Chapter 31 Section 5: Willow Tunnel’s Family Admonitions

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the dispute over status between the rich and poor families has intensified, leading to the concept of respecting family status and family background and the atmosphere of emphasizing family education.A common feature of family education is that they hope that by strictly admonishing future generations, their sons will inherit their father's business, and their family's vested identity and status will be preserved forever.In the Tang Dynasty, this trend was even more serious. The family education of Liu Gongchuo's family, a famous prime minister in the late Tang Dynasty, was very representative.

After Liu Gongchuo was promoted to prime minister, his family status rose from a poor family to a noble family.In order to make his family descendants have successors, he paid great attention to family education.He spared no expense to extend his teachers to teach his descendants, expecting the descendants of the Liu family to pass the imperial examination and become officials from generation to generation.His grandson Liu Yu (pin pin) benefited from his good family education. When he was young, he was selected as an authentic secretary by taking the Mingjing examination. Influenced by his grandfather, Liu Ting attached great importance to family education, and was famous all over the world for his prosperous family education at that time.His family education method is mainly through the way of writing family instructions, which synthesizes the family rules and family laws that have been strictly controlled by the Liu family for several generations, so as to teach future generations to avoid arrogance and extravagance, abstain from obscenity, and establish a family tradition.

In the Book of Commandments, Liu Tun puts moral education first.He said: "The Yu family was originally known as Shilin for their knowledge and etiquette. Compared with those who have doubts about the auspicious and unlucky etiquette systems of other families, they took more righteous ones. Since the funeral, the family has declined, and the foundation structure is heavy. It belongs to the younger generation. For human beings, virtue and literature are the roots, and integrity and fortitude are the leaves. If there are roots but no leaves, they may be ready for the time; if there are leaves but no roots, they cannot survive the rain. As for filial piety, friendship, loyalty, and earnest practice, they are the essence of food. Xixi〕酱, can you have nothing in a day?" ("New Book of Tang Liu Gongchuo Biography" attached "Liu Dian Biography")

It is a correct understanding and grasp of the nature of the family of scholars to regard virtue literature as the foundation of establishing a family.Therefore, if a scholar wants to become an official through the imperial examination, he must cultivate virtue. First of all, he must become a person of high morals, and at the same time, he must have solid knowledge.He pointed out that the ancestors of all famous families followed the etiquette and established themselves in the world with outstanding virtues, and with the spirit of diligence and perseverance, they built their foundations through virtue and learning, and then established themselves in the family.The reason why the descendants of the noble family often destroy the foundation established by the ancestors of the family is that the descendants covet the honor of the ancestors, give up their own efforts, do not cultivate their virtues, and neglect their studies. Over time, they develop pride, extravagance, licentiousness, Youyi's bad habits, at this point in the field, will not fail to destroy the family and business.

In the Book of Commandments, Liu Tun summed up the experience and lessons of the rise and fall of ancient and modern aristocratic families, listed many successful examples of family education that focused on virtue, and explained the importance of moral education.Point out: The Cui family, known as one of the four famous families, is incomparable with other big families standing side by side at the same time. The family has been prosperous for hundreds of years because they have paid attention to filial piety for generations and used filial piety and family education as the heirloom magic weapon.Cui Guan's (guan Guan) great-grandmother was too old and toothless, and had difficulty eating. Cui Guan's grandmother devoted herself to cooking for the elderly, so that she would not eat grainy food for decades.Shangshu Pei Kuan's descendants are prosperous and his family is prosperous. He is a well-known family in the world. His family heirloom is to teach his descendants with loyalty and trust, forming a family style based on loyalty and trust.Pei Kuan's ancestors made an appointment with Prime Minister Wei Xuantong in the Wu Zetian Dynasty. Before they got married, Wei Xuantong was charged with Luo Zhi and sent to prison. His family was exiled to Lingnan, and their status plummeted.Under such circumstances, Pei Kuan's ancestors took faith as the foundation of life, not only did not break the marriage contract, but instead took the risk to marry the relatives of the Wei family grandly when the Wei family was in trouble.And so on, Liu Xuan listed them one by one, thinking that every family must have its own foundation for establishing a family and keeping a business, and the family education must strictly require the descendants to strictly abide by the family rules and family laws, only in this way can they prosper forever.

Liu Tang pointed out in the book of precepts that a family or family is composed of individuals, and everyone must strengthen their own moral cultivation for the prosperity of the family or family.From this, he emphasized the principle of life for the descendants of the Liu family to establish themselves.This means that if a person wants to establish himself, he must take filial piety as the foundation, humility as the foundation, comity as the service, and diligence and thrift as the law.Only by adhering to these four principles can we overcome extravagance, avoid disasters, and make the blessings of family history last forever.