Research Guides: Classical Historiography for Chinese History: 3. Biographical Searches

Dating Aids

Chang Qiyun 張其昀 , & Yang Jialuo 楊家駱, compilers. Qing ren bie ji qian zhong bei zhuan wen yin de ji bei zhuan zhu nian li pu 清人別集千種碑傳文引得及碑傳主年里譜. Taibei: Chinese Culture Academy, 1965.
Chen Naiqian 陳乃乾 , compiler. Qing tai bei zhuan wen tong jian 清代碑傳文通檢. Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju, 1959. Cites sources of biographical information.
Chen Yuan 陳垣 , 1880-1971. Shi shi yi nian lu 釋氏疑年錄. Beijing : Zhonghua shu ju, 1964 (1988). For Buddhist biographies.
Jiang Liangfu 姜亮夫, compiler. Li dai ming ren nian li bei zhuan zong biao 歷代名人年里碑傳總表. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937.
Yang Jialuo 楊家駱, compiler. Li dai ren wu nian li tong pu 歷代人物年里通譜. Taibei: Shih chieh shu ju, 1963. Cites sources of biographical information.

Electronic Resources

Searchable Database for Names Appeared in Ming and Qing Archival Documents 人名權威-人物傳記資料庫 - 中央研究院
Established by The Institute of History & Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei. It provides biographical notes for over 14800 historical figures in Qing Dynasty.
傳記文學全文資料庫 Biography Literature Database
Helps to fill the breach of modern Chinese official history. An important historical database of more than 130 million characters, it also serves as a core reference of dissertations on Chinese Republican history, 1911-1949. It includes autobiography, critical biography, memoirs, exclusive historical data, diaries, handwriting, and oral history, etc.

JapanKnowledge Lib This link opens in a new window
Jinbutsu Sōsho is a collection of biographies of historical figures in Japan edited by the Nihon Rekishi Gakkai (The Society of Japanese history). It is accessible on JapanKnowledge, listed under JKBooks. It contains 270 volumes/persons from ancient to contemporary times within a wide range of areas such as politics, economics, literature, religion and art.

A new function , “Knowledge Searcher” enables a user to perform cross-referencing searches with other encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other book series in the JapanKnowledge Lib. When you have turned on this option, selecting a word in the text results in a pop-up window showing you occurrences of that word in other databases within JapanKnowledge. Full-text searching is of course also available, and you can use a vertical reading mode.

Indices

Chang Bide 昌彼得 , compiler. Ming ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin 明人傳記資料索引 (Index of Ming biographical materials). Second Edition. Taibei: Zhong yang tu shu guan, 1978.
Chen Deyun 陳德蕓 , compiler. Gu jin ren wu bie ming suo yin 古今人物別名索引. Canton: Lingnan University Library, 1937. A list of pseudonyms and alternate names.
Chen Naiqian 陳乃乾 , collector, & Tao Yuying 陶毓英 , compiler. Shi ming bie hao suo yin 室名別號索引, including supplement 補遺. Gong du lou 共讀樓 edition, 1933. New version, Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju, 1982.
Du Lianzhe 杜連　 , & Fang Zhaoying 房兆楹 , compilers. San shi san zhong Qing dai zhuan ji zong he yin de 三十三種清代傳記綜合引得. Beijing: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1932. An index to 33 collections of the Qing-dynasty biographies.
Er shi wu shi ren ming suo yin 二十五史人名索引 (Index of names in the twenty-five dynastic histories). Erh shi wu shi kan xing wei yuan hui 二十五史刊行委員會. Shanghai: Kai ming shu dian, 1935.
Qing shi 清史. Edited by Qing shi bian zuan wei yuan hui 清史編纂委員會. Taibei: Kuo fang yan jiu yuan, 1960. See end of Volume VIII.
Rachewiltz, Igor de, & May Wang, compilers. Index to Biographical Material in Chin and Yuan Literary Works, second series. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1972.
Rowe, David Nelson, et al., compilers. Index to Qing dai chou ban yi wu shi mo 清代籌辦夷務始末索引. Hamden, Conn. : The Shoe String Press, Inc., 1960.
Tang Jizong, compiler. Ba shi jiu zhong Ming dai zhuan ji zong he yin de 八十九種明代傳記綜合引得 (Combined indices to eighty nine collections of Ming Dynasty biographies). 3 vols. Beijing: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1935.
Wang Deyi 王德毅 , compiler. Qing ren bie ming zi hao suo yin 清人別名字號索引. Taibei: Chung wen Press, 1985.
Yang T'ing-fu 楊廷福 , ed. Qing ren shi ming bie cheng zi hao suo yin 清人室名別稱字號索引. Shanghai: Gu ji chu ban she, 1988.
Yuan Yongjin 袁涌進 , compiler. Xian dai Zhongguo zuo jia bi ming lu 現代中國作家筆名索引. Originally published by Beiping: Beiping Zhonghua tu shu guan xie hui, 1936. Republished by Tokyo: Daian, 1968.
Zhongguo jin xian dai ren wu ming hao suo yin 中國近現代人物名號索引.
Zhou Junfu 周駿富 , compiler. Qing ren zhuan ji cong kan suo yin 清人傳記叢刊索引. Taibei: Ming wen shu ju, 1986.

Pseudonyms

Chen Deyun 陳德蕓 , compiler. Gu jin ren wu bie ming suo yin 古今人物別名索引. Canton: Lingnan University Library, 1937. A list of pseudonyms and alternate names.
Chu Pao-liang. Twentieth Century Chinese Writers and Their Pen Names. Taibei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1989. Contains 18,000 pen names of 6,784 writers in 2 vols.
Liu Bingli 劉炳藜, compiler. Zhong wai ren ming ci dian 中外人名辭典. Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju, 1940. Useful for identifying foreign names, especially of important foreigners living in China.
Ming ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin 明人傳記資料索引. Taiwan National Central Library, Taibei: Wen shi zhe Press, 1965.
Shang Chengzuo 商承祚 , & Huang Hua 黃華 , compilers. Zhongguo li dai shu hua zhuan ke jia zi hao suo yin 中國歷代書畫篆刻家字號索引. Beijing: Ren min mei shu chu ban she, 1960. 2 volumes. Volume II contains a list of persons whose alternate names have been indexed. The index itself gives dates and other factual material as well as identifying the alternate name.
Shi Menglan 史夢蘭, compiler. Yi hao lei bian 異號類編. Pref. dated 1859. Zhi yuan cong shu 止園叢書, v. 17-20.
Shi ming bie hao suo yin 室名別號索引. Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju, 1982.
Shu, Austin C. W. Modern Chinese Authors: A List of Pseudonyms. East Lansing, Michigan: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1969. Lists over 2000 pseudonyms used by modern Chinese authors.
Wang Baoxian 王寶先, compiler Li dai ming ren nian pu zong mu 歷代名人年譜總目. Hong Kong: Long men shu dian, 1965. An index to chronological biographies of eminent Chinese. Qing and Republican Period are readily available.
Wang Deyi 王德毅 , compiler. Qing ren bie ming zi hao suo yin 清人別名字號索引. Taibei: Chung wen Press, 1985.
Yan Maogong 嚴懋功, compiler. Qing dai zheng xian lei bian 清代徵獻類編. 2 vols. Taibei: Zhonghua shu ju, 1968. Volume I contains a list of Qing dynasty jin shi 進士 arranged according to traditional rhyme system. Volume II lists major offices and their incumbants year by year.
Yang Dianxun 楊殿詢 , compiler. Zhongguo li dai nian pu zong lu ji xu bian 中國歷代年譜總錄及續編 . Beijing: Shu mu wen xian chu ban she, 1980.
Yang Jialuo 楊家駱, compiler. Li dai ren wu bie shu ju chu ming tong jian 歷代人物別署居處名通檢. Taibei: Shi jie shu ju, 1962. Lists over 6000 names.
Yuan Yongjin 袁涌進 , compiler. Xian dai Zhongguo zuo jia bi ming lu 現代中國作家筆名錄 . Originally published by Beiping: Beiping Zhonghua tu shu guan xie hui, 1936. Republished by Tokyo: Daian, 1968. Used by Austin Shu.
Zhongguo xian dai ren wu bi ming ci dian 中國現代人物筆名詞典 . Beijing Library, 1985.

Reference Works

Biographies of Kuomintang Leaders. Committee on International and Regional Studies, Harvard University, Privately mimeographed, 1948. Contains biographies of 460 persons. It is a translation of a Chinese Communist Party publication, "A List of the Various Cliques among Members of the Central Committees Elected by the 6th Congress of Kuomintang, 1945." Out of date.
Boorman, Howard L., & Richard C. Howard. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. 4 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967-71. An index of personal names in the collection was put out by Janet Krompart at Columbia University Press in 1979.
Chen Bangxian 陳邦賢, & Yan Lingzhou 嚴菱舟. Zhongguo yi xue ren ming zhi 中國醫學人名志 (Medical Biographies for China) . Beijing: Ren min wei sheng chu ban she, 1956.
Chen Daojin 陳道瑾, & Xue Weitao 薛渭濤. Jiangsu li dai yi ren zhi 江蘇歷代醫人志 (Kiangsu Medical Biographies). Nanjing: Jiangsu ke xue ji shu ju ban she, 1985.
Chen Yutang, ed. Zhongguo jin xian dai ren wu ming hao da ci dian 中國近現代人物名號大辭典 . Hangzhou: Zhejiang gu ji chu ban she, 1993.

China Biographical Database Project (CBDB)
In conjunction with Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Beijing University, and Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA. Language: Chinese ; English. Cited description: "[...] an online relational database with biographical information about approximately 40,000 individuals as of July 2008, primarily from the seventh through fourteenth centuries. The data is meant to be useful for statistical and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. The long term goal of CBDB is systematically to include all significant biographical material from China s history and to make the contents available free of charge, without restriction, for academic use." Contents: (1) Home; (2) History of the CBDB; (3) Collaborating Institutions and Editorial Committee; (4) Methodological Issues; (5) Mapping and Analyzing CBDB Data; (6) Structure of Data; (7) Work Progress; (8) Download CBDB Data; (9) Conferences and Papers; (10) First International Workshop on Biographical Databases for China's History; (11)Discussion Forum; (12) FAQ; (13) Chinese Homepage. Availability: Free. For more Biographical Databases, see:
Heidelberg University East Asian Studies Database

China Weekly Review, Who's Who in China. Shanghai: 5th edition 1937. Supplement 1940. 6th edition 1950. Generally limited information.
Chu Pao-liang, ed. Twentieth Century Chinese Writers and Their Pen Names. 2 vols. Taibei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1989.
Directory of Chinese Communist Officials. Washington: March, 1966. Head of title describes this work as an "Intelligence Research Aid" of the U.S. Government. Supplementary volume: Reference Aid, Directory of Chinese Communist Party Officials: Provincial, Municipal and Military. Washington: April, 1969. List of officials in office. This work does not provide detailed biographies.
Fang Yi 方毅 , et al., compilers. Zhongguo ren ming da ci dian 中國人名大辭典. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1934. Reprint Taibei: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1966.
Franke, Herbert ed. Sung Biographies. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1976.
Fujita Masanori 藤田正典, Gendai Chugoku jimbutsu hyo 現代中國人物表. Tokyo: Daian, 1969. Lists over 1600 persons and gives bibliographic info for further sources.
Fukusha seishi sakuin 復社姓氏索引. Compiled at Kyoto University by the Institute of Humanistic Studies, the "Late Ming Early Ch'ing Society and Culture Research Group," 1995.
Gendai Chugoku jimmei jiten 現代中國人名辭典. Comp. by the Kazankai 霞山會 under supervision of the Asia Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Tokyo: Kazankai, 1966. Over 13,000 entries; the most comprehensive work of its kind. A new edition is in the process of publication. Minimal information.
Giles, Herbert A. A Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1898.
Goodrich, L. Carrington, & Fang Chao-ying, Dictionary of Ming Biography. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Hashikawa Tokio, compiler. Chugoku bunkakai jimbutsu soran 中國文化界人物總覽. Peking: Chuka horei heninkan, 1940. Lists over 5000 names of people mostly living at the time (1920's + 30's).
Hu Zhengzhi 胡正之, compiler. Zhongguo di hao biao ti yi lan 中國帝號標題一覽. Beijing: Yenching University, 1939.
Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲. The Records of Ming Scholars 明儒學案. Translated by Julia Ching, et al. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644 1912)
2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943-44. The electronic version is a beta version of an online database containing all the biographies in Hummel and is is available at the Dartmouth College Qing Research Portal, coordinated by Pamela Crossley. The database is searchable, although some functions are still in the works. Users are required to download some software (for free).

Klein, Donald W. Who's Who of Communist China. New York: 1959. 3 volumes mimeographed containing about 450 biographies.
Klein, Donald, & Anne B. Clark. Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921 1965. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Contains over 500 biographies of influential Communists from the founding of the Party to 1965.
Li Jie 李藉, compiler. Zhong xi dui yi Riben xian dai ren ming di ming biao 中西對譯日本現代人名地名表. Chongqing: Zheng zhong shu ju, 1945.
Li Shengping 李盛平 . Zhongguo gong chan dang ren ming da ci dian 中國共產黨人名大辭典 . Beijing: Zhongguo guang bo chu ban she, 1991.
Loewe, Michael, ed. A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC AD 24). Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.
O'Neill, P.G. Japanese Names: A Comprehensive Index by Characters and Readings. New York.: Weatherhill, 1972 .
Namba Tsuneo 難渡常雄, compiler. Shina jimmei jisho 支那人名辭書. Tokyo: 1929. Three volumes, list about 24,000 names from ancient times to the Qing. Character index at end.
Pan Asian Newspaper Alliance, Asia Who's Who. Hong Kong: (3rd edition) 1960. Contains 600 biographies of Chinese on the Mainland, 270 on Taiwan, 50 from Hong Kong, and 70 from Malaysia and Singapore.
Perleberg, Max. Who's Who in Modern China. Hong Kong: Ye Olde Printerie, 1954. Contains more than 2,000 biographical sketches covering the period from the beginning of the Republic to 1953, but unreliable and must be used with care.
Riben xing ming ci dian 日本姓名詞典 . Beijing: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1979.
Shen Zhihong 沈治宏, et al., compilers. Song Biographies in Local Gazetteers. 4 vols. Chengdu: Sichuan ci shu chu ban she, 1997. Includes over 2,200,000 words. It contains more than 100 thousand biographic items, collected from the Song Yuan fang zhi cong kan 宋元方志叢刊 , Tian yi ge Ming dai fang zhi xuan kan 天一閣明代方志選刊 , Tian yi ge Ming dai fang zhi xuan kan xu bian 天一閣明代方志選刊續編 , and Riben cang Zhongguo han jian di fang zhi cong kan 日本藏罕見中國地方志叢刊 . Compiled at Chengdu Sichuan United University, Gu ji zheng li yan jiu suo.
Tan Zhengbi 譚正璧 , et al., compilers. Zhongguo wen xue jia da ci dian 中國文學家大辭典 (Dictionary of Chinese writers). Shanghai: Guang ming shu ju, 1934. Reprint Taibei: 世界書局, 1967. Gives western dates, lists works.
Union Research Institute. Who's Who in Communist China. Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1966. Contains about 1200 biographies. Supplementary volume Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1969.
Wixted, John Timothy, compiler. Japanese Scholars of China (A Bibliographical Handbook). Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
Wu, Eugene. Leaders of Twentieth Century China: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Biographical Works in the Hoover Library. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956.
Xu Youchun 徐友春, ed. Min guo ren wu da ci dian 民國人物大詞典 . Shijiazhuang: Hebei People's Press, 1991.
Zanning 贊寧. Song Gao seng zhuan 宋高僧傳 (Buddhist Biographies for Song).
Zhong gong ren ming lu 中共人名錄. Compiled by the Zhonghua Minguo guo ji guan xi yan jiu suo 中華民國國際關系研究所. Taibei: Zhonghua min guo guo ji guan xi yan jiu suo, 1967.
Zhong gong ren ming lu 中共人名錄. Compiled by Zhong gong ren ming lu bian xiu wei yuan hui. Taibei: Guo li zheng zhi da xue guo ji guan xi yan jiu zhong xin, 1989.

Republic of China Electronic Biographical Sources, 1911-1949

傳記文學全文資料庫 Biography Literature Database
Helps to fill the breach of modern Chinese official history. An important historical database of more than 130 million characters, it also serves as a core reference of dissertations on Chinese Republican history, 1911-1949. It includes autobiography, critical biography, memoirs, exclusive historical data, diaries, handwriting, and oral history, etc.

Seals and Other Pictoral Sources

Contang, Victoria 孔達 , & Wang Jiquan 王季銓 . Maler-und Sammler-Stempel aus der Ming- und Ch'ing-Zeit 明清畫家印鑒. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1940.
Zhongguo li dai ren wu tu xiang suo yin 中國歷代人物圖像索引 (Index to portraits of famous Chinese over the dynasties). Compiled by the Suzhou University Library. Nanjing: Jiangsu Educational Press, 1994. Contains the portraits of more than 4500 persons from antiquity to the end of the Qing dynasty published in 663 Chinese publications.

Women

Chang, Kang-i Sun. "A Guide to Ming Ch'ing Anthologies of Women's Poetry and Their Selection Strategies." Gest Library Journal 5, 2 (1992): 119-60.
Hu Wenkai 胡文楷 , compiler. Li dai fu nu zhu zuo kao 歷代婦女著作考 (Study of works written by women over the various dynasties). Revised edition. Shanghai: Ku chi Press, 1985.
Idema, Wilt, and Beata Grant. The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China. Cambridge: Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2004.
Lee, Lily Xiao Hong, Clara Lau, Clara Wing-Chun Ho, & Clara Wing-Chung Ho, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: The Qing Period, 1644-1911, University of Hong Kong Libraries Publications, No 10.
Lee, Lily Xiao Hong, & A. D. Stefanowski, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: The Twentieth Century. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2002.
Peterson, Barbara, et al., ed. Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000.
Shi Shuyi 施淑儀 . Qing dai gui ge shi ren zheng lue 清代閨閣詩人徵略 (Brief biographies of refined women poets from the Qing dynasty). Shanghai: Shanghai shu dian, 1987 reprint of 1922 original.
Tsai, Kathryn, trans. Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
Wang Shuhuai 王樹槐, compiler. Jin dai Zhongguo fu nu shi Zhung wen zi liao mu lu 近代中國婦女史中文資料目錄 (Index to Chinese sources on modern Chinese women's history). Taibei: Academia Sinica, Institute of Modern History, 1995.
Wang Xiuqin 王秀琴 et al. Li dai ming yuan shu jian 歷代名媛書簡 (Letters by renowned women through the dynasties). Changsha: Commercial Press, 1941.
Xi Tianxiao 徐天嘯 . Shenzhou nu zi xin shi 神州女子新史 (New history of women in the Divine Land). Taibei: Shi huo Press, 1988 reprint of 1913 original.
Zheng Guangyi 鄭光儀 . Zhongguo li dai cai nu shi ge jian shang ci dian 中國歷代才女詩歌鑒賞辭典 (Guide to poetry and songs by talented women through the dynasties). Beijing: Zhongguo gong ren Press, 1991.

Chinese Names of Western Scholars

Clart, Philip 柯若樸 Chinese Names of Western Scholars