The Renunciation of Emperor Shun Zhi           

Joseph Ong, March 2001

            We all know that the Buddha had given up his status as a prince and the future inheritor of a vast kingdom in the search of the Truth. In subsequent generations, there, too, were many princes and kings who had followed the Buddha�s footsteps, one notable royal personage being Emperor Shun Zhi of China.

            Shun Zhi was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty in China. The Qing dynasty was founded in AD1632 by the Manchu Nuerhachi. The Manchus are of a different race from the Han Chinese. They have their own language, culture and religion. They are the native inhabitants of what is today�s Northeast China, in the cities of Harbin, Shenyang and Changchun till the Amur river which demarcates China from Russia.

            In the earlier years since its founding, the Qing dynasty controlled only a small territory in China�s northeast. Following the fall of the Ming dynasty in AD1644 by a peasant rebellion, the Qing dynasty made use of China�s political turmoil to move its army into Beijing, after which it gradually extends its dominion over the whole of China. At that time, the Qing dynasty ruled over the largest empire in the world with a population of over 400 million.

            Shun Zhi ascended the throne when he was only 5 years old in the same year the Qing dynasty made Beijing its new capital. He ruled under the tutelage of a regent till he was 16 years old when he was able to exert real political power. He was described as a quiet, soft-spoken man of refine taste. Despite his tender age, he displayed a political acumen and foresight far exceeding his age. The Manchus were herders and not being farmers, they had the bad habit of occupying peasants' land and forcing them to work as slaves. Shun Zhi enacted laws that protect the land and properties of the peasants, therefore saving them from exploitation by his own kin. He also introduced yearly  imperial examinations at the capital to recruit Han Chinese into the administration which eventually shaped the Qing dynasty into a feudal state ruled by the Manchus and supported beneath by the Han Chinese aristocrats. These measures stabilized Qing rule, enabling it to control China for the next two centuries.

            In spite of his youth, power and status as the most powerful man in the world, Shun Zhi  never relished his position as an Emperor. He showed a certain degree of disdain towards sensual enjoyments and court matters and preferred to spend long hours by himself in his study chamber reading the Buddhist scriptures. In a poem he wrote when he was 18:

Fine gowns embraced my body

That of smooth-flowing silk

Feasts and banquets await me everyday

A gourmet of a myriad tastes

I'm waited upon wherever I am

Eunuchs, maids and ministers

All shiver at my command

A hundred chambers my concubines stay

Yearning for a chance to serve

Night falls as my weary body lays

Bare, naked and invaded.

What shall I hold on in this low life?

Of senseless merry-making and sensual play

I look at the clear sky above

And the brown earth at my feet

I am the same as all in vain

Aging, dying and decay

Before long I will be laid

Deprived of flesh

A gorgy skeleton

Who will ever know

Am the Son of Nuchen, the Emperor of Jin!

In another poem he wrote on his 21st birthday, he expressed his deep admiration for Gotama Buddha:

Almost three decades pass by

The holy lord in lay life

Enjoying youth and pleasures

Like all ignorant men.

A glimpse at the reality of life

That death lurks not far behind

He received the calling

And abandoned his life

His wife, child and all possessions

Calling to the fray

The search for Truth

Enduring all hardships with strength

Enlightenment is attained

Under the Bodhi tree

The Lord Buddha proclaims:

'I've seen the peerless truth. I am the knower of the Way!'

A light of hope shone forth

To all suffering denizens of the day

Why am I still here

Rotting away like a old song tree

Waiting under the knife of the executioner

I shall decide the time

To welcome my death

Fearless and blameless

I marched on

Into void, emptiness and nothingness!

            In AD1661, Emperor Shun Zhi passed away suddenly at the age of 23. According to the official Qing annals, he died after 'recurrent bouts of pneumonia'. However, the palace guards had reported that on the night of his 'death', they saw a mysterious figure sneaking out of the palace. Residents nearby claimed they saw a man wearing a dragon gown from the palace galloping towards the west on a white horse. Other sources say that the Emperor has given up his throne and became a monk at a monastery in Yunnan. All these are of course unsubstantiated rumours and like all mysteries enshrouding the Qing Emperors, they remained unsolved for a long time.

          In AD1856, during the 8-nation invasion of Beijing and in AD1900 during the Boxer rebellion, the Qing tombs were pillaged and plundered of its treasures. Plunders managed to retrieve pearls, jewellery, porcelain and gold from the tombs, many of which were shipped to collectors in the West. However, only a monk's robe is found in Emperor Shun Zhi's tomb with no skeleton or human remains. A scroll written in Manchu with blood on the robe reads:

This body I bowed

In threefold respect

Bestowed to me by

the greatest tribe ever of Nuchen

I now returned it where

It belongs

A new life is born

Here and now

No longer of royal descent

It shall soar high and far

In the search of the eternal truth!