Changes

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]].

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, 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 then published in [[1722]] and distributed to a number of [[han|domains]], where it was reprinted yet again and circulated even more widely. 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]].

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 then published in [[1722]] and distributed to a number of [[han|domains]], where it was reprinted yet again and circulated even more widely. 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.

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.

*''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.

*''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.

*[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 67-68.

[[Category:Historical Documents]]

[[Category:Historical Documents]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]