明清檔案工作室 | GRAND SECRETARIAT ARCHIVES PROJECT

After submitted upward-flowing documentation receives imperial review, they are transferred to this department to be corrected and formatted by the Hanlin Academicians and Secretaries of this department. The documentation is then given to the Grand Secretariat, for the Han Academicians to transcribe into Chinese in red ink; this is called the Endorsed memorial. The Endorsed Memorial is delivered from the Endorsed Memorial Department to the involved parties in the memorial, as they are summoned to the department to receive it in person, before it is copied and dispatched to other departments. After the dispatchment of Endorsed memorials, it is copied multiple times. The copy recorded in history by historian bureaucrats is called the Historical Materials, while the ones archived in other departments are called Copied Materials. All copies are proofread and sealed; the Historical Material is sent to the Grand Secretariat and the Copied Materials are sent to all six boards.