History of Ming
The History of Ming or the Ming History (Míng Shǐ) is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It was written by a number of officials commissioned by the court of Qing dynasty, with Zhang Tingyu as the lead editor. The compilation started in the era of the Shunzhi Emperor and was completed in 1739 in the era of the Qianlong Emperor, though most of the volumes were written in the era of the Kangxi Emperor. The sinologist Endymion Wilkinson writes that the Mingshi, the second longest of the Twenty-Four Histories, after the History of Song, is "generally reckoned to be one of the best of the Histories and one of the easiest to read." Background After the Qing dynasty seized control of Beijing and North China, the Censor Zhao Jiding (趙繼鼎) was asked to compile the History of Ming in 1645 (the second year of the Shunzhi Emperor). In May 1645, the court of Qing dynasty established the committee consisted of the Grand Secretary Feng Quan, Li Jiantai, Fan Wencheng, Gang Lin, and Qi Chongge as the