How Were "The Diary of LI Xingyuan" and "The Chronological Autobiography of ZHANG Jixin" Transcribed and Circulated: An Important Page in Inheriting Rare Modern Chinese Historical Documents by QU Duizhi

"The Diary of LI Xingyuan" and "The Chronological Autobiography of ZHANG Jixin" are both rare historical documents with great value relating to Late Qing and have been widely quoted since their publication in the 1980s. Both the publications were based on their transcripts collected separately in Shanghai and Beijing, which had unexpected connections with QU Duizhi, a famous scholar in 20th century. The transcript of "The Diary of LI Xingyuan" collected in Shanghai was transcribed by the brothers of QU Jueyuan and QU Duizhi, while the written text of "The Chronological Autobiography of ZHANG Jixin" collected in Beijing was transcribed from LI Shengduo's book collection in Peking University Library by QU Duizhi who also introduced it in articles several times, arousing SHEN Yunlong's great interest. In 1947 and 1951, QU Duizhi successively tried to sell the two transcripts to GU Tinglong, yet both failed because of his extortionate bidding. In 1953, the transcript of "The Diary of LI Xingyuan" was stored in Shanghai United Library, and the written text of "The Chronological Autobiography of ZHANG Jixin" by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. QU purposely transcribed and circulated these two kinds of "diary" documents, which not only reflects his special research interest in the Daoguang era in his modern Chinese history studies, but also shows his preference for the official and social inside stories of living institution, custom and culture in his anecdote studies. The circulation of the two transcripts around 1949 indicate that transcription was still an important means of protecting and inheriting ancient documents during the period of the Republic of China, and in addition it reflects the tortuous fates of both scholars and rare documents in the era of drastic changes.