The Kangxi Emperor’s Edict of Toleration

Le Gobien prints two documents in French. The first is the emperor’s order of the second day of the second moon of the thirty-first year of Kangxi, which he equates with 19 March 1692, telling the grand secretaries and the Board of Rites to deliberate again. The second is their decision of the next day, 20 March. It says that the Europeans have charge of astronomy, have cast cannon and helped to make peace with the Muscovites, that those in the provinces have never been accused of harm or disorder, and that their teaching is not bad or likely to mislead the people or cause trouble. Since everyone may go to the temples of the lamas and of the Buddhist and Taoist monks, it finds it unreasonable to forbid the churches of the Europeans, and it rules that all the churches of the empire be left as they were and that everyone be allowed to go to them to worship God.

Le Gobien, a Jesuit writing in Paris, adds that the emperor confirmed the decision and so gave it the force of law. His book is the Society’s own account, published while the dispute over the rites was before Rome, and the translation is his. The English excerpt linked above renders the same decision more briefly. See the Chinese Rites Controversy.