Shèngzǔ Xuányè 聖祖玄燁 / The Kāngxī Emperor
The fourth emperor of the Qīng dynasty (reigned 1661–1722, age 7 to 68 — one of the longest reigns in Chinese history). Personal name Xuányè 玄燁 (Aisin Gioro Xuanye); reign-period name Kāngxī 康熙; posthumous temple-name Shèngzǔ Rén Huángdì 聖祖仁皇帝 (Sage Ancestor Benevolent Imperial Ancestor); the Sìkù tíyào commonly refers to him by the temple-name. Born Shùnzhì 11 (1654); died Kāngxī 61 (1722).
The Kāngxī emperor was the most intellectually engaged of the Qīng emperors, with particular and well-documented personal interest in mathematics, astronomy, music theory, and the natural sciences. He received personal instruction in mathematics and astronomy from the resident Beijing Jesuits — primarily Antoine Thomas (Ānduō 安多), Joachim Bouvet (Bái Jìn 白晉), Jean-François Gerbillon (Zhāng Chéng 張誠), and Tomás Pereira (Xú Rìshēng 徐日昇) — across the 1680s-1700s. The Latin lecture-notes preserved in the Vatican Archives document the imperial student’s level of mathematical engagement; Bouvet’s published account Histoire de l’Empereur de la Chine (Paris, 1697) provides the European-side framing.
The Kāngxī mathematical-and-scientific project culminated in the Lǜlì yuānyuán 律歷淵源 — the great 100-juan imperial synthesis chartered Kāngxī 52 (1713) and printed Yōngzhèng 2 (1724). Its three parts:
(1) Lìxiàng kǎochéng 歷象考成 (KR3f0018) — the astronomical-and-calendrical synthesis (42 juàn).
(2) Lǜlǚ zhèngyì 律呂正義 — the music-theoretical synthesis (5 juàn).
(3) Shùlǐ jīngyùn 數理精蘊 (KR3f0048) — the mathematical synthesis (53 juàn).
The principal editorial direction was carried by the Kāngxī emperor’s son 允祿 Yǔnlù (the Zhuāng qīnwáng, Kāngxī’s 16th son) with 何國宗 Hé Guózōng and Méi Juéchéng 梅㲄成 (梅文鼎 Méi Wéndǐng’s grandson) as principal Chinese-mathematical-staff editors, and various Jesuit consultants in the consulting role. The Kāngxī emperor himself contributed substantial editorial direction; the Lǜlì yuānyuán texts are formally attributed to imperial composition (yùzhì 御製 / qīndìng 欽定 / fèngchì zhuàn 奉敕撰).
Kāngxī’s other intellectual projects of similar scope: the Kāngxī zìdiǎn 康熙字典 dictionary (1716, 47,035 character-headings); the Pèiwén yùnfǔ 佩文韻府 phonological-and-rhyme dictionary (1711); the Quán Táng shī 全唐詩 anthology of Tang poetry (1707); the Zǐshǐ jīnghuá 子史精華 anthology of philosophical-and-historical writings; the Gǔjīn túshū jíchéng 古今圖書集成 grand encyclopedia (substantially completed under Kāngxī, finalized under Yōngzhèng).
The Kāngxī encounter with 梅文鼎 Méi Wéndǐng in 1702 — when Méi Wéndǐng’s Lìxué yíwèn was presented by Lǐ Guāngdì 李光地 to the imperial chariot at Dézhōu, with the imperial bestowal of the four-character calligraphy Jīxué cānwēi 積學參微 and the subsequent summoning of Méi Juéchéng to court — is the foundational moment of imperial-scholarly recognition that established the Méi family’s centrality in the Lǜlì yuānyuán project.
The Kāngxī emperor’s death in December 1722 occurred just before the Lǜlì yuānyuán could be printed; his son the Yōngzhèng emperor completed the project and wrote the imperial preface (October 1723). The Sìkù tíyào of KR3f0018 and KR3f0048 both frame the Lǜlì yuānyuán as Kāngxī’s posthumous monument.