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Collectors love Huang Li, especially those from crucial years or that reveal key incidents of the time. Take the “Almanac of the thirty-fifth Year of Emperor Guangxu, Qing Dynasty” as an example. There was not a thirty-fifth year of the Emperor Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was supposed to be year 1909, first year of the next and the last emperor of Qing, the Emperor Xuantong. Huang Li of a year was generally printed at the end of its last year. However, the regime of Guangxu changed so abruptly that the print department didn’t even expect it. It turned out that the ultimate version of Huang Li of 1909 has a red stamp of “First Year of Emperor Xuantong” on its cover, in correction.

A similar accident happened to the fourth year’s almanac of Emperor Xuantong. He accepted a retirement deal and surrendered the throne at the end of his third year, when next year’s Huang Li had already been issued. The new almanac then kept a record of the incident. After that an 80-day empire had its own Huang Li issued in 1915, and never has one empire come into existence again. In 2000, the Museum of Chinese History bought these almanacs and added to its exhibition.

By Liu Rong

Editor: Hu Zhicheng