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First Historical Archives of China

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Headquarters of the FHAC

The First Historical Archives of China (FHAC, Chinese: 中国第一历史档案馆) is home to many historical documents managed by the National Archives Administration of China.[1][2] The First Historical Archives of China is located in Beijing and has China's central government archives of Ming and Qing dynasties,[3] holding about 10 million historical documents.[4]

History

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On October 10, 1925, the Museum of the Imperial Palace (Chinese: 故宫博物馆) was established in Beijing, with the Library Department responsible for historical documents of the Ming and Qing Dynasties—forming the foundation of the future First Historical Archive of China.[5]

Following the Communist takeover in 1949, the new government took measures to preserve and organize the country’s archival documents, including the Ming-Qing archives.[6]

In May 1951, the Museum of Historical Documentation was renamed Dang’ an Guan (The Archive) (Chinese: 档案馆).[5]

In December 1955, the Archive was officially renamed the First Historical Archive of China after being integrated into the Guojia Dang' an Ju (State Archives Bureau).[5]

By the 1980s, the First Historical Archives became the first in China to fully sort and create preliminary catalogs for the collection.[6]

Around 1980, historical archives in China began allowing foreign researchers access.[7] That year, the first group of American researchers was granted access to the First Historical Archives for long-term study.[8]

The First Archives have also worked on digitizing their archival materials since 2006.[9]

The old building of the archives is located within the Palace Museum in Beijing. In 2021, a new building was constructed at No. 9 Qinian Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. It covers an area of approximately 3.3 acres, with a total floor area of about 24.5 acres. The new facility was completed and opened to the public on July 6, 2022.[10][11]

The Archives also created a new emblem in 2021. The new emblem, which integrates the Chinese characters “史” (history) and “宬” (ancient archives), symbolizes the preservation, inheritance, and imprinting of history, resembling the form of traditional Chinese seals. [12]

The Archives now holds a total of 77 collections of Ming and Qing archives. As of now, 44 of these collections are available for online catalog searches.[13]

Open hours

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Monday to Friday: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Entry stops at 4:00 p.m., and the facility closes at 4:30 p.m.

Saturday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Entry stops at 4:30 p.m., and the facility closes at 5:00 p.m.

Closed on Sundays and national public holidays.[14]

Collections

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The term “historical archives” refers to records from before 1949, which are preserved in two major national repositories in China. The First Historical Archives in Beijing houses documents from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Second Historical Archives of China, based in Nanjing, focuses on records from governments that existed between 1911 and 1949.[3]

The First Historical Archives of China holds about 10 million Ming and Qing historical documents, consisting of nearly half of the estimated 20 million historical files stored across mainland China.[4] Of these, over 3,000 are from the Ming dynasty, while the vast majority are Qing dynasty records. Among the collection, about 80% are in Chinese, 20% in Manchu, and over 50,000 in Mongolian. There are also a small number of documents in other minority languages, as well as records in foreign languages such as English, French, German, Russian, and Japanese.[13]

The First Archives is now open to international researchers. Most of the collection is accessible to both Chinese and foreign scholars, with only a few sensitive documents—related to borders, nationalities, and medicinal prescriptions—remaining restricted.[5]

Governance

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The First Historical Archives is directly managed by the State Archives Bureau in Beijing, alongside the Central and Second Historical Archives. The State Archives Bureau in Beijing presides over the entire archival system in China. It sets archival policies and standards for central and local agencies, but they remain under the authority of their respective political and administrative bodies.[3]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ "China – Archives – Countries – Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  2. ^ "Field note on Archival research in the First Historical Archive at Beijing | Division of the Social Sciences". socialsciences.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  3. ^ a b c Moss, William W. (1996). "Dang'an: Contemporary Chinese Archives". The China Quarterly (145): 112–129. ISSN 0305-7410.
  4. ^ a b Mao, Liping; Ma, Zhao (May 2012). ""Writing History in the Digital Age": The New Qing History Project and the Digitization of Qing Archives". History Compass. 10 (5): 367–374. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2012.00841.x. ISSN 1478-0542.
  5. ^ a b c d "1994". www.icm.gov.mo. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  6. ^ a b Bartlett, Beatrice S. (2007-12-01). "A world-class archival achievement: the People's Republic of China archivists' success in opening the Ming-Qing central-government archives, 1949–1998". Archival Science. 7 (4): 369–390. doi:10.1007/s10502-008-9063-0. ISSN 1573-7519.
  7. ^ Moss, William W. (1982). "Archives in the People's Republic of China". The American Archivist. 45 (4): 385–409. ISSN 0360-9081.
  8. ^ Bartlett, Beatrice S. (1981). "An Archival Revival: The Qing Central Government Archives in Peking Today". Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i. 4 (6): 81–110. ISSN 1086-3257.
  9. ^ Bartlett, Beatrice S. (2011). "Research Note: The Newly Digitized Archives Program at China's Number One Historical Archives, Beijing". Late Imperial China. 32 (1): 1–12. ISSN 1086-3257.
  10. ^ Wen, Shen (2022-07-04). "中国第一历史档案馆新馆首次面向个人开放预约". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  11. ^ 郭凯. "First Historical Archives of China opens to public". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  12. ^ "中国第一历史档案馆新标志诞生记". web.archive.org. 2022-02-14. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  13. ^ a b "查阅". fhac.com.cn. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  14. ^ "服务". fhac.com.cn. Retrieved 2024-11-07.

Sources

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