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Houhu zhi 後湖志

Jul 17, 2010 © Ulrich Theobald

Houhu zhi 後湖志 "Report from Lake Houhu" is a collection of various documents and reports from the "Yellow Booklets Archive" (huangceku 黃冊庫) that was located near the shores of the same name, the modern Lake Xuanwu 玄武湖 in Nanjing 南京, Jiangsu. Nanjing was the southern capital of the Ming dynasty 明 (1368-1644).

Supervising Secretary of Revenue (huke jishizhong 戶科給事中) and Director of the Yellow Booklets Archive, Zhao Guan 趙官 (b. 1479, jinshi degree 1511), courtesy name Weixin 惟賢, published in 1513 ten juan of various documents from Ming archives and official regulations, but also added his own opinion that was often presented in the shape of poems.

The main content of the Houhu zhi are memorials and edicts concerning household registration and tax registers and this makes it an important source for social and economic history of the whole Ming period, especially in the region of Nanjing. A modern edition was published in 2011 by the Nanjing Press 南京出版社.

Sources:
Fang Yuning 方毓寧 (1989). "Woguo xiancun zui zao de dang'anguan guanzhi: Houhuzhi 我國現存最早的檔案館館志——後湖志", Shanxi dang'an 山西檔案, 1989 (8).
Wei Qingyuan 韋慶遠 (1992), "Houhu zhi 後湖志", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), Vol. 1, p. 374.
Wu Fulin 吳福林 (2011). "Zhitan qipa Houhuzhi 志壇奇葩《後湖志》", Jiangsu difangzhi 江蘇地方志, 2011 (4).