Rem.: This composite work includes several public writings by Lü Kun, dating to his tenures in Shandong and, especially, Shanxi (see below, bio.), several or even all of them having been published separately before, collected by his disciple, Huguang Inspecting Censor Zhao Wenbing, and published in Huguang in 1598, one year after Lü’s retirement. (The resulting editorial inconsistencies are stressed in Li Yumei’s preface to the 1827 Kaifeng ed., which lists no less than six defects that “need to be rectified”.) J. 1, entitled “Clearly distinguishing functions” (ming zhi 明職), has an introduction (yin 引) by Lü Kun himself, dated 1592. (In the 1797 and 1821 editions it is followed by two lines stating that this is a new engraving realized in 1797 by Lü’s eighth-generation descendant, Lü Yu’an, then magistrate of Zhanhua 霑化.) An explanation of the duties of every official in the provincial structure composed by Lü Kun for distribution to his subordinates in Shanxi, it has been published separately as Mingzhi pian (q.v.). J. 2-4, the longest part of the work, are about “affairs concerning the people” (minwu 民務); in the 1797 engraving [elsewhere?] the table of contents of j. 2 is preceded by a proclamation of Lü Kun (as governor of Shanxi) entitled “An itemized selection of important affairs concerning the people, to be entrusted to the officials for them to look for real results” (為款摘民生要務責成有司以求實效事), which can be considered as a general introduction to these three chapters. They deal with all sorts of topics regarding the moral and material well-being of the people, such as famine relief, grain storage, production, baojia, schools, customs, land surveys, taxes and corvée, and more. J. 5, itself divided into six parts, is about “community compacts and baojia” (xiangjia yue 鄉甲約). J. 6, entitled “A covenant on the censorate” (Fengxian yue 風憲約), deals with the judicial and surveillance duties of the provincial surveillance commissioners (anchashi); it has a separate preface by Chen Dengyun 陳登雲 (“chongkan Fengxian yue xu”, 1593), sometimes placed at the end, and has been published separately under the same title (q.v.). J. 7 is on taking care of prisoners (yuzheng 獄政). J. 8-10, entitled Dufu yue 督撫約 (“A covenant on military governors”) in the 1618 ed., have been expurged from all the Qing editions; they are on military matters and about reinforcing frontier defense against the northern “slaves” (lu 虜), or “Tatar bandits” (Dazei 韃賊), who are the subject of rather scornful comments. They bear the individual titles “Frontier defense” (bianfang 邊防), “Defending cities” (chengshou 城守), and “Loving life” (aisheng 愛生); the last, which appears only in the rarely seen 10-juan eds., is composed of four documents, on fortifications, planting shrubs as a defense, encouraging bravura, and secret recipes to poison the enemy. J. 8 and 9 have been published separately under the titles Dufu yue and Anmin shiwu 安民實務, respectively, and are quoted in many late-Ming military books, including the Wubei zhi 武備志. They are not alluded to in Zhao Wenbing’s preface, meaning that they were not part of the original edition; since in the relatively common 9-juan ed. they are engraved in exactly the same format as the rest, and that j. 1-7 are identical, they were probably added by Zhao after the first 7-juan version had been first printed. There are textual differences between the original 7- or 9-juan eds. and the 10-juan ed. with Fu Shuxun’s 1618 preface, which was apparently engraved in Shanxi as a tribute to Lü Kun’s governorship there during the 1590s. The emendations appear to aim at making the work less Shanxi-specific, more generally usable, and more centered on concrete administrative methods. They might have been decided by Lü Kun himself, who was dissatisfied with the version put out by Zhao Wenbing. The latter might have been published as an effort on the part of Zhao to recapture Lü’s good will after they had been on opposite sides in the political fights at court in the mid-1590s—Zhao having chosen the side that lost the emperor’s favor—but without any input from Lü. (In general it remains to be shown that at least some of the so-called 1598 eds. in 7 j. are not later, sometimes Qing, truncated editions dated 1598 or “Ming” in library catalogues because of the date of the preface. In his DMB biography of Lü Kun, Fang Chao-ying proposes that the original ed. was in 10 juan, but that it was curtailed at the beginning of the Qing into the better-known 7-juan ed.; but this does not seem likely.)
     Much of the contents of the Shizheng lu consist of proclamations and exhortations directed at various types of local officials, at the rural chiefs in charge of the xiangyue and baojia, or at the populace. These texts or their appendices are often in the form of “covenants” (yue 約 or tiaoyue 條約), in other words regulations whose correct execution depends on the collaboration of the rural chiefs “elected” by their constituencies with officials. All the documents quoted date from Lü’s tenure as touring censor (1589-1591) or governor (xunfu, 1592-1593) of Shanxi; they are extremely rich on the socio-economic circumstances of that province in the late sixteenth century. Despite its variegated contents—making it at the same time a general description of the administrative structure of a province, an anthology of gongdu by a provincial official, a treatise on judicial administration, and (in the Ming editions) a treatise on defense—the Shizheng lu was commonly regarded as a handbook for local officials: Thus, Zou Yuanbiao’s preface to the ed. entitled Juguan biyao claims that it can stimulate those in charge of administering the populace (mumin zhi zezhe 牧民之責者). While it does not seem to have had much impact in the Ming, and was actually not mentioned in connection with Lü Kun and his oeuvre, the work exerted a tremendous influence on statecraft-minded intellectuals during the entire Qing period, was cited or quoted by innumerable handbook authors, and was even put in practice by some local officials.