View source for Six Courses in Morals

*''Compiled: [[1652]]''
*''Chinese/Japanese'': 六諭衍義 ''(luyu yanyi / rikuyu engi)''

The ''Six Courses in Morals'' is a Chinese collection of six tracts on moral instruction, commissioned originally by the [[Hongwu Emperor]] in [[1398]], and later expanded and reissued. The six maxims, which seek to guide the reader towards a virtuous and harmonious life, focus on encouraging the reader to teach one's children, to avoid committing wrongs, to be content with one's lot in life, to live harmoniously with one's neighbors, and to have respect for one's parents, elders, and superiors.

The version which has come down through to today includes considerable additions by a late Ming era village teacher named Fan Hung, who added a number of stories, poems, and legal cases which help illustrate the points made in the core text. This text was recompiled and reissued in [[1652]] at the orders of the [[Shunzhi Emperor]], and was expanded into sixteen maxims in [[1670]] under the [[Kangxi Emperor]].

This text, written in vernacular Chinese, was brought back to [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû]] by [[Tei Junsoku]] in [[1707]], who provided his own private funds to have it republished; members of the [[1714]] [[Ryukyuan mission to Edo]] then presented copies of the text to [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]] as a formal gift, who commissioned [[Ogyu Sorai|Ogyû Sorai]] to write a new preface & to add ''kunten'' readers' guiding marks for the ''[[kanbun]]'',<ref>Maehira Fusaaki, ''Ryûkyû shisetsu no ikoku taiken'' 琉球使節の異国体験, ''Kokusai kôryû'' 国際交流 59 (1992), 62.</ref> and [[Muro Kyuso|Muro Kyûsô]] to rewrite the text into a form that would be easier for Japanese readers to understand. This rewritten version, entitled ''Rikuyu engi taii'' (六諭衍義大意), was presented by the Shimazu house to Shogun [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]] in [[1719]], and was then published in [[1722]] and distributed to a number of [[han|domains]], where it was reprinted yet again and circulated even more widely, to ''[[terakoya]]'' (temple schools), [[domain schools]], and beyond.<ref>Watanabe Miki 渡邊美季. "Ryûkyûjin gyôretsu to Edo" 「琉球人行列と江戸」, in ''Nihon kinsei seikatsu ehiki: Ryûkyûjin gyôretsu to Edo hen'' 日本近世生活絵引：琉球人行列と江戸編、Research Center for Nonwritten Cultural Materials, Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture, Kanagawa University 神奈川大学日本常民文化研究所非文字資料研究センター (2020), 141.</ref> In some domains, village headmen were required to lecture on the moral maxims at least once a month. The text continued to be circulated and read throughout the archipelago until the [[Meiji period]].

Meanwhile, the [[Yongzheng Emperor]] added his own exposition of Kangxi's Sacred Edict in [[1724]], and the expanded text, along with others like it, came to form the core of what has come to be known as "Imperial Confucianism," a key part of the Qing Court's efforts at instilling order in rural and provincial areas.

==The Six Courses in Morals==
孝順父母 Be dutiful to your parents.<br>
尊敬長上 Respect your elders.<br>
和睦郷里 Be at peace with your native land.<br>
教訓子孫 Teach and guide your offspring.<br>
各安生理 Be content with your occupation.<br>
毋作非為 Do not engage in wrongdoing.<ref>Transcription and translation from explanatory plaques at [[Nago Museum]], Nago, Okinawa.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/46559126474/sizes/k/]</ref>


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==References==
*''Minoji wo aruku Ryûkyû shisetsu'' 美濃路をゆく琉球使節, Bisai Museum of History and Folklore 尾西市歴史民俗資料館, Bisai, Aichi (2004), 8.
*[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 67-68.
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[[Category:Historical Documents]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]