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In 1670, when the Kangxi Emperor was sixteen years old, he issued the Sacred Edict 聖諭 (''Sheng Yu''), consisting of sixteen maxims, each seven characters long, to instruct the average citizen in the basic principles of Confucian orthodoxy. They were to be publicly posted in every town and village, then read aloud two times each month. Since they were written in terse formal classical Chinese, a local scholar was required explicate them using the local dialect of the spoken language. This practice continued into the 20th century.〔Victor Mair, "Language and Ideology in the Sacred Edict," in Andrew J. Nathan David G. Johnson, Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, eds.,, Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, ())〕 In 1724, the second year of his reign, the Yongzheng Emperor issued the ''Shengyu guangxun'' (聖諭廣訓 Amplified instructions on the Sacred Edict) in 10,000 characters. Evidently worried that the seven character lines of his father’s maxims could not be understood by local people, the Yongzheng Emperor's ''Amplified Instructions'' explains "Our text attempts to be clear and precise; our words, for the most part, are direct and simple." The prose is relatively easy to understand for those with a beginning understanding of the literary language. The ''Amplified Instructions'' was also published in a Manchu translation and then in a combined Chinese, Manchu, Mongol version.〔Mair p. 336.〕 ==The Sixteen Maxims== # Highly esteem filial piety and brotherly submission to give due weight to social relations. # Behave generously toward your family to promote harmony and peace. # Cultivate peace within the neighborhood to prevent quarrels and lawsuits. # Respect farming and the cultivation of mulberry trees to ensure sufficient clothing and food. # Be moderate and economical in order to avoid wasting away your livelihood. # Give weight to schools and academies in order to honor the scholar. # Wipe out strange beliefs to elevate the correct doctrine. # Elucidate the laws in order to warn the ignorant and obstinate. # Show propriety and tactful courtesy to elevate customs and manners. # Work diligently in your chosen callings to quiet your ambitions. # Instruct sons and younger brothers to keep them from doing wrong. # Hold back false accusations to safeguard the good and honest. # Warn against sheltering deserters lest you share their punishment. # Promptly and fully pay your taxes lest you need be pressed to pay them. # Join together in hundreds and tithings to end theft and robbery. # Free yourself from enmity and anger to show respect for your body and life.〔Adapted from the translation in deBary, ed., ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'', online at (Sacred Edict ), and the translations by Victor Mair, p. 327 based on the translation of James Legge.〕 The village lecturer might point out that #7 the “strange beliefs” included shamanism, Buddhism, and Daoist, beliefs which many villagers did not regard as at all strange, though they might agree with the edict on the strangeness of Christianity. They would not need to be told that the mulberry mentioned in #4 was fed to silk worms. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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