Research Guides: Collections and Resources on China: Archival / Primary Sources

Archival / Primary Source databases @ UofT

Archives collect and preserve original documents of organizations such as governments, churches, and universities. These original documents provide precious original resources to researchers. In recent years, there have been many projects worldwide to digitize select archival materials and make them accessible online. In spite of this, due to a combination of technological, legal, cultural, or political factors, most archival sources remain in paper format, and gaining access to some of them may present special challenges. Here at the U of T, the library has acquired the following archival databases related to Chinese Studies:

清內閣大庫檔案 / Grand secretariat archives.
For questions or problems, please contact lucy.gan@utoronto.ca .
This database has over 4,000 Ming (1368-1644) documents and 300,000 Qing (1644-1911) documents, including imperial decrees, edicts, memorials, Keju examination papers, documents of the Grand Secretariat Office, etc. Its comprehensiveness makes it an invaluable source for scholars studying political, economic, and social life of Ming and Qing.
Scripta Sinica Database / 漢籍電子文獻資料庫
In the landing page, find and click “授權使用” (authorized use) to access the database.
Translations of the Peking Gazette Online
Translations of the Peking Gazette Online is a comprehensive database of approximately 8,500 pages of English-language renderings of official edicts and memorials from the Qing dynasty that cover China’s long nineteenth century from the Macartney Mission in 1793 to the abdication of the last emperor in 1912.
台灣日治時期期刊集成 / Japanese Colonial Periodicals of Taiwan
This is a historical archive of dozens of periodicals published in Taiwan during the period of Japanese colonial occupation (1895-1945).
China and the Modern World
China and the Modern World is a series of digital archive collections sourced from preeminent libraries and archives across the world, including the Second Historical Archives of China and the British Library. The series covers a period of about 180 years (1800s to 1980s) when China experienced radical and often traumatic transformations from an inward-looking imperial dynasty into a globally engaged republic.
East India Company
East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, etc.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
Food and Drink in History
Chinese Maritime Customs Service : the Customs' gazette, 1869-1913
A collection of quarterly reports on trade published from 1869 to 1913 by the predominantly British-run Chinese Maritimes Customs Service (1854-1949).
China from Empire to Republic: Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China, 1854-1949
A primary source collection from the Maritime Customs Service of China that covers relations between China and the Imperial West in the late Qing and Republican periods.
Papers of Old Shanghai: Press, Education, Healthcare, and Charity, 1863–1948
This collection includes early books on the history of the Chinese Press in Shanghai; a directory of newspapers; catalogues, handbooks, reports, and student journals produced by educational institutions; studies on Christian education in China; a series of reports by the city's health organization; and historical accounts generated about or by charitable organizations.
Papers of Old Shanghai: Business, Banking, and Insurance, 1874–1949
This collection includes reports, documents, books, and pamphlets created by Chinese- and foreign-owned firms and companies in the late Qing and Republican eras.
Minutes of the Shanghai Municipal Council
A collection of minutes from meetings held by the Board of Directors of the Shanghai Municipal Council during its tenure. The Shanghai Municipal Council was founded by a group of Western businessmen to govern the daily matters and infrastructure in the Shanghai International Settlement (1863–1941), and by the mid-1880s had gained a practical monopoly over the city’s businesses.
Shanghai Municipal Council: The Municipal Gazette, 1908-1940
The complete collection of the official organ of the Shanghai Municipal Council, containing all 35 volumes of the weekly Shanghai Municipal Gazette (1908 -1942), which published notifications, departmental reports, letters from readers, minutes of Council meetings, municipal budget, monthly summary of revenue, financial statements on income and expenditures, policies and orders formulated by the council.
Policing the Shanghai International Settlement, 1894-1945
A primary source collection from the Special Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Police, covering topics including collecting intelligence on political demonstrations, strikes, labor and social unrest, foreign and domestic subversive activities, and areas of dispute between the International Settlement and the Chinese government. In particular, the database has an extensive coverage of by the Special Branch dossier files dating from 1929-1945.
German Foreign Relations and Military Activities in China, 1919-1935
A collection of German Foreign Ministry records documenting Germany's relations with China after World War I till the Second Sino-Japanese War.
China : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1930-1939 : part 1
Collections of instructions to and dispatches from US diplomatic and consular staff. Parts 1 spans 1930-1939, covering political and governmental affairs; records on Bolshevism, fascism, Nazism, and socialism; issues relating to public order; military and naval affairs.
Political relations and conflict between republican China and imperial Japan, 1930-1939 : records of the U.S. State Department
The records in this collection relate to political relations between China and Japan for the period 1930 -1939.
China : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1930-1939 : part 2
Collections of instructions to and dispatches from US diplomatic and consular staff. Parts 2 spans 1930-1939, covering social issues such as education, entertainment and communications; the public press; economy and industry; and other topics.
China : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1940-1944.
China in the Second World War is the focus of this collection.
China : records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1949
This archive is based on the microfilm title Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of China, 1945-1949. Part of the General Record of the Department of State, the files are in Class 8: Internal Affairs of States. The document are primarily instructions to -- and dispatches from -- U.S. diplomatic and consular staff. Subjects include politics, military affairs, economy, and society, with separate files on provinces such as Manchuria, Yunnan, and Tibet.
Records of the U.S. Information Service in China: Chinese Press Reviews and Summaries, 1944-1950
A collection of reviews of Chinese press and translations of radio broadcasts from the Chinese Civil War period, consisting of 13 smaller press collections. The materials help readers to understand immediate post-World War II Chinese history, comparative revolution, and early Cold War history.

Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1948 This link opens in a new window
The six parts of this collection make available all British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980:

1919-1929: Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International
1930-1937: The Long March, civil war in China and the Manchurian Crisis
1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory
1949-1956: The Communist revolution
1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward
1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution

China: culture and society : the Wason pamphlet collection, Cornell University
A collection of rare pamphlets from Cornell University’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia, spanning three centuries from around 1750 to the early 20th century.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
This digital collection has English sources relating to China and the West, covering aspects of Chinese history since the late 18th century.
Chinese Civil War and U.S.-China Relations: Records of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955
A primary source collection on different aspects of Chinese life immediately before, during, and after the Chinese Communist Revolution (1945-1950). Items were amassed by the US State Department’s Office of Chinese Affairs, covering Chinese domestic issues and American relations with and policies on China.
Economic Cooperation Administration’s Relief Mission in Post-War China, 1946-1948
A primary source collection that documents how officials of the U.S. Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) looked for economic and cultural opportunities to promote US-China relations, despite the anti-Communist sentiments of the early Cold War era.
General George C. Marshall’s Mission to China, 1945-1947
A collection of meeting minutes, reports, and memoranda prepared by U.S. advisers for the American special envoy to China George C. Marshall. Marshall was sent in 1945 to negotiate a cease-fire to the Chinese Civil War and prevent growing Soviet influence, but left China in 1947 without a solution.
Records of US State Department’s Division of Chinese Affairs
This collection consists of inter and intra-departmental memos, reports, position papers, summaries, maps, photographs, and despatches (from US Foreign Service officers and military personnel) relating to the internal political affairs of China and United States foreign policy toward China. Source Note: RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, Office of Chinese Affairs, 1949-1961, Entry 399 and Entry 399A.
Subject Files of US State Department’s Office of the Republic of China Affairs, 1951-1978
A collection of briefing books, correspondence, memoranda, policy papers, reports, statistics, and other miscellaneous records from the US Office of the Country Director for the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China Relations, 1989-1993
A collection of documents from White House Office of Records Management (WHORM) Subject File categories and the Staff and Office Files documenting the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing from April 14 to June 4th, 1989, and responses from the Chinese government, the Americanpeople, and the Bush White House.
Area Studies: China and Southeast Asia
China, America and the Pacific : trade & cultural exchange.
World's Fairs : a global history of expositions
ProQuest History Vault
ProQuest History Vault collects key archival materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Primary sources included are organized into modules by subject.
Secret files from World Wars to Cold War: intelligence, strategy and diplomacy.
The database provides access to British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1936 to 1953, with a focus on World War II. The primary documents are sourced from the National Archives (UK).
South Asia archive
The database collects materials sourced from collectors and archivists by the South Asia Research Foundation.
Archives Unbound - Asian Studies

Archival reprints @ EAL

The East Asian Library has been collecting reprint copies of archival materials on various topics related to China. Their information is available through the library catalogue. Below are some select titles of such resources:

中共重要历史文献资料汇编

***** Table of contents for the parts of 中共重要历史文献资料汇编, which have been acquired by EAL, is viewable and searchable online via https://archive.org/details/20220427_202205/page/68/mode/2up

Select open access archival projects

International Dunhuang Project (國際敦煌項目)
The International Dunhuang Project is an international digitization project that aims to promote the study and preservation of manuscripts and printed documents from Dunhuang and other Central Asian sites through global cooperation. Beginning in 1994, IDP has till now made tens of thousands of images together with catalogues, translations, historical photographs, archaeological site plans and much
more freely available to all on the Internet.
國立故宮博物院（台灣）清代檔案檢索系統
提供院藏清代宮中檔奏摺、軍機處檔摺件、檔冊、大清國史人物列傳及史館檔傳包傳稿等清代文獻之後設資料（metadata）及影像圖檔。
Harvard-Yenching Library Digitization Project -- Manchu Rare Books (滿文檔案及珍本書)
Historical Chinese Contracts and Documents, University of Macau / 澳门大学契约文书全文影像库
This is an online collection, held and digitized by the University of Macau Library, that consists of more than 100 ancient documents and contracts dating from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China.
Digital Archiving of Taiwan’s Calligraphy, Painting and Historical Document, late 18th - mid 20th century (日治時期臺灣書畫與文書史料數位典藏計畫)
Taiwan Memory (台湾记忆)
David Hawkes Archive
The online archive results from a digitization project undertaken by the Chinese University of Hong Kong to digitize the works and papers of Professor David Hawke, including his original translation manuscript of The Story of the Stone (石頭記, Chapter 2 ~ Chapter 80).
Harvard-Yenching Library: Chinese Maritime Digitization Project (中國舊海關資料)
Chinese Republican Period (1911-1949) Collection (哈佛燕京圖書館藏民國時期文獻)
Image files of 1047 Chinese publications from the Republican periods, most of them are the government reports. Click on the link above to search Harvard's HOLLIS for the list of items.
Yale University -- Nanking Massacre Project (南京大屠殺)
A Digital Archive of Documents & Photographs from American Missionaries Who Witnessed the Rape of Nanking. The project is from the Special Collections of the Yale Divinity School Library.
Tokyo War Crimes Trial
After World War II ended, Allied forces established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, known informally as the Tokyo War Crimes trial, to prosecute the Japanese officials involved with launching the war. The trial took place from April 1946 to November 1948 and resulted in death sentences for seven of the defendants and prison terms for the remaining war criminals. The Tokyo War Crimes Trial is a massive digital exhibition of historical documents related to the trial, posted by the Virginia Law Library. At the heart of the collection is a treasure trove of more than 20,500 original documents donated to the Law School in 1978 by the family of Frank Stacy Tavenner, a 1927 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, who was the assistant chief prosecutor of the Tokyo War Crimes trial.
Harvard Yenching Library Literary Chinese Republican Period, 1911-1949 (哈佛燕京圖書館民國時期文獻)
The Maoist Legacy
中国民间档案馆 / China Unofficial Archives
This site is dedicated to making accessible the key documents, films, blogs, and publications of a movement of Chinese people seeking to reclaim their country's history. Unlike official government or university archives, the China Unofficial Archives is open, free, and accessible to anyone from any walk of life.
Folk History Archive / 民間歷史檔案庫
This online guide archives memoirs and oral histories of China, collected through the Folk History project of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Links to major Chinese archives

Chinese Archival Handbook Collection (中国档案馆指南)
This online collection of Chinese archival handbooks (档案馆指南), with a geographic interface for easy browsing, has been built by Princeton's East Asian Library to provide detailed descriptions on archival collections within mainland Chinese archives. It now supports discovery of more than 300 handbooks from the national to the county level.
中國第一歷史檔案館 (The First Historical Archives of China)
The First Historical Archives of China is located in Beijing and has China's central government archives of Ming and Qing dynasties. Its online catalog is available through the link http://www.lsdag.com/docc/qzml.asp.
中國第二歷史檔案館 (The Second Historical Archives of China)
The Second Historical Archives of China is located in Nanjing, China. It is home to the largest historical archives of the Republican Era in China.
Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (臺灣中研院近代史研究所檔案館)
This is an important repository for documents on the diplomatic and economic history of the Republic of China (ROC).
Academia Historica (國史館)
Academia Historica has archival holdings for the Qing, the Republic of China, and the history of Taiwan.
Beijing Municipal Archives (北京市档案局/馆)
Shanghai Municipal Archives (上海档案信息网)
Taiwan Historica (國史館台灣文獻館)
It has holdings for Taiwan history, including records from the Japanese colonial administration.
Repository of National Historical Materials (國家歷史資料庫)
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The site is a research portal developed by Academia Historica and the National Digital Archives Program to provide direct access to materials on Taiwan's postwar history.
National Palace Museum (臺灣國立故宮博物院)
This website has information on the museum’s holdings of Qing palace memorials and military archives, rare books, genealogies, etc., digitization projects, and some materials and search engines are already accessible online.
Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (中央研究院近代歷史研究所)
It has archival holdings primarily on economic and diplomatic history.
Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (中央研究院歷史語言研究所)
It has part of the archives of the Qing Grand Council (清内閣大庫檔案).
Stanford University -- Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Asian Collections
The website has t rare publications and archival materials assembled by government officials, diplomats, military personnel, businessmen, missionaries, journalists, scholars, and private individuals chronicle social, economic, and political conditions in Asian countries. Special strength is in documenting Asia’s transformations in the late nineteenth to twentieth centuries, with a focus on contemporary affairs too.
KMT Party Archives (中國國民黨黨史館)
It has archival holdings on the history of the KMT and the CCP. It also has historical Chinese periodicals and newspapers from the Republican era.

Research Guides

Collections and Resources on China

Archival / Primary Source databases @ UofT

Archival reprints @ EAL

Select open access archival projects

Links to major Chinese archives

Library links

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