Lidai mingchen zouyi 歷代名臣奏議

Lidai mingchen zouyi 歷代名臣奏議 "Memorials of famous ministers of all ages" is a collection of important memorials to the throne through all ages until the end of the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368). The 350-juan long book was compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholars Huang Huai 黄淮 (1367-1449) and Yang Shiqi 楊士奇 (1365-1444), personal name Yang Yu 楊寓, and was submitted to the throne in 1416.

The book is divided into 64 chapters that give a crude overview of the topic of the memorials. Some older texts included in this collection are actually not memorials but discussions of politicians and their advisors, like King Wen 周文王 of the Zhou dynasty 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE), the Duke of Zhou 周公, Duke Tai of Qi 齊太公, Confucius 孔子, Guan Zhong 管仲 (725-645) or Yan Ying 晏嬰 (578-500).

From the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) part on, the texts are in fact memorials that are concerned with all possible themes of statecraft and using the most important arguments of failure and success in the past. The book was therefore planned to serve as a handbook on politics and a supplement to the history book Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒 and the institutional histories Tongdian 通典, Tongzhi 通志, and Wenxuan tongkao 文獻通考.

The book was printed in a small edition to be distributed in the official academies, yet prohibited for personal use. Zhang Fu 張溥 (1602-1641), living at the end of the Ming period, nevertheless owned a private copy, and another copy was found in Taiyuan 太原 (modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) that was different from that of Zhang Pu. While the latter had a chapter more on grain transport on the Grand Canal, the Taiyuan version included a chapter more on penal law. The most reliable version is one from the Yongle reign-period 永樂 (1403-1424) that was printed as a facsimile in 1987 by the Shanghai Guji Press 上海古籍出版社.

The Lidai mingchen zouyi is included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.