≪殊域周咨录≫ 探究

Exploration of Shuyuzhouzilu

Shuyuzhouzilu was written by Yan Congjian, which is a work on the history of borderland and sino-foreign relations in the Ming dynasty. It begans in the early Ming dynasty and ended at the end of Jiajing period. The genre of its compilation includes a comprehensive review, a compendium and an endtext. The book is widely cited, whose historical materials are valuable and reliable, there were imperial edicts issued by the Emperor, the War department and the Rites Department file, a large number of valuable written books, all kinds of annals, all kinds of poems, essays, fu, inscriptions, travel notes, anecdotes and so on account of considerable space. The author of this work criticized the disadvantages at that time, praised the good and detested the evil, esteem the past over the present, paid attention to the reality, examined the later generations, questioned the history, and distinguished between the inner Xia and outer Yi, historical science concept of debating on Hua and Yi.