Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor

thumb|300px|Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor, Book of Manchu language version in National Museum of Mongolia. In 1670, when the Kangxi Emperor of China's Qing dynasty was sixteen years old, he issued the Sacred Edict (shèng yù), consisting of sixteen maxims, each seven characters long, to instruct the average citizen in the basic principles of Confucian orthodoxy. In 1724, the second year of his reign, the Yongzheng Emperor issued the Amplified instructions on the Sacred Edict (shèng yù guǎng xùn) in 10,000 characters. Quotes The Ancients said, "Give time enough, and an iron rod will be ground into a needle; let there be determination, and a mountain may be bored through to the springs of the sea." Ch. 10, sec. 7 (tr. F. W. Baller, 1892) External links Frederick W. Baller, The Sacred Edict, with a Translation of the Colloquial Rendering (Shanghai, 1892) Category:History of China