The History of Ming or the Ming History (Míng Shǐ) is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It was written by a number of officials commissioned by the court of Qing dynasty, with Zhang Tingyu as the lead editor. The compilation started in the era of the Shunzhi Emperor and was completed in 1739 in the era of the Qianlong Emperor, though most of the volumes were written in the era of the Kangxi Emperor. The sinologist Endymion Wilkinson writes that the Mingshi, the second longest of the Twenty-Four Histories, after the History of Song, is "generally reckoned to be one of the best of the Histories and one of the easiest to read." Background After the Qing dynasty had extended its rule into the Central Plain, in the second year of the Shunzhi Emperor, the Censor Zhao Jiding (趙繼鼎) was asked to compile the History of Ming. On May of the second year of the Shunzhi Emperor, the court of Qing dynasty established the committee consisted of the Grand Secretary Feng Quan, Li Jiantai, Fan Wencheng, Gang Lin, and Qi Chongge as the presidents to operate the compilation of the History of Ming. In the same year, the presidents nominated the vice presidents and compilers, and also nominated seven Zhang Guans, ten transcribers of Manchu language, and thirty-six transcribers of Chinese language to lift the curtain on compiling the History of Ming. The Qing deliberately excluded references and information that showed the Jurchens (Manchus) as subservient to the Ming dynasty, from the History of Ming to hide their former subservient relationship to the Ming. The Veritable Records of Ming were not used to source content on Jurchens during Ming rule in the History of Ming because of this. Process Stage 1 The official compiling of History of Ming started on May 2 in the second year of Shunzhi Emperor. At that time, which is the early years that the Qing first entered and hosted the Central Plain. With the obvious purpose of compiling the History of Ming, the Qing dynasty intended to declare the collapse of Ming, however, the court of Hongguang (founded by the Ming imperial clan) with capital of Nanjing was antagonistic to the Qing, and the compiling of History of Ming was the