zouben 奏本, memorial to the throne

Zouben 奏本 was a type of memorial submitted to the emperor. It was in use during the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and the early Qing 清 (1644-1911) periods.

Regulations during the early Ming mandated that all communication from state officials to the emperor be conveyed through memorials (zouben). In the early 15th century, a new type of routine memorial (tiben 題本) was introduced, specifying that henceforth, memorials were to be used solely for personal matters such as promotion, transfer, rank elevation (jiaji 加級), records of merit (jilu 記錄), mitigation of sanctions (kuanmian 寬免), demotion, reinstatement or retention with continued service (jiangge liuren 降革留任), or expressions of gratitude for gifts or acts of favour by the emperor. Depending on the nature of the personal career matter, memorials did not require the placement of an official seal.

The Qing dynasty adopted this practice of using memorials for personal career inquiries but limited its use to high officials such as heads of ministerial bureaus (tangguan 堂官) or senior civilian and military personnel in the provinces. The length of memorials was to be limited to 300 words. Despite restricting memorials for personal information, it was not always easy to determine whether a document concerned personal matters or general public issues—into which the personal roles of individual officials are quite naturally involved. For this reason, zouben-type memorials were still occasionally employed after their official abolition in 1748.

Regulations from the late 16th century (e.g., Wanli huidian 萬歷會典, 76) stipulated that each memorial paper had six columns with 24 characters, including two characters of honourative top space (taitou 抬頭). This means there were 22 characters per column. The document had to start with the institution and the position of the presenter. The main text was required to have a restricted length. The closing formula was "to the right respectfully submitted this memorial" (you jin zou wen 右謹奏聞), with a space of two characters between the words you 右, jin 謹, and zou 奏, while the last word wen 聞 was placed on the top of a new column on the next page. Titles, names, and positions of the presenter were usually written in smaller characters with narrow spacing to fit within no more than one column.

This style was inherited by the Qing dynasty. Outside the memorial, the character zou 奏 was inscribed. The text commenced with the rank and name of the petitioner, followed by a headline summarising the content. The memorial concluded with the words "respectfully submitting this memorial" (jin ju zou wen 謹具奏聞) or "to the right, respectfully submitting this memorial" (you jin zou wen 右謹奏聞), as well as the total number of words and leaflets, to ensure the text remained unaltered. Although regulations stipulated the use of the "slim" writing style (fount) fangsong 仿宋, the more common kaishu 楷書 was frequently employed in early Qing-period documents. There are also bilingual documents written in Chinese and Manchu. The language was intended to be concise, direct, and logical, as is typical in political texts and reports on actual situations. To facilitate reading, memorials often featured a yellow sticker (tiehuang 貼黃) at the end with a summary.

Memorials were initially sent to the Office of Communication (tongzhengshi si 通政使司), which checked formal and linguistic criteria. They were then forwarded to the Grand Secretariat (neige 內閣), where a response was drafted (piaoni 票擬) and attached to the memorial for the throne's decision. The sovereign might amend this draft for a response and decision (piaoqian 票簽, see also piao 票). The Endorsement-Copying Office (pibenchu 批本處) and the Grand Secretariat subsequently annotated the decision in red ink on the memorial’s cover (piben 批本 "annotated memorial"), for example, "the respective Ministry is [to be] informed" (gai bu zhidao 該部知道). The finalised document was then sent to the responsible member of the Six Six Offices of Scrutiny (liuke 六科), which oversaw the promulgation and implementation of the emperor's decision.

Although the number of surviving zouben memorials from the Ming period is very low, over a thousand remain from the Qing period, most dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Most focus on the promotion of functionaries or on congratulations, but quite a few include information on military affairs and corruption.