清官修《明史》歷經90余年,萬斯同《明史稿》、王鴻緒《明史稿》及張廷玉主持修纂的殿本《明史》,是不同撰修階段最為重要的明史書。對于萬歷朝鮮之役人物傳記的歷史書寫,萬斯同頗為重視,王鴻緒不夠重視,張廷玉則加以否定和抹殺。在張廷玉的《明史》中,《神宗本紀》奠定否定朝鮮之役的基調;東征朝鮮明將領的入傳,或因家族,或因播州之役,或因遼東事變,幾乎無人是因朝鮮之役入傳的;《朝鮮傳》對于相關人物與戰役,采取否定、貶低的負面評價。其原因一方面是由于史源影響,《明神宗實錄》的編者因為楊鎬要為薩爾滸之敗負責,實錄中也就依從丁應泰的說法,否定楊鎬及明軍在朝鮮的戰績;另一方面是出于現實政治的需要,因為東征朝鮮的將士后來在遼東成為后金的對手,為了塑造清朝的正統性,必須對他們采取否定態度。這是決定清官修《明史》對萬歷朝鮮之役歷史書寫的兩個主要原困。

Compilation of the official Ming History(Ming Shi)by imperial officials took more than 90years.In different stages of the project,Wan Sitong’s Ming Shi Gao(Draft Ming History),Wang Hongxu’s work with the same name and Zhang Tingyu’s imperial edition of the Ming Historyconstitute the most important versions of Ming history.Wan Sitong gave considerable attention to the biographies of participants in the Wanli era Korean campaign;Wang Hongxu gave them scant notice;and Zhang Tingyu repudiated and obliterated them.In the latter’s Ming History,"Imperial Annals of Emperor Shenzong"(Shenzong Benji)sets the tone for the negation of the Korean campaign.Those of the campaign’s generals who gained a biography in the history did so either because of family connections or because they were involved in the Bozhou campaign or the Liaodong incident;almost none was admitted to the history on the strength of participation in the Korean campaign.The section on Korea gives a negative evaluation of the relevant figures and the campaign,rejecting and belittling them.The reasons for this were twofold.One was the influence of the history’s source material:since Yang Gao had to be held responsible for the defeat in the battle of Sa’erhu,the compilers of the Veritable Record of the Ming Emperor Shenzong(Ming Shenzong Shilu)accepted Ding Yingtai’s version of events and rejected the military feats of Yang Gao and the Ming army in Korea.The other arose from immediate political needs.Because the forces that participated in the eastern expedition to Korea subsequently became opponents of the later Jin dynasty in Liaodong,they had to be given a negative appraisal in order to foster Qing legitimacy.These factors determined the attitude of the Qing dynasty’s official Ming Historyto the Wanli Korean campaign.