Chapter 21 Section 7: Family Studies handed down from generation to generation

The family of officials in Chinese feudal society is known as the "Scholarly Family". Even if they cannot be officials for generations, they can still be regarded as gentlemen.Regardless of whether the family of officials can be famous in the world with high officials and rich salary, most of them have family education passed down from generation to generation.Military officers have their own superior martial arts, and some have formed a unique school in a certain martial arts, or a certain unique skill. These are not easy to teach others, because this is the capital of becoming an official and making contributions.The same is true of civil servants. Since the Han Dynasty, if they are proficient in a certain classic art, or have outstanding skills in a certain aspect such as literature, history, astronomy, calendar, and medicine, they are regarded as "heirlooms" and passed down from generation to generation.

In the Han Dynasty, there were many such cases.For example, Zhai 酺 [pu 荟], "Poetry" passed down through four generations.Yang Zhen learned "Ouyang Shangshu" from his father Yang Bao, and his sons Yang Bing and Yang Ci both "seldom passed on their family learning" and "seldom passed on their father's business" ("Book of the Later Han·Yang Zhen Biography").Huan Rong, who was once the tutor of Emperor Guangwu, was proficient in "Shangshu", and was later named Guanneihou.His son, Huanyu, was able to pass on his family knowledge, and taught Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty with "Shangshu", and moved three times to serve as a captain of the infantry.Huan Yan, who later became the prince and Taifu, was the son of Huan Yu, and taught Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty with "Shangshu", and he was named Yangpinghou, and he was tired of officials to Dahonghe and Taichang.The three generations of Huan's ancestors used the "Shangshu" handed down from generation to generation to be the national teacher of the emperors of the Han, Ming, Zhang, An, and Shun dynasties, and ranked among the ministers.Another example is the historian Sima Qian, who inherited his family education and became the official historian of the imperial court.Ban Gu, the son of Ban Biao, and Ban Zhao, the daughter, both passed on their father's family education and became official historians.In terms of science and technology, for example, Liu Xin (Xin Xin) inherited his family's education, studied "mathematics and all kinds of skills" since he was a child, and became the first person to study pi in ancient my country.Liu Xin's father, Liu Xiang, was a famous Confucian scholar and bibliographer in the Western Han Dynasty. He was quite accomplished in arithmetic. Wait, official to Doctor Guanglu.Liu Xin learned little from his father. Together with his father, he was ordered by the emperor to collate the secretary. He dabbled in all kinds of Confucian classics, various schools of thought, poetry, prose, astronomy and geography, and mathematics and alchemy. The task of proofreading books has written the first bibliography book "Seven Strategies" in China.At the same time, he inherited his father's career and made a unique breakthrough in the study of ancient Chinese classics, which promoted the deepening of the study of classics in the Han Dynasty.Later, Liu Xin became an official of the state and was ranked as Shanggong.From the above examples, it can be seen that family education has already been valued in official families in the Han Dynasty.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the impact of metaphysics on Confucian classics and the implementation of the nine-rank system for selecting scholars, the status of Confucian classics in the family education of official families was also shaken.Although the children of the rich and noble families can enter the officialdom based on their family status, it does not mean that the family of the official family can not learn from the family.On the contrary, during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the rise and fall of school education, families of officials had to strengthen family education if they wanted to maintain the hereditary gentry.However, the family education in this period was quite different from that in the Han Dynasty, which only focused on Confucian classics, but extensively dabbled in Lao Zhuang, metaphysics, historiography, astronomy, arithmetic and so on.For example, metaphysics was advocated in the wealthy family of the gentry, and metaphysics became the family education of bureaucrats; literature was flourishing in the fashion, so the family education of official families focused on poetry and prose; the rise of social aesthetic consciousness, calligraphy as an aesthetic art was also taught in the family education of official families It occupies an important position.For example, Wang Xizhi's collection of calligraphy in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was called the sage of calligraphy by the people at that time.His son Wang Xianzhi learned calligraphy from him since he was a child, and he is also very accomplished. He is called Xiaosheng.Another example is Huaizhi, the king of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, who sealed the archives of the old events of the Southern Dynasty in a green box and passed them down from generation to generation.Because the Wang family is familiar with the court etiquette system, with the help of family learning, grandparents and grandchildren have become high officials. "Book of Southern Qi Liangzheng Biography" contains: "Fu Yan [Yanyan], father and son have made outstanding achievements together, which is rare in Jiangzuo. Shiyun Zhu Fu has a "Governance of County", which is passed down from generation to generation and not shown to others." There is a way to be an official. Families and families who have been officials for generations have accumulated rich experience. If it rises to theory, it may become a "knowledge". The family of officials keeps this kind of knowledge secret.In ancient China, families of officials attached great importance to this family study. How to behave in the officialdom, how to avoid disasters, how to make good fortune (yin and silver), how to get along with colleagues and superiors were the key skills for officials. The masters have mastered the skills and passed down from generation to generation, becoming priceless treasures.

In short, the core of tutoring in official families is to teach the way of being an official.Although they also involve and often use culture and academics as teaching content, their purpose is not to develop academics themselves, but to use these things as a sharp weapon for entering official positions and promotion.