在1985年庆祝故宫博物院建院60周年的纪念活动中,一位来自大洋彼岸的美国女学者,作为中方正式邀请的15位外国嘉宾之一,来到北京,参加了这次隆重的纪念活动。她,就是被美国报界誉为“研究中国档案的一流专家”,耶鲁大学历史系白彬菊教授。历史档案作为研究历史的第一手资料,其价值历来为广大史学工作者所重视。中国历史悠久,给人们留下了大量的档案资料和典籍。由于其数量之巨、内容之庞杂,加上以往的动乱,影响了历史档案正常的开放利用。面对卷帙浩繁的案卷,正如迷宫寻宝,稍乏恒心者往往望而生畏,踌躇裹足。然而正是这些沉睡了几百年的故纸,引起了白彬菊女士无限的兴趣,并为此进行了将近20年的专门研究。她曾这么写道:“清代档案是中国历史研究领域中最为令人心醉的 In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National Palace Museum in 1985, an American female scholar from across the Taiwan Ocean came to Beijing as one of the 15 foreign guests officially invited by China and took part in this grand commemorative event. She was hailed by the press in the United States as a “first-class expert on Chinese archives,” and Professor Bai Binju from the Department of History at Yale University. Historical archives as the first-hand information on history, its value has always been valued by the majority of historians. China has a long history, which has given people a lot of archives and books. Due to its huge quantity and complicated content, as well as the previous unrest, the normal opening and utilization of historical archives has been affected. The face of voluminous voluminous files, just as the maze of treasure hunt, a little lack of perseverance often daunting, hesitate to wrap foot. However, it is these old paper that has been sleeping for hundreds of years, which has caused the infinite interest of Ms. Bai Binju and carried out nearly 20 years of specialized research. She once wrote: "The archives of the Qing Dynasty were the most enticing in the field of Chinese history