Ow the 15th of September the genealogical statement of the Emperor's family, which is compiled every tenth year, left Peking on its way to Moukden to be there preserved. Ihe immediate relatives are called Tsung-shih and the more distant glore; and they wear yellow or red girdles according as they belong to the one or the other of these classes, Nhe rules for making and keeping the genealogical register are contained in the first of the nine hundred and twenty sections of the Book of Statutes of the Great Pure Dynasty. The empire takes its beginning in the Ennperor, and the Emperor is the living representative of the family to which he belongs, and this register shews how he is descended from the sovereigns who ruled in Moukden over the Manchurian province before the establishment of the dynasty in 1644 in Peking. This is the reason that the register is honoured with the same reverence as the Emperor himself and that the Book of Statutes by which China is ruled, begins with the laws which have regard to the imperial family and its decennial register. Beside the copy conveyed to Moukden
served in a temple on Prospect Hill there are two other copies. One is joan just at the back of the palace, and the other is taken charge of by the bureau which has cognisance of all matters affecting members of the Emperor's clan.
All the families of the Imperial Clan are required annually in the first month to am ounce in writing to the Bureau of the Clan, and to the Board of -Ceremonies,.all births in the clan with the year, month, day and hour on. which they occurred particularly mentioned. Three officers of the Hanlin-yuen assisted by three members of the Imial Clan Bureau, with a reader of the Nui-ko, and two officers of the Board of Ceremonies, compile the lists. These nine compilers are under the direction of an official of the Bureau mentioned, and one of the Grand Secretariat. The whole is under the control of the Chinese and Manchu Grand Secretaries and the residents and vice-presidents of boards. [he genealogies are made up of the important entries in the annual registers contained in yellow and red books. When the decennial record has passed through the hands of the transcribers and binders it is presented to the Emperor by the Grand Secretaries, for his inspection, and a day is fixed for conveyance to Moukden. Any individuals who are guilty of certain specified faults are not mentioned in the registers. Some, who through some forgetfulness or through omission on insufficient grounds, have lost their place in the registers are restored when the matter has been cleared up. At first there was the yellow book only. Afterwards the imperial favour was extended to more distant members of the clan who had undeservedly been omitted and a red book was provided as a supplement: to the yellow. Names are given by edict to brothers and cousins of the Emperor. A petition is presented to the Emperor to give a name and he does so. The first name of the Emperor Tau Kwang was Mien. That of the Emperor Hsien-feng was Yi. That of the Emperor Tung Chih and of the present peror is the same, they being on the same step of the genealogical ladder. It is Tsai. All these names are for-hidden to be written but we may write them in the western alphabet without iving offence. The third Emperor fore Shun Chih was the first who is mentioned as the fountain of genealogical descent for all the Imperial dav. He assumed the title of King in 1583, that is to say 61 years before Peking became the capital of the Manchus. The descendants of Hsien-tsu Siuen Hwang Ti, as he is called in the worship of the ancestral temple, are all called 'I'sung-shih and are all entitled to wear the yellow girdle and to have their names in the yellow covered genealogical record. The descendants of the same Emperor's brothers are called glore, and should wear the red girdle, and their names are found in the red genealagy. Thus naturally these genealogical registers increase rapidly in size but doubtless the names of undistinguished persons are written so small as not to occupy very much space. All those Manchus called glore are, it is evident, separated by three centuries, viewed genealogically, from the Imperial clan proper and have no Etperor for their ancestor who has lived since 1583,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.