Tàizǔ Gāohuángdì shèngxùn 太祖高皇帝聖訓
Imperial Instructions of Tàizǔ, the Lofty Emperor by 聖祖 (敕編)
About the work
A four-juàn compilation, in 26 categorical headings and 92 entries, of pronouncements by the Qīng founder Nǔěrhāchì 努爾哈赤 (Nurhaci, posthumously Tàizǔ Chéngtiānguǎngyùn shèngdé shéngōng zhàojì lìjí rénxiào ruìwǔ hóngwén dìngyè gāohuángdì 太祖承天廣運聖德神功肇紀立極仁孝睿武弘文定業高皇帝). It was edited by his great-grandson Xuányè 玄燁, the Kāngxī emperor (Shèngzǔ 聖祖, 1654–1722), with a preface dated Kāngxī 25 (1686), then re-prefaced and printed by the Qiánlóng emperor in Qiánlóng 4 (1739). The work belongs to the genre of imperial shèngxùn 聖訓 — categorically arranged anthologies of an emperor’s instructions extracted from the veritable records and other archival sources, designed both as private jiāfǎ 家法 for the imperial family and as public moral exemplar.
Tiyao
The four juàn of the Sage Instructions of Tàizǔ Gāohuángdì were respectfully edited by the Kāngxī (Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì 聖祖仁皇帝) emperor in Kāngxī 25 (1686) — 92 entries arranged under 26 headings. In Qiánlóng 4 (1739) our emperor (the Gāozōng Qiánlóng emperor, “皇上”) composed an imperial preface and the work was published. Anciently, when Míng’s last reign was unsettled and the heavenly mandate had returned, our perfected ancestor first emerged: brilliant in intelligence and matched to the times, gifted with wisdom and courage to rectify the age. With thirteen sets of armour he raised an army of righteousness; opening the great enterprise, he shook off ferocity and dispersed evil portents. Looking up to the days of his reign, those who carried banners and grasped halberds were many; yet outwardly he projected the heavenly authority, and inwardly he cultivated kingly governance. In statecraft and creation he combined civil and martial talents — his every directive a normative teaching. Just as the Yellow Emperor fought seventy battles and his words were inscribed on his gauntlet, just as Tāng of Shāng campaigned eleven times and his meaning was made plain in his oaths and proclamations, so do these sayings stand on a par with antiquity. But because in the dynasty’s earliest days the standards were transmitted only orally by old retainers, the records were not detailed; Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì therefore looked back upon the prior labour and respectfully assembled this compilation, illuminating the imperial design of a thousand ages and bequeathing the family ordinance of ten-thousand years. The Shū says, “they laid the foundation for our successors, all in correctness and without flaw” — the founding scope is here glimpsed and seen. Reverently presented in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 48 (1783). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Of the four canonical shèngxùn of the early Qīng (Tàizǔ, Tàizōng, Shìzǔ, Shèngzǔ) edited under Kāngxī and his immediate successors, this is the first. The Manchu founder Nurhaci (1559–1626) himself produced no written corpus, but his yùzhǐ 諭旨 and oral pronouncements survived in the Mǎnzhōu shílù 滿洲實錄 and the Qīng shílù’s Tàizǔ section, from which the Kāngxī editors extracted, translated (where Manchu), and arranged the 92 entries. The 26 headings — jìng tiān 敬天 (revering Heaven), shèng xiào 聖孝 (sage filial piety), shén wǔ 神武 (divine martial virtue), zhì lüè 智略 (wisdom and strategy), kuān rén 寛仁 (liberality), and so on through to jǐn shìhào 謹嗜好 (caution about indulgences) — establish a thematic grid that becomes the template for the subsequent imperial shèngxùn of the dynasty. The work is part of the wider Kāngxī project of ancestor-veneration through textual fixation, parallel to the compilation of the Mǎnzhōu Yuánliú kǎo and to the great genealogical-canonical labours of the Qiánlóng era.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. On the genre, see Pierre-Étienne Will, “L’œuvre la plus connue d’un homme d’État oublié” and the broader literature on early Qīng yù-zhǐ and shèng-xùn compilation. The standard catalog notice is in the Sì-kù quánshū zǒng-mù tí-yào 史部·詔令奏議類·詔令之屬.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §65.3.7 (Edicts and memorials of the Ming–Qīng).
- Wikidata: Nurhaci