明清檔案工作室 | GRAND SECRETARIAT ARCHIVES PROJECT

In the Qing Dynasty, capital bureaucrats usually do not write a copy to their own memorials when submitting; they would only make a copy of their memorials once they have received imperial responses. This copy is called the "Copy Memorial" and is sent to the Grand Secretariat for storage and inspection. However, capital departments, Government Offices, and provincial bureaucrats have to write a Copy to their own memorials when submitting memorials. The Copies do not have to be in both Manchurian and Chinese and having just Chinese is enough for the purposes of storage and inspections. If Red Endorsements were given on the original memorials, the Copy will have the same endorsement content written in black ink. According to The Rules and Systems in Guangxu Era (光緒會典事例), "as decided in 1729 (Year 7 of Yongzheng), if Copies are delivered to the Commission of Transmission with provincial bureaucrats' memorials, they should be hitherto delivered together to the Grand Secretariat. After the memorial has received imperial responses, the Grand Secretariat should write the Red Endorsement on the Copy with black ink, to then be stored at the Imperial History Archives. All capital departments' memorials shall also follow this procedure." Therefore, as provincial bureaucrats' memorials were delivered to the Grand Secretariat instead of the Commission of Transmissions, only Duplicate Copies are provided to the Commission of Transmissions for storage.