Wanli Yehuo Bian, written by Shen, Defu (1578-1642), is one of the most important source recording about the Ming Dynasty. Shen describes various aspects of Ming society, such as politics, institutions, culture and even conspicuous phenomena in the fa...
Wanli Yehuo Bian, written by Shen, Defu (1578-1642), is one of the most important source recording about the Ming Dynasty. Shen describes various aspects of Ming society, such as politics, institutions, culture and even conspicuous phenomena in the fashion of an essay, biji(筆記). This paper represents a part of translation of Wanli Yehuo Bian into Korean with full annotation. The entire volume of Wanli Yehuo Bian is constituted of 34 books. The Chronicles of Emperors, records of the reign-by-reign of emperors, shows up in the first two books. 109 articles listed in the two books illustrate how the Ming Empire was structured and what had happened around the individual emperors throughout the Ming Dynasty. This paper selects the first six articles in a row: Declaring Accession to the Throne; Fengxiandian(奉先殿), Palatial Shrine for the Ancestry; Emperor`s Temples in the Capital; Enshrine Loyalists with Their Emperor; Xiaozilu(孝子錄), A Guide to the Devoted Sons; Imperial Anthology.