(Minghui.org) This is a story of Chinese Emperor Kangxi (1622-1722) in the Qing Dynasty. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history.
When he was young, Kangxi studied very hard. Legend says that for every article his teacher assigned him, he read it 100 times, copied it 100 times, and recited it 100 times. He loved reading his entire life.
At age 15, he started to handle political affairs independently. He woke up every day at 4 o'clock in the morning, hosted early morning royal court sessions, and received officials from each level of the government all over the country in the afternoons.
His knowledge of details of each county amazed and touched the officials across the nation, and inspired their diligence, too.
At night, he read and replied to letters from officials.
One day, Kangxi asked an official in charge of agriculture how much land a person had on average. The answer was 1.5 Chinese acre.
Emperor Kangxi said, “I should not take free food from my people, so I will farm a 1.5-acre field, too.”
He planted vegetables, wheat, and rice and watered and fertilized the field by himself.
Back then, rice did not grow well in northern China due to the cold climate.
Emperor Kangxi noticed that one rice plant in his field outgrew the others. In the autumn, he collected seeds from this plant and sowed the seeds the next spring.
In this way, Kangxi found a good strain of rice suitable to the northern climate. He promoted it to the farmers, who greatly benefited from it.
Due to my practice of Falun Gong, I realize now that Kangxi's diligence won him support from heaven, so that he was able to start a golden age of great prosperity.
Category: Traditional Culture
