Shengyu guangxun 聖諭廣訓

Shengyu guangxun 聖諭廣訓 "Imperial Edicts and Wide-Reaching Instructions" is a book on education written by the Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝 (r. 1661-1722) of the Qing dynasty 清 (1644-1911). The short texts consists of two parts, namely the Imperial Edicts (Shengyu), sixteen paragraphs written by the Kangxi Emperor himself, and the Wide-Reaching Instructions (Guangxun) that were issued by his son Prince Injen 胤禎, the eventual Yongzheng Emperor 雍正帝 (r. 1722-1735). In its arrangement, the Guangxun belongs to the text of "family instructions" (jiaxun 家訓), yet instead of the sons and daughters, the people is addressed to. The people as the children, and the emperor as their father had to live and act in a unified spirit.

The book covers a large panorama of themes and is written in a very simple language that might also be understood by the commoner. The text is to be found in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

Fig. 1. Page from the Shengyu guangxun 聖諭廣訓

Siku quanshu edition 四庫全書. The elevated words at the top are words referring or in connection with the emperor.