ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ruefully I recall that on two separate occasions two different American colleagues told
me that there is “a place in Heaven” for those who publish bibliographical and historiographical studies of research fields in which they have worked, because it saves so much
effort on the part of future investigators. In the course of preparing this monograph I have
come to understand, through many frustrations, why that “place” surely is even more
underpopulated than Heaven as a whole. And many times I have worried that work on
this tome would send me thither—more likely to “the other place” than to Heaven—
before it was finished! Regardless of which place reviewers may consign me to, the
ministrations of hosts of angels—both individual and institutional—have been indispensable blessings.
Chief among those haloed, winged beings have been the numerous librarians who
have patiently and expertly ministered to my special bibliographical needs. Day to day at
my home institution was Thomas H. Lee 李學博, then head of the Indiana University
Libraries East Asian Collection, who benignly listened to my prayers and lamentations
and proceeded—in collusion with his able assistant, Shelby Chen 陳冬蘭—to work
miracles in getting the information or material I needed. Wen-ling Liu 劉雯玲, then in
Cataloging, “rushed” things for me more often than I can remember. A fine representative at IU of the usually unsung heroes in East Asian interibrary loan services is Ron
Luedemann. And Tae-min (Kim) Park 朴(金)泰敏 in Serials repeatedly took time from
her normal duties to help me with the correct citation of Korean works.
Elsewhere in North America, Ma Tailoi 馬泰來, past curator of the University of
Chicago East Asian Library, Martin Heijdra at the East Asian Library of Princeton University, Timothy Connor, then at the Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University,
and Mi Chu Wiens of the Chinese Section, Asian Division, of the Library of Congress
were especially helpful. Also much appreciated are the staffs of the East Asian collections of Columbia University and the University of Michigan.
In East Asia, although my research in primary sources of the Ming-Qing conflict
began at the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies of Kyoto University, most of my
work subsequently was done in libraries located in the various parts of China—Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China. I am deeply grateful for all the good
service, special consideration, and extraordinary assistance I have received from the
directors and staffs of the precious old-book collections in those institutions. My most
sustained early work was at the Academia Sinica in Taipei—to some extent in the
Library of the Institute of Modern History but mostly in the Fu Sinian Memorial Library
of the Institute of History and Philology, where my friends Su Tongbing 蘇同炳 and Yu
Shouyun 余壽雲, now retired, often responded to my needs. Also, of course, I liberally
took advantage of the excellent services offered by the National Central Library in
Taipei, where the director of the Center for Chinese Studies, then Liu Xianshu 劉顯叔,
was of stalwart service to countless foreign scholars. And at the Library of the National
Palace Museum, then-director Wang Jinghong 王景鴻 was unfailingly hospitable, and
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the renowned scholar of Manchu and early-Qing sources, Chuang Chi-fa 莊吉發,
generously shared his knowledge with me, as with many other visiting specialists.
In the People’s Republic, the personnel of the Rare Books Reading Room of the
National Library of Beijing always quietly allowed me to call up numbers of books far
beyond the stipulated limit and bent over backward to facilitate my copy requests. The
former head (now retired) of the rich old-books collection at the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Cui Jianying 崔建英, kindly welcomed me and imparted some of his great
knowledge of rare Chinese books in response to my queries. Colleagues and librarians at
the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences actually provided me
with personal desk space in the Xie Guozhen Memorial Collection and made me feel like
one of their own. Very helpful, also, were the scholars and staff personnel of the First
Historical Archives of China, not only in retrieving materials but also in advising me
about bodies of documents and explaining their provenance. For access to the wonderful
rare books collection at Beijing University, I am most indebted to Shen Naiwen 沈乃文,
whose helpfulness and expertise are fully matched by his good cheer. My work at the
Library of Beijing Normal University was made maximally efficient by the cooperative
and well-prepared Old Materials Reading Room staff. And my visits to the scenic Capital
Library, though regrettably few, were aided by the old-materials specialist there, Guo
Ya’nan 郭亞南.
Outside the capital, I have worked mostly in Shanghai, where my best “library
angel” was Wu Ge 吳格, the true scholar and gentleman who heads the Old Materials
Section of the Fudan University Libraries. In particular, if he had not made available to
me, at an early point in my 1991–92 research sojourn, prepublication drafts of certain
parts of the Zhongguo guji shanben shumu 中國古籍善本書目, many of the most
valuable entries in part two of this monograph simply would not be there. And if the
personnel in charge of the Rare Books Section of the Shanghai Library had not magnanimously allowed me to literally “use the back door” to their collection, and had not
simply brought the books on my long list as fast as I could take them, I never would have
been able to accomplish one-tenth of what I did there. During renovation of the usual
quarters of the Rare Books Division of the Zhejiang Provincial Library, when that
division formally was closed, the staff cleared a desk for me in their small work space
high on the peninsular ridge overlooking West Lake in the stone vault where a manuscript copy of the Siku quanshu 四庫全書 is housed. Their good-natured acceptance of
my intrusion, as well as the initiative they took in introducing me to some unique items,
will always be remembered. Very gratifying, also, were my research experiences in
Shenyang, where I was assisted both expertly and with warm hospitality by the directors
and staffs of the Liaoning Provincial and Shenyang City Libraries, the Liaoning Provincial Archives, the Shenyang Palace Library and Archives, and the Liaoning University
Library. Similarly accommodating were the scholars and staffs of the Old Materials and
Special Collections divisions of the Nanjing Library, the Ming-Qing History Research
Office and the Library of Nankai University, the Hangzhou University Library, the
Library and the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, the History Department
of Sichuan University, and the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong.
Equally important have been the services of many individual scholars, who have
given generously of their time and energy and shown confidence in my work by arranging convenient local accommodations for me, standing as my sponsor within their respec-
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tive institutions, and providing crucial introductions to holders of the keys to special
knowledge and resources. Early in my perfumation by the camphor-scented halls of
Chinese old-book repositories, the late, venerated Ch’ü Wan-li 屈萬里 enabled me to
live on the grounds of the Academia Sinica in the Nankang suburb of Taipei and become
the first non-Chinese Visiting Scholar of the Institute of History and Philology. “In
town,” Ruaan Jy-sheng 阮芝生 of the History Department, National Taiwan University,
always attended to my best interests—including my interest in fine Chinese teas. In
Shanghai, Zhu Weizheng 朱維錚 of the History Department, Fudan University, never
failed to take time from his extremely busy professional schedule to assist me in all
manner of things, large and small. In Beijing, Lin Teijun 林鐵鈞 and Huang Aiping 黃
愛平 of the Qing History Research Institute of the Chinese People’s University; Yan
Chongnian 閻崇年, director of the Manchu Studies Institute of the Beijing Academy of
Social Sciences; Wang Zhonghan 王鐘翰 of the Central Minorities Institute; Chen Zuwu
陳祖武 and Yang Zhen 楊珍 of the Qing History Research Office, History Institute,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and Zhao Shiyu 趙世瑜 of the History
Department, Beijing Normal University, over the years have been both effective facilitators and good friends. In Hangzhou, I was always able to rely on wonderful colleagues
at Hangzhou University—former president Shen Shanhong 沈善洪 and Professors Cang
Xiuliang 倉修良 and Xia Guiqi 夏瑰奇—now all retired. For arrangements in Shenyang, I am indebted to Xie Zhaohua 謝肇華, then deputy director of the Liaoning
Academy of Social Sciences, and to the late Sun Wenliang 孫文良 of the History
Department, Liaoning University. In Chengdu, I was ably hosted by Ran Guangrong 冉
光榮 of the Sichuan University History Department and the Sichuan Minorities Research
Institute. Lü Zuoxie 呂作燮 of the History Department, Nanjing University, was both a
conscientious adviser and an enthusiastic guide to historical sites around Nanjing. And
my stopovers in Hong Kong were made convenient and inexpensive through the
unfailing hospitality of Chiu Ling-yeong 趙令揚, then chair of the Department of
Chinese, the University of Hong Kong, Betty Wei 魏白蒂, then head of Liberal Arts and
Interdis-ciplinary Studies at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and Ho
Koon-piu 何冠彪 and his wife, Clara Wing-chung Ho 何劉詠聰, of the University of
Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University, respectively.
During extended stays in the PRC, the following institutions served as my formal
hosts: the Qing History Research Institute of the People’s University of China; the
History Departments of Nanjing University, Hangzhou University, and Fudan University;
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
Besides the professors and researchers, the office staffs of those units, also, helped me in
all ways within their powers.
Now, where did I get the time and money to sojourn in all these places and bother all
these people? Since my work in the historical sources of the Ming-Qing conflict dates
back to my graduate-student days, and since I have taken chances whenever traveling
within range of a major repository, for whatever reason, to see some item or check some
edition, it would be very difficult to give comprehensive acknowledgments. But I can
say, most definitely, that the principal source of support for research directly pertinent to
this monographic project came from the Committee for Scholarly Communication with
China. Two times, in 1983–84 and 1991–92, the CSCC sponsored my work in the PRC,
with provision for stopovers in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Without CSCC funding and
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sponsorship, this project never could have been brought to fruition. Monies for release
time, travel, and research assistance also came from the Office of Research and the
University Graduate School, the Office of International Programs, and the College of
Arts and Sciences at my home institution, Indiana University. And the IU East Asian
Studies Center made available to me the services of computer specialist Paul Banning,
who assisted crucially in preparation of the camera-ready copy of this multiscript work.
Benita Brown Banning, also then with the EASC, and Wendy Cumberland of the East
Asian Languages and Cultures Department assisted with typing and formatting. Kate
Edgerton, then a graduate student in the History Department, worked diligently on the
index, and another History graduate student, Fan Xin 范鑫, has been most conscientious
in helping to restore some of the old computer files of this manuscript for electronic
posting through IU ScholarWorks.
Specialists in the United States and abroad who have contributed by sending
information or copies of hard-to-get materials, providing copies of their own published or
unpublished writings, and commenting on or correcting sections of my early drafts include: Au Chi Kin 區志堅, Beatrice Bartlett, Cang Xiuliang, Chang Tsun-wu 張存武,
Chen Chieh-hsien 陳捷先, Chen Chunsheng 陳春生, Chen Shengxi 陳生璽, Cheng
Swaq-ming 鄭瑞明, Nicola Di Cosmo, Arif Dirlik, Pierre-Henri Durand, Mark Elliott,
Fang Zuyou 方祖猷, Gu Cheng 顧誠, He Lingxiu 何齡修, Ho Koon-piu, Hou Zhenping 侯真平, Huang Yi-Long 黃一農, Li Xuezhi 李學智, Lin Renchuan 林仁川, Ono
Kazuko 小野和子, Ran Guangrong, Edward Rhoads, Su Yunfeng 蘇雲峰, Tang Gang
湯綱, Usui Sachiko 臼井佐知子, Wang Chen-main 王成勉, Ellen Widmer, Wu Ge, Wu
Guang 吳光, Yan Chongnian, Yang Zhen, and Ye Gaoshu 葉高樹. Professor Kenneth
Wells, Wookjin Cheun, and Hiromi Oda assisted me with Korean sources and inputting,
and Sumie Jones, Jurgis Elisonas, and Darlene Sadlier occasionally helped with various
other language problems. Professors Thomas Nimick and Phillip Woodruff patiently
reviewed and positively assessed an incomplete draft of this monograph for AAS Publications. My failure to act adequately on all of their useful suggestions is due to the
exhaustion of my time and energy, not to any lack of respect for their judgment.
Aside from myself, the person who labored longest and most intimately on this
monograph was my research assistant, Andrew Cheung 張弢. He not only did most of
the painstaking word-processor inputting and proofreading but also was the source of
many good suggestions and saved me from the commission of numerous, embarrassing
errors. At this point it is conventional for the author to assume full responsibility for any
remaining errors—truly ineradicable in a work of this technicality. However, one day in
exasperation I asked my not-always-angelic yellow tabby, Xiaohuang 小黃, if she would
accept the blame for errors committed because of feline interferences at the dining room
table, in the reading chair, and at the computer desk. Though ever unrepentant, she
seemed to accede. In all other cases, I ultimately am the sinner.
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