Kuo-ch'üeh [Guoque] 國榷 (about 1653) ... by Tan Qian 談遷著 (1594-January 1658), a Ming loyalist, from Haining 海寧, Zhejiang ....(see entry for Huang Zongxi's date reference). "Probably the most important work of the annalistic pattern on the whole Ming period from 1328 to 1645. The last twenty-five years are dealt with more extensively, taking up more than one-sixth of the whole work. The first draft was stolen from the author by robbers in 1647; the new text was completed about 1635 and transmitted in a number of more or less varying and incomplete manuscript copies. A new edition [this ed.] based on the collation of several different manuscript-copies has been prepared by Zhang Zongxiang 張宗祥, divided into 104 juan and four introductory juan ... and published in six volumes in 1958 ...". Cf. Franke, W. Introduction to the sources of Ming history, p. 38.

"Guoque 國榷 (Evaluation of the work of our dynasty), Tan Qian 談遷著 (1594-1658). Useful for basic chronology. Also in some cases it has a clearer account than in the Mingshi, especially of Ming relations with the Jianzhou 建州 Jurchen." Cf. Wilkinson, Chinese history, a manual, p. 881.