A History of Chinese Literature

The second Emperor of the Manchu dynasty, known to the world by his year-title K`ANG HSI, succeeded to the throne in 1662 when he was only eight years of age, and six years later he took up the reins of government. Fairly tall and well-proportioned, he loved all manly exercises and devoted three months annually to hunting. Large bright eyes lighted up his face, which was pitted with small-pox. Contemporary observers vie in praising his wit, understanding, and liberality of mind. Indefatigable in government, he kept a careful watch on his Ministers, his love for the people leading him to prefer economy to taxation. He was personally frugal, yet on public works he would lavish large sums. He patronised the Jesuits, whom he employed in surveying the empire, in astronomy, and in casting cannon; though latterly he found it necessary to impose restrictions on their propagandism. In spite of war and rebellion, which must have encroached seriously upon his time, he found leisure to initiate and carry out, with the aid of the leading scholars of the day, several of the greatest literary enterprises the world has ever seen. The chief of these are (1) the /K`ang Hsi Tzu Tien/, the great standard dictionary of the Chinese language; (2) the /P`ei Wên Yün Fu/, a huge concordance to all literature, bound up in forty-four large closely- printed volumes; (3) the /P`ien Tzu Lei P`ien/, a similar work, with a different arrangement, bound up in thirty-six large volumes; (4) the Yüan Chien Lei Han/, an encyclopedia, in 1628 volumes of about 200 pages to each. To the above must be added a considerable collection of literary remains, in prose and verse, which, of course, were actually the Emperor's own work. It cannot be said that any of these remains are of a high order, or are familiar to the public at large, with a single and trifling exception. The so-called Sacred Edict is known from one end of China to the other. It originally consisted of sixteen moral maxims delivered in 1670 under the form of an edict by the Emperor K`ang Hsi. His Majesty himself had just reached the mature age of sixteen. He had then probably discovered that men's morals were no longer what they had been in the days of "ancient kings, " and with boyish earnestness he made a kindly effort to do something for the people whose welfare was destined to be for so many years to come his chief and most absorbing care. The maxims are commonplace enough, but for the sake of the great Emperor who loved his "children" more than himself they have been exalted into utterances almost divine. Here are the first, seventh, and eleventh maxims, as specimens: "Pay great attention to filial piety and to brotherly obedience, in order to give due weight to human relationships."

-"Discard strange doctrines, in order to glorify the orthodox teaching."