Emperor's Mirror of Pictures and Sayings

Author: Zhang Juzheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-03-01
Features: The Mirror for Emperors (Di Jian Tu Shuo) is a royal reading material of the Ming Dynasty's "Imperial Academy Edition," published in the late Longqing era of the Ming Dynasty, compiled by Zhang Juzheng, a renowned reformist and the chief minister during the Wanli era. This book collects 81 anecdotes of virtuous emperors and wise rulers from Yao and Shun to the Northern Song Dynasty over 4,000 years, who strove for excellence and established prosperous states. It also includes 36 anecdotes of tyrannical and extravagant emperors and rulers who brought disaster to their countries and people. The book features 117 anecdotes and 117 illustrations, complementing each other with text and images. The anecdotes presented in the book illustrate the profound truth of "he who follows the way gains support, while he who strays loses it" from both positive and negative perspectives. It is beneficial for people to understand history and promote traditional culture. For this purpose, the annotators, proofreaders, and translators have used the Ming Dynasty Imperial Academy Edition of The Mirror for Emperors as the base text for proofreading, translation, and annotation, presenting it in parallel with the original text for official publication to delight the readers.