明帝國幅員遼闊，文官體系龐大，為因應各級官員充分了解國家大政的需求，乃先有朝報（又稱通報），接著又有邸報的流通，且隨著時代演進，越來越普及。晚明時期，邸報漸成知識份子輿論的承載工具，他們藉此快速接收政治訊息，交換彼此意見，凝聚共識，進而發揮監督國政功能，乃至影響政府政策擬定和人事升黜。
邸報既載有大量上諭、奏疏，自可成為治史者重要參考依據，且因流佈廣泛，成本不高，一般知識份子均不難取得，所以開啟了明末清初布衣修史風氣之契機。邸報的時效性和龐大數量，反不利於其長期保存，迄今只有少數殘件和史書中所引述部分存留。然我們仍可據此一探原始邸報之體例和利用價值，且惟有經過嚴謹的考證分析，邸報史料才能有效的被使用於現代史學研究。

The Ming Empire, with a vast territory and a complicated bureaucracy, needed a communication system to transmit political messages throughout the country. Residential Reports（Ti-pao，邸報）as a transmission vehicle, served well to integrate the empire. The intellectuals in Ming times soon found Residential Reports a useful tool to gather information of current events all over the country submitted to the court at Peking, as well as using it to communicate with their peers and thereafter to form public opinions. Then, in the late Ming, the intellectuals’ opinions mainly expressed on Residential Reports even, to a certain extent, directed the policy-making of the central government and influenced the promotions or demotions of officials.
Due to its time-oriented nature and enormous amounts, Residual Reports are only kept to the present time in the forms of fragmentary remains or pieces within books. With these limited evidences, we, however, still can try hard to reconstruct and evaluate the essence of Residential Reports. Ti-pao can be properly used as materials for historical research only after having been fully explored.