore lists in the diangu section only texts that were written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) and could serve as models for the Qing administration. Older texts like Wenxian tongkao (Song) or Da-Yuan tongzhi 大元通制 (Yuan) by Wanyan Na 完顏納 and Zeng Boqi 曾伯啟 are only found in the appendix, and even these do not reach back further than the Song period.

The model character of the precedent regulations (gushi) of former dynasties is also explained in the preface to the section zhengshu in the descriptive catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要. The compilers make clear that they only included books on administrative matters in the zhengshu sub-category, and not texts on event history, not to speak of fictional stories. The term zhengshu was apparenty already first used in an imperial catalogue written by Qian Pu 錢溥 (1408-1488, Bige shumu 祕閣書目), and was accordingly adapted for the Siku quanshu project, instead of the older terms diangu or gushi.

The compilers of the Siku quanshu divided the texts belonging to the sub-category of zhengshu into six types, namely comprehensive books on all matters of administration (tongzhi 通制, 19 books), books on ritual regulations (yizhi 儀制, 24 books), books on administrative regulations for the local governments (bangji 邦計, 6 books), military regulations (junzheng 軍政, 4 books), judicial regulations (faling 法令, 2 books), and regulations concerning official work (kaogong 考工, 2 books). The section of administrative books in the Siku quanshu includes 57 books in total, and the catalogue describes a further amount of 113 texts in the cunmu 存目 section (books described but not included in the Siku quanshu corpus).