About the practice and experience of collecting and editing memorabilia
Xu Jingguo
The collection and compilation of memorabilia originated earlier in the mainland and is an important part of local chronicles such as chronicles and yearbooks. The Wuhou District Chronicle Office has always attached great importance to the collection, editing and application of memorabilia, specially formulated the collection and editing specifications of memorabilia, determined that a special person is responsible, and all staff work together to extensively collect and standardize the editing of monthly memorabilia, and publish them in a timely manner through a variety of methods, giving full play to the role of memorabilia in "preserving history and providing information to the government".
This paper mainly focuses on the practice of collecting, editing and applying memorabilia by the Wuhou District Gazetteer Office, and briefly shares the practice and experience of editing and using memorabilia.
1. Recognize the memorabilia
(1) The concept of memorabilia
Memorabilia is a kind of reference material that briefly describes the major events, important activities and facts that occurred in a certain period of time and within a certain range (a certain region, unit, aspect or person) in a certain historical period. It systematically and concisely records the historical events that have occurred, revealing the occurrence, development process and results of important events, as well as the relationship between events. Personal biographies, also known as personal "chronology" or "chronology".
The compilation of memorabilia has a long history in the mainland, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, a relatively mature method of chronological chronicling has been formed, the most representative of which is the chronicle compiled by Confucius "Spring and Autumn", which is the earliest existing memorabilia in the mainland. Memorabilia is quite commonly used in the history of the mainland, and the notes on the life of the emperors (such as the Ming "Wanli Notes"), the actual records (such as the Tang Dynasty's "Shunzong Shilu"), and the chronology in the official history are all in the nature of memorabilia.
(2) Classification of memorabilia
Many ancient historical books on the mainland, such as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zuo Chuan, and the Zizhi Tongjian Long Edition, as well as the "actual records" of various dynasties, the annals of historical figures, and the "memos" used in modern times, all belong to the historical materials of memorabilia.
Memorabilia is classified according to the scope and object of the description, including world memorabilia, national or regional memorabilia, industry or unit memorabilia, thematic memorabilia, personal life memorabilia (mostly named after chronology), etc.
According to the classification of compilation style, there is a chronicle of major events, that is, historical events are recorded one by one in the order of year, month and day, one for each event; There is a chronicle of the event, that is, the event-centered, listed by event, and chronologically from beginning to end to describe the occurrence, development and end of the event, such as "Memorabilia of the Return of Hong Kong and Macao".
(3) The role of memorabilia
Memorabilia is an indispensable part of local chronicles such as chronicles and yearbooks, which has the function of "preserving history and providing information to the government", and at the same time, it also has a special role because of its unique scope and characteristics of data collection.
1. Supplementation of archival materials. The materials of the memorabilia mainly come from the archives, the information provided by the relevant personnel, as well as the materials such as books and periodicals, newspapers, etc., which can make up for the gaps in the archives and accumulate historical materials for the study of history and the compilation of historical records. The compilation of memorabilia in a certain period can make up for the shortcomings of the compilation of archival historical materials, historical works and local chronicles.
2. Supplementation of historical materials. Most of the historical records are classified and recorded according to events, and they can only understand things from the horizontal aspect, while the memorabilia describes major events from the vertical aspect, and the two can complement each other and combine vertically and horizontally, so that people can have a comprehensive understanding of the overall development process of a certain region or a certain cause. At the same time, the description of major events is in chronological order, which is convenient for readers to search for historical materials with time clues, which invisibly becomes a retrieval method and improves the retrieval function of historical materials.
3. The role of senior management and auxiliary governance. Memorabilia can help leaders and staff at all levels to systematically and concisely understand the past work, and seek reference and reference; It is convenient for readers to understand the historical facts and development process of some major events in a certain historical period by understanding the historical facts and development process of major events in a certain aspect, so as to reveal the internal relationship and laws of the development of these major events.
Memorabilia of "Wuhou Yearbook (2022)".
2. Inclusion of memorabilia materials
Memorabilia mainly includes major events, important events, special events, and new events in a specific region and within a certain time limit, and should pay attention to determining whether the data is included or not from the aspects of historical value, political value, scientific research value, educational value, and investigation value.
(1) The principle of data collection
The selection of memorabilia materials must be based on the principle of highlighting major events and not omitting important matters, and the scope of material selection must be clarified. Therefore, two principles should be adhered to in the collection of memorabilia materials.
1. The point of view is correct, the material is true, and the evidence is well-founded. The choice of words and sentences in the memorabilia shows the editor's understanding, stance or tendency towards historical facts, and must be carefully scrutinized. The information should be truthful and reliable, and the information based on false content and unknown information should generally not be used.
2. Major events are prominent, important things, special things, and new things are not missed, and small things are not missing. The so-called major event means that the event involves a wide range of events and has a relatively large impact, which is not only a major event at the time, but also has a longer and deeper impact after the fact. The so-called important event means that within a certain range and a certain period of time, it has a greater impact, and it still has a certain reference significance afterwards. At the same time, major events and important events are relatively concepts that are subject to certain time and space constraints. If you do not distinguish between major and small things, remember everything, list the data, and the memorabilia will become a detailed account and a running account, which will have little reference value. Only remembering major events, not remembering important events, special events, and new events, will make the content of major events single; Recording important events, special events, and new events is a supplement and foil to major events, and will enrich their content.
(2) The scope of collection of memorabilia materials
Taking the collection scope of memorabilia data in Wuhou District as an example, the main sources of memorabilia data include "Daily Essentials" and "Wuhou Today", important meeting minutes and important activity information of the "four major teams" of the district, monthly memorabilia of district-level units, important information on the portal website and new media platform of Wuhou District Government, and important information on the official websites of units and enterprises in the district, new media and other platforms.
1. Important political affairs, mainly including changes in administrative structure, establishment and adjustment of institutions and important personnel changes (at or above the bureau level); the introduction of important decisions or policies; Important meetings at or above the district level, including the Party Congress, the National People's Congress, the CPPCC Meeting, the Plenary Session of the District Committee, the Plenary Session of the District Government, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee, the Standing Committee of the District People's Congress, the Standing Committee of the District Government, the Standing Committee of the District Government, the Chairman of the District Political Consultative Conference, the Plenary Meeting of the District Commission for Discipline Inspection, and important special meetings.
2. Important activities, mainly including inspections, research and other political activities attended by leaders at or above the district level, and the visits of well-known figures at home and abroad to Wuhou District or activities in the district.
3. Events with greater impact, mainly including events that occur in the region that have a significant impact on Chengdu or the district; Commencement and inauguration ceremonies of key construction projects (projects); Reflect the major achievements in education, science and technology, health, culture and sports and economic construction of the jurisdiction, such as the excavation of cultural relics, important archaeological discoveries, maintenance of places of interest and historic sites in the region, large-scale cultural and sports activities and major celebrations, commemorative activities, economic activities, and important achievements with influence; Natural disasters, major accidents, major cases and other events in the region, as well as new things, new things, and strange natural phenomena; Newspapers, radio stations, television and other mainstream media reports on the region (including positive and negative content), as well as important articles and works about the region; Death of a local or relevant local celebrity.
Memorabilia of "Wuhou Yearbook (2022)".
3. Editorial requirements for memorabilia
Memorabilia editors should insist on a clear stance, correct viewpoints, and correct political direction; The materials should be true and accurate, respect history, respect facts, objectively describe the events as they are, and do not make arbitrary comments; Chronicle in chronological order, one event, one thing, avoid several things, and individual events with a short time span can be combined with the end of the chronicle.
Memorabilia of "Wuhou Yearbook (2022)".
(1) The elements are complete. The event elements should include the time, place, event, person, cause, effect, background, and cause and effect.
(2) Writing style. The writing should be written in the third person, and the text should be concise, fluent and simple, and the content should be complete. Try not to use words such as "of", "already", "already", "reach", etc.; Be cautious when using words such as "first", "first", "first", etc., and if used, clarify the scope to ensure authenticity.
(3) The name of the specification. When expressing the abbreviation of national ministries and commissions, "state" is omitted before "ministry", and "state" is retained before "commission" and "bureau"; Other institutions should use standard abbreviations, and enterprises should use the full name as much as possible.
(4) Standardize job titles. There are generally no more than two leadership positions, which are described in the form of "position + person's name", that is, "the highest position + the position related to the incident". Particular attention should be paid to the title of the job standard, for example, "chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress" cannot be written as "director of the people's congress", "head of the Wuhou District Government" cannot be written as "head of Wuhou District", "minister of ××" cannot be written as "minister of ××", and so on.
(5) Descriptions of events with a long time span. If the event (e.g. infrastructure project) lasts for a long time, it can be described at the end of the event at one time, and the whole process can not be described in a scattered manner; For cross-year projects, the overall progress can be recorded at the end of the year.
(6) Descriptions of important events. When describing the publication of important documents, the issuing organ, document number, title, and main content of the document should be clearly defined. When describing important meetings, it is necessary to clarify the full name, time, place, theme or main topic of the meeting (research content), as well as the host, invited participants, representatives of participating units, etc. When describing activities such as the launch, completion ceremony and opening ceremony of key projects, the time, place, and general situation of the project should be clarified, as well as the leaders attending and the heads of relevant units.
(7) Standardize the use of punctuation marks. For example, book titles are used for the titles of laws, regulations, regulations, contracts and other documents, the titles of cultural products, and the names of columns and sections of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations; The names of material products, trademarks, courses, certificates, units, organizations, awards, activities, exhibitions, assemblies, etc., as well as contracts, agreements, and letters of responsibility in general, cannot be used under the title number; When quotation marks and book title numbers are used together, there is no pause in the middle; The names of investment, scientific research and other projects, the names of conferences and units, and the names of honorary titles generally referred to are generally not in quotation marks; Pay attention to the reasonable use of the hyphen "~"""—""-".
(8) Scientifically standardize the use of numbers. For example, the words "about", "near", "exceeding", "below", "left and right", "remaining", etc., should be followed (front) by accurate numbers; Before the number with a decimal place, the word "about" cannot be added; Counting, measuring, and other statistically significant numbers should be in Arabic numerals; Words, idiomatic expressions, abbreviations, etc., formed by numbers, are expressed in Chinese characters, such as 51, 61, 81, etc.
4. Application of memorabilia materials in the compilation of yearbooks
The Wuhou District Chronicle Office has always paid attention to the role of memorabilia in the compilation of yearbooks, especially in the preparation of local comprehensive yearbooks and the writing of text entries.
(1) Memorabilia is the main basis for the preparation of yearbook articles
Memorabilia mainly describes important meetings, important activities, and influential major events in the jurisdiction, so the Wuhou District Chronicle Office has always attached importance to the analysis and study of memorabilia materials, and used them together with important conference materials in the district as the main basis for preparing the yearbook. Before the compilation of the yearbook was launched, the Wuhou District Chronicle Office arranged a special person to sort out the annual memorabilia, sort out some major events and special events, and include them in the outline as an entry to display the annual characteristic content of the yearbook for the reference of all contributors.
(2) Memorabilia and single entries reflect the characteristics of the yearbook
The memorabilia in the "Wuhou Yearbook" has always been in accordance with the standards of "big", "want", "special" and "new", and selects the major events in the economic and social development of Wuhou District in the year, especially those related to people's livelihood. In the overall draft of the yearbook, in accordance with the principle of "concise events and detailed text", the memorabilia and the single entries in the text echo each other, which not only plays the role of leading and retrieving the memorabilia, but also fully demonstrates the annual characteristics of the yearbook. Reasonably describe the attendance of leaders at all levels, investigation and research and other activities, and try not to record the situation of the attendees, so as to avoid the memorabilia becoming the leader's "attendance at the meeting" and "investigation and research record".
For example, in the "Wuhou Yearbook (2023)", the memorabilia "On January 11, the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth District Committee was held", only more than 10 words briefly described the convening of the meeting, and the entry "Second Plenary Meeting of the Eighth District Committee" was set up in the "Important Meetings" sub-heading of the District Committee, which completely described the time, place, main topics, and participants of the meeting; In the memorabilia, it is briefly described that "on May 20, Wuhou District held the 2022 Chengdu Digital Life Consumption Festival and the first Wuhou '520' Online Shopping Festival", and set up a single item "The First Wuhou '520' Online Shopping Festival" under the sub-heading of "E-commerce Industry" in the text to give a detailed description of the activity time, the main promotional content of each sector, and the participating merchants.
After years of practice and summary, the Wuhou District Chronicle Office has formed a relevant norms and mechanisms for collecting and editing memorabilia, insisting that a special person is responsible for collecting and sorting, encouraging all staff to pay attention to and share major events related to Wuhou, and sorting out and editing the "Wuhou District Memorabilia" in a timely and detailed manner through the method of "special person + full staff", and publishing it in a timely manner.
At present, the memorabilia has become an indispensable material and basis for the Wuhou District Geographical Chronicle Office to carry out the work of information and auxiliary governance, the compilation of the Wuhou Yearbook, street chronicles, and community chronicles, and is also the main material content of the compilation of the "Ruling Record" by the Party History Department.
Source: Chengdu Fangzhi
Text/Photo: Xu Jingguo (Local Chronicles Office, Wuhou District, Chengdu)