The institute’s duties and functions are:

1. Collect, catalogue, and conduct research on images, books, archives, and manuscripts from the Ming and Qing imperial courts.

2. Provide scholarly suggestions for reconstructing the original layout of palace halls in the Palace Museum.

Institute of Ming and Qing Archival Research is one of the six recently launched institutes. Its short term research schedule is as follows:

First Term, 2015 to 2017: i) complete the writing of the first set of eight volumes of Research on Palace Regulations and Institutions during the Qing Dynasty (Qingdai gongting dianzhang zhidu yanjiu) on ritual and ceremony, imperial succession, vehicles and garments, official court documentation, imperial gardens, imperial guards, tombs and mausolea, and imperial inspections; ii) assist in writing entries for the volume on court history during the Ming and Qing dynasties in the upcoming encyclopedia of the Palace Museum; iii) initiate research on poetry by Qing emperors; and iv) initiate research on imperial edicts and orders.

Second Term, 2018 to 2020: i) finish research on imperial edicts and orders; and ii) continue foundational work on Research on Palace Regulations and Institutions during the Qing Dynasty (Qingdai gongting dianzhang zhidu yanjiu) for a second set of volumes on various topics including empresses and concubines, princes and princesses, eunuchs and palace women, imperial daily life and education, feasts, the Court Theatrical Office (Shengping shu) and theatrical performance, compilation and publication of books, the imperial household’s financial management, and regulatory institutions of the imperial family.

This institute is affiliated with the Research Office.

Director: Zhu Chengru, Deputy Directors: Ren Wanping, Zhao Zhongnan