Xinjiang shilüe 新疆識略

(Qinding) Xinjiang shilüe (欽定)新疆識略 "(Imperially Endorsed) Concise Description of the New Borderlands" is a book on Xinjiang compiled between by Xu Song 徐松 (1781-1848), courtesy name Xingbo 星伯, from Daxing 大興 (today part of Beijing) and submitted to the throne in 1821 by Sungyūn (Songyun 松筠, 1752-1835). The book is an expansion of Qi Yunshi's 祁韻士 (1751-1815) Xichui zongtong shilüe 西陲總統事略 from 1782.

The main text has a length of 12 juan and an appendix of 1 fascicle. The book is headed by an introductory fascicle (juanshou 卷首) including a poem compiled by the Qianlong Emperor 乾隆帝 (r. 1735-1796), and a concise history of the conquest of Xinjiang called Zhunga'er quanbu jilüe 準噶爾全部紀略, and an account of the submission of the Torɣut Mongols, Turhute quanbu guishun ji 土爾扈特全部歸順記. The text also qutoes the inscriptions of steles erected in Ili (Ch. Yili 伊犁) and on Mt. Gedeng 格登山 (Mongolküre, Zhaosu 昭蘇縣) to commemorate the Qing 清 (1644-1911) victory of the Dzunghars (Ch. Zhunga'er 準噶爾).

The proper text begins with a general geographic description of the country, a more precise description of the lands north and south of the Tianshan Range 天山, the rivers of Xinjiang, and then provides maps of the region, and particularly the region of River Ili, which was the centre of Qing administration of Xinjiang.

The book then takes the shape of a local gazetteer and gives insight into geography and topography, routes, locations and sizes of military garrisons, military agro-colonies, arsenals, granaries, the tax quota and yields, border posts and administrative regulations, and local tribes. These informations are based on archival sources of the central administration of the Qing. The book is important to known more about the administration of Eastern Turkestan after its conquest by the Qing dynasty.

It was printed by the printing shop of the Hall of Military Glory (Wuyingdian 武英殿) directly after its submission to the throne, and there is a lithographic reprint from 1894 (Shanghai Jishan Press 上海積山書局). In 1966 the Wenhai press 文海出版社 in Taibei republished the text in the series Zhongguo bianjiang congshu 中國邊疆叢書.