Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì shèngxùn 聖祖仁皇帝聖訓
Imperial Instructions of Shèngzǔ, the Benevolent Emperor by 世宗 (敕編)
About the work
The largest of the Qīng dynastic shèngxùn, in 60 juàn, compiling the pronouncements of the Kāngxī 康熙 emperor (Shèngzǔ 聖祖, 1654–1722, r. 1661–1722) over his unprecedented 61-year reign. The work was edited by his son and successor the Yōngzhèng 雍正 emperor (Shìzōng 世宗) with a preface dated Yōngzhèng 9 / 12 / 20 (1731), as the companion volume to the 1722–1731 imperial compilation of the Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì shílù 聖祖仁皇帝實錄 in 1000 juàn (the longest shílù of any Chinese dynasty). A second imperial preface by the Qiánlóng emperor, dated Qiánlóng 6 / 3 / 24 (1741), was added at the time of printing.
Tiyao
This work has no formal 提要 block in the WYG frontmatter — the text begins immediately with the Yōngzhèng and Qiánlóng prefaces and proceeds directly into the table of contents.
Abstract
The tíyào function in this case is performed by the Yōngzhèng emperor’s own preface of 1731, which states the editorial method explicitly: “the Veritable Records are an annalistic book … but our Imperial Father responded to the times and dispensed transformation in the manner of Heaven’s way; in each item of his teaching, looking up to one juàn, the sage plan stands unalterable through the ages. Of the Six Classics and the histories of all transmission, each has both warp and weft; in His Majesty’s divine merit and sage virtue I have observed in heart and body — taking the Veritable Records as warp and the Sage Instructions as weft. In the chronological annals one sees the appropriateness of times; in the categorical arrangement one sees the essence of each matter.” The 60 juàn are arranged into a substantially expanded set of categorical headings reflecting the Kāngxī reign’s complexity: governance, moral cultivation, court ritual, military campaigns (the Three Feudatories war, Galdan, Tibet), examination administration, water-control, foreign relations, and the major scholarly projects (the Kāngxī zìdiǎn, Pèiwén yùnfǔ, Gǔjīn túshū jíchéng). The compilation is thus the principal categorically-arranged precis of the Kāngxī reign and was relied upon by all subsequent Qīng zhèngshū compilers. The Qiánlóng preface of 1741 emphasizes that the editing under Yōngzhèng was an act of filial jìshù 繼述 — continuation and exposition — paralleling Yōngzhèng’s compilation of his father’s Tíngxùn géyán 庭訓格言 (KR3a0103).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. For Kāngxī-period state documentation generally see Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang-hsi (1974) — based primarily on the Shèngzǔ shèng-xùn and Tíng-xùn gé-yán; Pei Huang, Reorienting the Manchus (2011); Pamela Crossley, A Translucent Mirror (1999).
Other points of interest
At 60 juàn this is by far the most extensive of the Qīng shèngxùn; it dwarfs the 4-, 6-, and 6-juàn compilations for Tàizǔ, Tàizōng, and Shìzǔ respectively. The disproportion reflects both the length of Kāngxī’s reign and the great volume of his preserved pronouncements in the qǐjūzhù 起居注 — the “diary of activity and repose,” which Kāngxī was the first Qīng emperor to have systematically kept in both Manchu and Chinese.
Links
- Wikidata: Kangxi Emperor
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7.