Abstract
In 1777, Emperor Qianlong issued an edict to the Historiography Bureau, ordering the compilation of the Biographies of Twice-Serving Ministers (Erchen zhuan) to condemn the former Ming officials who collaborated with the newly established Qing dynasty during the Ming-Qing transition. However, an edict in 1791 removed the biographies of the unappointed Ming degree holders and trainees from the historical project, such that subsequently there was no settled opinion about whether these early Qing officials who had passed the Ming civil examination but started their careers in Qing times should be clasified as “twice-serving ministers” (erchen). While the 1791 edict provided a clear official definition of erchen, the cases of Wu Weihua, Liang Qingbiao, and Zhang Duan in the project obviously did not conform to this definition. As a result of the emperor’s prejudice and misjudgement, as well as the collusion of the Historiography Bureau, these three historical figures were indiscriminately labelled erchen and were, therefore, condemned in Chinese history.
Keywords
erchen, Erchen zhuan, Wu Weihua, Liang Qingbiao, Zhang Duan
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