Selections from the Annals: Ming

Scope and method

This selection takes the Ming part of the annalistic volume, from the reduction of Lishui Zhou to a county in 1369 to the petition by local officials in 1644 to restore the commutation of the grain tax. The Ming entries are the densest in the volume and fall into three groups: imperial edicts and the tax and corvée system; natural anomalies and famines; and the works carried out in the county by its magistrates.

The method is that of the three preceding selections. The six entries chosen here cover all three groups and include the cutting of the Yanzhi River in 1393, one of the few works in the county with an exact date.

List of entries

Date	Subject
2nd year of the Hongwu era (1369)	Lishui Zhou reduced to a county; a county school ordered
3rd year of the Hongwu era (1370)	This year's land tax remitted; drought in the sixth month
5th year of the Hongwu era (1372)	Autumn grain remitted in the tenth month
8th year of the Hongwu era (1375)	Community schools ordered in every county; severe drought in the eighth month
9th year of the Hongwu era (1376)	Both taxes remitted in the second month
11th year of the Hongwu era (1378)	Autumn grain remitted in the eighth month
12th year of the Hongwu era (1379)	Land tax remitted in the fifth month
14th year of the Hongwu era (1381)	Autumn grain halved on official land and remitted on private land
15th year of the Hongwu era (1382)	School land granted; summer and autumn taxes remitted
16th year of the Hongwu era (1383)	One tribute student a year from each prefecture and county; this year's tax remitted
18th year of the Hongwu era (1385)	Five-coloured clouds seen in the fourth month; tax and corvée registers made, households graded in three classes
19th year of the Hongwu era (1386)	Those over eighty granted the rank of village elder and those over ninety that of community elder, with their households exempted
23rd year of the Hongwu era (1390)	Reserve granaries set up in every county in the fifth month; grain bought in with paper money in the eighth month
26th year of the Hongwu era (1393)	Li Xin, Marquis of Chongshan, ordered to supervise the cutting of a river through the western part of the county, then called the Yanzhi
27th year of the Hongwu era (1394)	Reserve granary grain lent to the poor; tax office, salt office and Dongba inspection station established
28th year of the Hongwu era (1395)	Autumn grain remitted
29th year of the Hongwu era (1396)	Autumn grain remitted in the eighth month
1st year of the Yongle era (1403)	Sluice and dam established at Guangtong, with an officer in charge
13th year of the Yongle era (1415)	Great flood at Lishui in the ninth month
1st year of the Hongxi era (1425)	The family of Qi Tai, former Minister of War, pardoned and its property restored
9th year of the Xuande era (1434)	Severe drought at Lishui; many died
1st year of the Jingtai era (1450)	Great flood at Lishui, three feet deep on level ground
8th year of the Jingtai era (1457)	Flood at Lishui
4th year of the Chenghua era (1468)	Severe drought at Lishui in summer
6th year of the Chenghua era (1470)	Great flood in the fourth month; tax remitted
21st year of the Chenghua era (1485)	Severe drought in autumn
1st year of the Hongzhi era (1488)	Severe drought at Lishui
4th year of the Hongzhi era (1491)	The southwestern part of Lishui detached to form Gaochun County
7th year of the Hongzhi era (1494)	Great flood in summer; in the ninth month a gale stripped the roof tiles
16th year of the Hongzhi era (1503)	The grand coordinator Peng Li and others memorialise for the commutation of the horse service
3rd year of the Zhengde era (1508)	Drought and famine; the local man Zhang Zheng donates a thousand piculs of grain for relief
4th year of the Zhengde era (1509)	A sound like hundreds of thousands of armed men heard from the north in the sixth month; heavy snow in winter, trees killed
5th year of the Zhengde era (1510)	Great flood; tax remitted
7th year of the Zhengde era (1512)	Suzhou and Changzhou petition for the building of the Guangtong Dam; it is raised to three zhang and its two sluices closed
2nd year of the Jiajing era (1523)	Severe drought; people flee north and south; people eat one another; the vice-minister Xi Shu sent to relieve them
3rd year of the Jiajing era (1524)	Plague in spring and summer; the dead lie in heaps by the roads
4th year of the Jiajing era (1525)	The magistrate Wang Congshan asks that Qi Tai be honoured with a shrine called Biaozhong; tax on abandoned land remitted
5th year of the Jiajing era (1526)	The magistrate Wang Congshan builds the Xiansi Granary
7th year of the Jiajing era (1528)	The magistrate Gao Chong and the school instructor Li Dan set up charity fields for the school
10th year of the Jiajing era (1531)	Great flood in summer; dwellings submerged
11th year of the Jiajing era (1532)	Locusts in autumn
17th year of the Jiajing era (1538)	Floods burst from the hills at Lushan and Ma'an, wrecking the town walls and drowning people and livestock without number
20th year of the Jiajing era (1541)	The magistrate Xie Ting sets up charity fields for the Zhongshan Academy
23rd year of the Jiajing era (1544)	Severe drought
24th year of the Jiajing era (1545)	Severe drought again; people dig lotus roots from Danyang and Shijiu lakes for food
31st year of the Jiajing era (1552)	The registrar Jiang Congzhou has household registers printed on boards, and forgery stops
34th year of the Jiajing era (1555)	Japanese pirates attack the walls of Lishui and the town nearly falls; the brave man Li Fobao dies
37th year of the Jiajing era (1558)	The magistrate Zeng Zhen builds the stone wall of Lishui
38th year of the Jiajing era (1559)	Floodwater breaches the polders and washes away dwellings; the Confucian school moved inside the west gate
40th year of the Jiajing era (1561)	The post-horse registrar's office at Lishui abolished
45th year of the Jiajing era (1566)	The magistrate He Yigui asks for the rates on official land to be equalised; the poor are pleased
1st year of the Longqing era (1567)	The magistrate He Yigui rebuilds the Bianmin Granary; the whole county is grateful
2nd year of the Longqing era (1568)	The tax office abolished; three hundred and fifty horse-service animals commuted
3rd year of the Longqing era (1569)	The single-whip method memorialised; the river office at Xujiapu abolished
5th year of the Longqing era (1571)	The magistrate Liu Yinglei surveys the fields accurately and rejects more than four thousand piculs of shifted tax
2nd year of the Wanli era (1574)	The magistrate Fu Yingzhen sets up community compacts; school land added
5th year of the Wanli era (1577)	The magistrate Wu Shiquan petitions with the "Eight Proposals for the People's Convenience"; screen wall added before the school
6th year of the Wanli era (1578)	The magistrate Wu Shiquan rebuilds the county hall, the second gate and the rear hall
7th year of the Wanli era (1579)	School land added; a good year, rice at three cash a pint
9th year of the Wanli era (1581)	The magistrate Chen Zizhen surveys the fields and finds more than eighty-four thousand mu short of the original figure, all lost to the lakes
15th year of the Wanli era (1587)	Drought
16th year of the Wanli era (1588)	Great famine, people eat one another; the magistrate Du Yunji has the Fengxian polder embankments built, and the starving are saved
17th year of the Wanli era (1589)	Drought; rain in the sixth month; half a harvest at last
18th year of the Wanli era (1590)	Floss-like rain on the seventh day of the third month; drought in the seventh month; peach and plum in blossom after the full moon of the tenth
23rd year of the Wanli era (1595)	The cassia flowers at the school; in the sixth month a flood-burst breaches the polders, but the Fengxian polder holds
25th year of the Wanli era (1597)	The magistrate Xu Bida has the streets of the county town paved with stone; a stele forbids the slaughter of oxen
26th year of the Wanli era (1598)	Locusts; drought; in the seventh month a camphor tree at the foot of Zhongshan withers and revives
28th year of the Wanli era (1600)	The people petition the throne that the dam at Guangtong leaves the upstream waters nowhere to go, drowning eighty thousand mu of lakeside fields, and ask for commutation of the grain tax as at Gaochun
31st year of the Wanli era (1603)	The magistrate Xu Liangyan abolishes all the workshop levies; the people are grateful
34th year of the Wanli era (1606)	A band of red light in the northwestern corner of the town; the magistrate Xu Liangyan builds a pagoda there
36th year of the Wanli era (1608)	Floodwaters drift away the dwellings; famine that year
39th year of the Wanli era (1611)	Earthquake after the full moon of the tenth month
42nd year of the Wanli era (1614)	A good year, rice at five cash a pint
45th year of the Wanli era (1617)	Five-coloured clouds seen at night after the full moon of the eighth month
46th year of the Wanli era (1618)	With military needs pressing, half the grain tax is levied again at Lishui and other counties
1st year of the Taichang era (1620)	The grain tax levied in full again; gold found in the ground south of the town and handed in to help pay the troops
1st year of the Tianqi era (1621)	Thirty-eight households exiled for their connection with the loyal minister Qi Tai are pardoned and restored to the Lishui register
2nd year of the Tianqi era (1622)	The grain tax at Lishui is commuted to silver in perpetuity; the whole county is grateful
4th year of the Tianqi era (1624)	A flood-burst in the fifth month drowns the dwellings
5th year of the Tianqi era (1625)	Two earthquakes; a great storm darkens the day; autumn drought; the capital granary empty and a year's grain borrowed, after which the commutation is not restored
6th year of the Tianqi era (1626)	Drought
1st year of the Chongzhen era (1628)	The magistrate Zeng Jiuyi memorialises for the building of more than three thousand zhang of embankment below Shizi Mountain
2nd year of the Chongzhen era (1629)	A gale uproots trees on the third day of the fifth month
3rd year of the Chongzhen era (1630)	Hail on the twenty-seventh day of the fourth month
5th year of the Chongzhen era (1632)	Autumn drought
8th year of the Chongzhen era (1635)	Hail on the seventh day of the fourth month damages the wheat
10th year of the Chongzhen era (1637)	Earthquake on the twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month
11th year of the Chongzhen era (1638)	Drought; locusts eat the crop
12th year of the Chongzhen era (1639)	The starving take white earth from Fushan for food, called Guanyin powder
13th year of the Chongzhen era (1640)	Unprecedented famine, no seed grain left; earthquake with sound; arrears of tax before 1639 remitted
14th year of the Chongzhen era (1641)	Famine again; locusts darken the fields; hail on the nineteenth day of the eighth month
16th year of the Chongzhen era (1643)	Rain and thunder in the tenth month; earthquake with sound in the twelfth
17th year of the Chongzhen era (1644)	Local officials petition to restore the commutation of the grain tax; the dynasty falls before it is granted, and the old levy resumes

The quotations and notes

2nd year of the Hongwu era (1369): a zhou becomes a county

明太祖洪武二年己酉，改溧水州为县。令立学。

Translated: In the second year of the Hongwu era of Emperor Taizu of the Ming, jiyou, Lishui Zhou was changed back into a county, and an order was given to establish a county school.

Note. This records the county's return from the Yuan prefecture to county status, the second of the three changes in Lishui's standing. The same entry adds that a school was ordered: the early Ming promoted schooling alongside administrative change, and the annalistic volume habitually records institutions and education together.

18th year of the Hongwu era (1385): tax and corvée registers made

十八年乙丑，四月，五色云见。造赋役册，定民户上中下三等，凡徭役取验。

Translated: In the eighteenth year, yichou, in the fourth month five-coloured clouds were seen. Tax and corvée registers were made, households were graded in three classes, upper, middle and lower, and all corvée service was assigned on the evidence of the register.

Note. This is the starting point of the taxation thread on this site: household grade fixed the corvée, and the register was the proof. The gazetteer puts an auspicious sighting and an institution of taxation in one entry, which is a common arrangement in the volume — the anomaly is recorded as it stands, the institution separately. This site keeps the two apart and does not use the one to explain the other.

23rd year of the Hongwu era (1390): reserve granaries

二十三年庚午，五月，设各县预备仓。八月，遣老人赍钞收籴。

Translated: In the twenty-third year, gengwu, in the fifth month reserve granaries were set up in every county. In the eighth month elders were sent with paper money to buy grain in.

Note. Reserve granaries were a Ming institution for famine relief, and this entry records both their establishment and the method of buying in grain. The county's granaries continue in the gazetteer with the building of the Xiansi Granary in 1526 and the rebuilding of the Bianmin Granary in 1567, and the three entries together show the line of development.

26th year of the Hongwu era (1393): a river cut through the western part of the county

二十六年癸酉，八月，太祖命崇山侯李新至溧水，督有司凿县西境一带为河。凿石色赤，时名河胭脂。

Translated: In the twenty-sixth year, guiyou, in the eighth month the founding emperor ordered Li Xin, Marquis of Chongshan, to go to Lishui and supervise the relevant offices in cutting a river through the western part of the county. The stone cut was red, and the river was then called the Yanzhi.

Note. This records the cutting of the Yanzhi River. Under the same entry the gazetteer reproduces the emperor's order in full and adds the sentence "it is handed down that Li Xin took private advantage of a household, and the founding emperor put him to death". Only the first part is quoted here; the order and the tradition are treated in "Dating the Yanzhi River and Its Method of Excavation" and "On the Name of the Yanzhi River and Yanzhi Hill". Note that the gazetteer writes "the river was then called Yanzhi", a different word order from the later conventional name Yanzhi River; this selection reproduces it as it stands.

4th year of the Hongzhi era (1491): Gaochun County detached

四年辛亥，析溧水西南境置高淳县。

Translated: In the fourth year, xinhai, the southwestern part of Lishui was detached to form Gaochun County.

Note. This records the largest detachment of territory the county ever underwent, after which Gaochun and Lishui were separately administered. The gazetteer gives this one sentence and no boundary or reason; the entry on this site relies on the district government's "Historical Development" page as well, and the two agree.

37th year of the Jiajing era (1558): the stone wall of Lishui

三十七年戊午，知县曾震筑溧水石城。

Translated: In the thirty-seventh year, wuwu, the zhixian (county magistrate) Zeng Zhen built the stone wall of Lishui.

Note. This records one building of the county's defences, under the magistrate Zeng Zhen. Japanese pirate raids had reached the lower Yangtze in the preceding years, and in 1555 "Japanese pirates attacked the walls of Lishui and the town nearly fell"; the stone wall belongs to that setting. The gazetteer gives neither the extent of the wall nor the labour it took, and nothing is supplied here.

Choices and uncertainties

First, the entries remitting rent, autumn grain and land tax are extremely dense under the Hongwu and Yongle reigns. They are all listed above but not reproduced one by one; what they show is the frequency of remission, which deserves a separate statistical treatment.

Second, the entries on natural anomalies and famine — severe drought, great flood, plague, locusts, earthquake — are numerous and often share an entry with a remission or a relief measure. They are reproduced here without being merged.

Third, the entries for the great famine of 1588 and for the flood-burst of 1595, in which the Fengxian polder alone held, involve the embankment works of the magistrates Du Yunji and Yu Yanxing and belong with the Guangtong Dam thread; see "Polders and the Guangtong Dam in Lishui".

Fourth, the gazetteer treats magistrates unevenly: some are given a name and a single act, others a note at the end of the entry referring the reader to the biographical section. This selection reproduces what stands and does not import detail from elsewhere.