Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 613

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Sacred Instructions of the Ta Tsing Emperors.

Nov.

Then follows a lecture addressed to kings, in better taste than Napoleon's speeches at Erfurth and Dresden before the crowned heads. Be wise, be just, do not hanker after riches, and your rule will be firmly established. The ministers and authorities in general get some wholesome advice. In this imperial sermon, the orator asserts, with great propriety, that all evil practices proceed from the heart. Keep your heart, he adds in a virtuous state, and all events will prove fortunate, you will be praised and become popular, riches will fall to your share, and your glory will be resplendent. On the other hand, if you harbor vicious purposes, the contrary will take place. You may wipe off a stain and cleanse yourself from defilements, but a froward heart will still remain. So much for Teënming.

And now we turn our attention to Shunche, a young dabbler in affairs of government. A question may naturally arise here, whether some of these sermons were not written by Adam Schaal, the Jesuit, the emperor's adviser and steady friend? Certainly there is some- thing here and there beyond the range of Chinese ideas, but we shall not decide the question. Six small volumes constitute the whole published under Shunche's administration; we transcribe the table of contents. The 1st, contains a sermon on government, on piety, on sacred filial duty, on the study of the sages, on humility, econo- my, and continence: the 2d, a sermon on harmony, instructions for the ministers, on petitions, on receiving reproof, on filling an office: the 3d, a sermon on merits obtained at the examinations, on choosing people to be promoted, on restraining inferiors: the 4th, a sermon on managing riches, on compassionating the people, on giving alms, on enforcing the sacrificial code, on propriety towards the generation past, on praising the patriotic and chaste: the 5th, a sermon on pro- moting literature, exhortations addressed to commanders-in-chief, on summons to surrender, exhortations to Mongols, and a benevolent go, verument, on realizing the interests of the great multitude: and the 6th, a sermon on tranquilizing the people, on avoiding punishments, on repressing greedy parasites, on eschewing evil, and on remitting or forgiving faults.

The subjects handled are certainly diffuse enough, and any com- mon mind would have been afraid to grapple with such variety, but not so the youth Shunche. The sermon on government is a well written piece, and its most prominent feature is the inculcation of our responsibility to heaven. The principle that princes were creat ed on account of the people, and not the people on account of princes, which is in itself so obvious, has nevertheless been frequent-