Reflections | The Hong Kong Chronicles Institute aims to record an impartial history of the city – is it an impossible task?
- Gazetteers provide historians with important records of the physical and social features of a location
- The intellectual tradition has been in place for at least 2,000 years in Chins
A gazetteer is an encyclopaedia that records the physical and social features of a particular location, such as a county, a province or even an entire nation. Depending on the scale of the project, it can cover everything from geography and history, to the local economy, culture and places of interest. It could be initiated and funded by the central or regional government, or it could be a private endeavour of the local educated elite.
Most historians agree that the prototype for gazetteers is The End of the Yue Kingdom, a book compiled during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25-220). Contrary to what is suggested by its title, it is not just a chronology of the ancient kingdom of Yue (present-day Zhejiang and parts of Jiangsu), it also describes in detail its infrastructure, geographical features and economy, as well as prominent figures in the kingdom, its people’s customs, and so on.
Some scholars trace the genesis of gazetteers even further back in time. Disputes over their origins and evolution notwithstanding, the content and format of gazetteers were fixed by the Song period (960-1279), and remained more or less unchanged for the rest of China’s imperial period.
Gazetteers, especially the regional ones, often highlight the unique features of their localities. Despite their limited geographic focus, they cover a comprehensive array of topics particular to the region and describe valuable information often not found in official dynastic histories.
A notable feature of gazetteers is their straightforward presentation of facts and data. As opposed to written histories, which interpret past events in addition to recording them, gazetteers usually do not, and are not expected to, serve such a purpose. For this reason, gazetteers of localities, and their subsequent revised editions, are valued as primary sources.
This feature is given much emphasis in the compilation of Hong Kong’s own gazetteer. Sam Lam, executive director of Hong Kong Chronicles Institute, said that contributors to the Chronicles of Hong Kong would restrict themselves to presenting factual information and not make any commentary on the events recorded. Professor Lau Chi-pang, associate vice-president of Lingnan University and one of the historians who led the editorial process, also averred that compilers would try to maintain neutrality to “describe without commenting on” events of the past.