A Study On The Interpretation Versions Of Ming T'ai-tsu's Shengyu Liuyan

Shengyu Liuyan(圣谕六言)is called Six Imperial Decrees,Six Words on Civilian Education, and Six Commandments as well. In September, Hongwu 30th Year (1397), Ming T'ai-tsu Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated an imperial edict to the public, which went: There should be a bell with a wooden clapper in a county where civilians chose the aged or the blind who held the bell along the road six times each month to propagate the decrees: be filial to your parents, be respectful to your elders, live in harmony with your neighbors, instruct your sons and grandsons, be content with your calling, and do not evil. Afterwards, Shengyu was propagated through all kinds of ways such as the bells, local rules, family trees, family percepts, communities, and academies and novels. In the dissemination process, many scholar-bureaucrats practiced what they preached, not only preaching imperial decrees by solemn and complex etiquette, but also performing and propagating by themselves. which resulted in many different performing versions. The thesis aims to analyze characteristics of these versions and attempts to reveal the Confucianism's folk propagation process on differences and similarities among these versions.Shengyu Liuyan not only played an important role in Ming Dynasty, but also exerted far-reaching influence on the Qing Dynasty. In terms of content, in Shunzi 9th Year(1652),Shizu copied Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial decrees and commanded that there should be offices in Wucheng (五城) to propagate the imperial decrees according to community covenant on the first and fifteenth day on the lunar calendar. Until Kang-Hi's 9th Year (1670), Emperor Shengzu adapted the imperial decrees to Shengyu Liuyanteen. In Yongzheng 2nd ,Shizong interpreted Shengyu Liuyanteen as Sacred Edict which spread around the country until the downfall of Qing Dynasty. In the aspect of propagating methods, in order to peach Shengyu, Ming Dynasty followed the community covenant of Song Dynasty, and gradually changed it to be national and official. Qing Dynasty copied the kind of propagation , which brough about a major impact on the rule of the whole Qing Dynasty.