Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/316

 tariat was the office from which memorials were transmitted, where they were preserved, and where imperial edicts were drawn up. In the K'ang-hsi period some edicts were framed in the Imperial Study (see under ). By tradition, each memorial or edict which passed through the Grand Secretariat had to have several transcriptions. But the delays and disclosures which this system entailed were found to he dangerous, particularly in time of war. When Yin-chên decided to make war on the Eleuths, he established the Grand Council to deal with military affairs speedily, and to guard state secrets with more care. His successors, even in time of peace, retained the Grand Council, entrusting it with most of the duties of the Grand Secretariat and the Imperial Study whose work was then confined to the supervision of records in the archives or the drawing up of unimportant state papers. Obviously only men trusted by the Emperor were appointed to serve as Grand Councilors and only those with exceptional abilities were selected as secretaries in the Grand Council.

An ambitious ruler, Yin-chên tried to exercise control over the thoughts of his people. He re-issued his father's so-called Sacred Edict of sixteen moral maxims, adding long expositions of his own. This work, entitled Shêng-yü kuang-hsün, and its vernacular version (see under ), became a widely used textbook for the improvement of manners. It was repeatedly supplemented by hortatory edicts designed to keep officials obedient and the common people submissive. Yin-chên took advantage of the cases of and, not only to justify his succession but to vindicate the Manchu conquest of China. His condemnation of Lu was due in part to the latter's advocacy of a racial revolution. To justify Manchu rule and his own policy in particular, he published the Ta-i chüeh-mi lu (see under ) which for a time every licentiate in the empire was compelled to read.

Not satisfied with his temporal power, Yin-chên assayed the role of a religious leader. In 1732 he transformed the Yung-ho Kung 雍和宮, the palace in which he had lived before hecoming Emperor, into a Lama temple. Though he thus paid his respects to Lamaism, he was at heart a Buddhist of the Ch'an (Zen 禪) sect, and perhaps even had an ambition to unite Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism into one religion. During his last years (1732?–35) he assembled a group of fourteen persons for the study of Ch'an Buddhism—a group which included, besides himself, five princes, three high officials, five Buddhist monks and a Taoist priest. In 1732 he edited a, collection of writings and sayings of thirteen Buddhists and two Taoists, entitled 御選語錄 Yü-hsüan yü-lu, 19 chüan, printed in 1733. In this collection he included his own views under the title 圓明居士語錄 Yüan-ming chü-shih yü-lu. At the same time he seems to have established a press to reprint Buddhist works. In 1734 he reprinted the 宗鏡錄 Tsung-ching lu, 100 chüan, by the priest, Yen-shou 延壽 (904–975); and, early in 1735, made an outline of that work, entitled Tsung-ching ta-kang (大綱), 20 chüan. He also made a start at reprinting the sutras, but by 1735 only twenty-seven of them were published under the collective title 佛經二十七種 Fo-ching êr-shih-ch'i chung. He condensed twenty sutra into a work, entitled 經海一滴 Ch'ing-hai i-ti, 6 chüan, printed in 1735.

The religious efforts of Yin-chên were not confined to promoting orthodox teachings. In 1733 he published a work, entitled 揀魔辨疑錄 Lien-mo pien-i lu, 8 chüan, in which he attacked a school of Ch'an Buddhism as unorthodox. An abbot, named Yüan-wu 圓悟, had a disciple named Fa-tsang 法藏 , who wrote a work, 五宗原 Wu-Tsung yüan, printed in 1628, in which he set forth views that were distinctly unorthodox. Yuan-wu pointed out Fa-tsang's errors by correspondence, but a disciple of Fa-tsang, named Hung-jên 弘忍, wrote a work, entitled Wu-Tsung chiu (救), in which he defended the views of Fa-tsang. Shortly after the last mentioned work was published, Yüan-wu wrote (1638) a long discourse, entitled 闢妄救略說 P'i wang-chiu lüeh-shuo, 10 chüan, in which he vigorously attacked Hung-jên's views as heterodox. Yin-chên denounced both Fa-tsang and Hung-jên; ordered their works to be burnt; and forced their proponents to renounce them. In the Lien-mo pien-i lu he cited a number of passages from the writings of the two men, pointed out their alleged errors, and wrote a vehement denunciation of their views.

It is said that Yin-chên believed in the longevity theories of the Taoists and that he took various kinds of drugs, from whose effects he died. However that may be, it is significant that all the Buddhists and Taoists were expelled from the Palace about the time of his death. Among the many legends concerning the manner of his death is one that he was murdered by the 918