;
1841.
The Emperor Taoukwang.
peated!
I received his late majesty's last will, funeral mourning should be the same as formerly.
曲
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commanding that the That in twenty-seven days I should put off deep mourning, is what my heart submits to with difficulty; but I yield obedience to ancient rules, and will reverently wear mourning for three years; and shall thereby, in some small degree, manifest the affectionate grief which I feel. Let the governmental officers and people, throughout the empire, observe the former laws for national mourning. The kings and great officers of state are hereby ordered to assemble to deliberate and report to the emperor. Respect this."
Copies of this paper were circulated in Canton early in Oct., 1820. Doubts were then entertained of its authenticity, the document being, contrary to what is usual on such occasions, without the names of the ministry or any titles for the emperor, excepting only his kwo haou, or national designation,' which was 元徽 Yuenhwuy, meaning "an original assemblage of natural beauties." (See the Indo-Chinese Gleaner, for January and February, 1821, from which we borrow these papers.) This first one purported to have been issued on the 9th of September, six days after the demise of Keäking, which occurred on the 2d. On the 20th of October, the governor of Canton received a dispatch from the Board of Rites, ordering him "to close the seals of office on the 20th of the 12th month of the 25th year of Keäking, and to open them on the 19th of the 1st month of the first year of Tavukwang," which, instead of Yuenhwuy, was to be the national designation, or imperial title of the new em- peror. Dr. Morrison, commenting on this title says, "the meaning of the taou, is similar to the 'eternal reason' of some European writers, the ratio of the Latins, and the Ayos of the Greeks; in a political sense, the Chinese use it for a perfectly good government, where reason, not passion, dictates its acts: kwang means light, lus- tre, glory, illustrious, and so on. The new imperial title of Taou- kwang may be rendered by the two words, reason illustrious,' by which the monarch wishes to intimate that his reign shall be the glorious age of reason' in China, that he will rule gloriously, accord- ing to the pure dictates of eternal reason.” adds, referring to this first paper, and the title Yuenhwuy therein as- sumed,
"Whether it be supposed that the people dared to print and hand about a spurious imperial proclamation, or that the
emperor and his advisers changed their minds on the subject of the title, the pre- ceding appears very strange."
་
蓄
Dr. Morrison further
The second of the three papers is called he chaou, or joyful pro- clamation,' and was thus prefaced: "On the 17th of the 8th mouth (September 23d, 1820), the great emperor, who has received from
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