明清檔案工作室 | GRAND SECRETARIAT ARCHIVES PROJECT

For higher-level local bureaucrats (such as the General Commander, the Commander-in-chief, and the Regional Commander), apart from submitting a detailed memorial on one subject, if they had wanted to discuss other subjects, they would add additional pieces of paper in their submitted memorials. Such papers are called "Supplementary Memorial". Supplementary Memorials start with "In addition", and dives straight into the subject without a cover page, composer title, or subject summary. As memorials would receive the Emperor's Vermillion Endorsements, sometimes Supplementary Memorials also receive Vermillion Endorsement; thus the Supplementary Memorial and the original memorial will be copied together for storage. But if a Supplementary Memorial did not receive Vermillion Endorsement, then it will go into the monthy memorial collection of the Archives of the Council of State, which is where the stored copies of Palace Memorials and Supplementary Memorials are collected. Supplementary Memorials could sometimes be as many as three to four per one original memorial, and they could sometimes also just be lists, including recommendation lists, criminal lists, resumes, or depositions. Supplementary Memorials could also serve as a way for local bureaucrats to appeal to the Emperor about local cases that they strongly disagreed with; the Emperor will decide based on the severity of the case and the appeal in the Supplementary Memorial. In such cases, the Supplementary Memorials serve as attachments to Routine Memorials.