Four Books

Imperial Composition on Reading Zhu Xi's Complete Works:

In my younger days, I admired talent and delved deep into the essence of eloquence. I would venture into the realms of sublime thought as if exploring lunar caverns or being carried aloft by clouds. Lost in contemplation, I often forgot meals, consumed by thoughts from dusk till dawn. Though not burdened by mundane concerns, I was still tormented by a poetic demon. The ultimate truth lay before my eyes, yet I cast it aside in pursuit of profound mysteries, wandering without destination, my heart filled with melancholy. Recently, after immersing myself in the writings of Zhu Xi, the Master of Literature, my spirit has been swept clean. I now understand that even the smallest effort, like adding a handful of soil to a nine-fathom mountain, is not insignificant. I pen these lines as a self-admonition, though it is hardly sufficient to claim that I have seen the Way.

– Kangxi Emperor (康熙帝)

Source: the “Complete Works of Zhu Xi,” Qing Dynasty imperial compilation. From Zhejiang University Library, scanned by China-America Digital Academic Library (CADAL). Digitized Chinese text is available at the Chinese Text Project at the links below:

Introduction materials 1-6:
Imperial Introduction, Imperial Poetry, Memorial, Notes to the Reader, Summary Review, Contents

Note: these are "paraphrase-translations" using GPT-4. The AI has been trained, the results spot-checked, and corrections made iteratively through numerous versions. Nevertheless, these should be considered no more than approximate representations of the content.