Dao-Xian huanhai jianwen lu 道咸宦海見聞錄

Dao-Xian huanhai jianwen lu 道咸宦海見聞錄 "Things seen and heard in the sea of officialdom during the Daoguang and Xianfeng reign-eras" of the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) is a chronological autobiography (nianpu 年譜) by Zhang Jixin 張集馨 (1800–1878), courtesy name Jiaoyun 椒雲, style Shiqingzhai Zhuren 時晴齋主人, from Yizheng 儀徵, Jiangsu. He was a jinshi of the second rank from the 1829 examination. The work spans from his first year of life to his sixty-first (1860), though the section covering his fifty-third (1852) to fifty-fourth year (1853) has been lost. A supplementary account drawn from Zhang Jixin's diary, Zhang Jixin riji 張集馨日記, extends the record from 1864 to 1865, when he was impeached and removed from office.

The content primarily documents his service at the Hanlin Academy 翰林院 from 1835, followed by his successive postings from 1836 onward to provincial positions including prefect (zhifu 知府), circuit intendant (daoyuan 道員), provincial surveillance commissioner (anchashi 按察使), provincial administration commissioner (buzhengshi 布政使), and acting governor (shuli xunfu 署理巡撫).

The autobiography is chiefly a record of the rise and fall of official careers and human affairs that the author witnessed during his years in office, set down with keen observation and personal commentary. The accounts are detailed and factual, though the perspective is firmly that of the author himself. As Zhang Jixin lived through the early stages of the great upheaval in which the Qing dynasty was battered by both internal rebellions and foreign pressure, and as he never attained a posting above the rank of Acting Governor, the text is shot through with a sense of bewilderment at the workings of fate.

Editions include the book titled Jiaoyun nianpu 椒雲年譜, in two volumes and the 1981 edition by the Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局, which also includes Zhang's diary, his correspondence with friends and colleagues, and a biography Shiqingzhai Zhuren nianpu 時晴齋主人年譜, compiled by Zhan Sixian 詹嗣賢 (b. 1840).