Chapter 41 Section 3 Ming Taizu’s Family Education

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a humble family. He herded cattle, begged for food, and became a monk when he was a child. He began to study culture during his military career. Thanks to the teachings of Confucian teachers, he knew how to govern the country and bring peace to the world.Therefore, he is not only a founding king who seized the world by force, but also a father who respects teachers and emphasizes education. Like all fathers, Zhu Yuanzhang is eager for his son to become a dragon.In the years of fighting and scrambling, he commanded gold and iron horses to siege cities and lands. Every time he captured a city or land, the top priority was to visit and search for famous teachers, or recruit them as staff members, or recruit them as family teachers.After occupying Jinling, he built the Daben Hall, stored ancient and modern books in it, and hired famous Confucians from all over the world to teach the scholars in the hall.Famous Confucian scholars such as Liu Ji, Song Lian, Ye Chen, Zhang Yi, etc. all had great talents in order to bring peace and stability to the country, and were respected by Zhu Yuanzhang.During the war, Zhu Yuanzhang restored Confucianism, promoted Confucianism with Song Lian, and sent his eldest son Zhu Biao to be taught Confucianism.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he respected teachers and valued education even more, and named the Confucianism banned Chinese Huatang to teach the princes.Song Lian has been the prince's teacher for more than 10 years. Every word and move is persuaded by etiquette and laws, and he teaches the country's politics and religion as well as the history of the rise and fall of previous dynasties.Every time the crown prince restrains and accepts, he must call him master.In order to strengthen the education of the princes, Zhu Yuanzhang also established a lecture system on the feast day, carefully selected scholars of literature from the Imperial Academy to enter the princes' mansion to give lectures on the history of the princes, and formulated systematic teaching according to the age and learning level of the princes plan, strict education and training.

In addition to extending the teacher to teach his sons, Zhu Yuanzhang never let go of every opportunity to teach his sons by precept and example.For example, during the war years, he asked his son and teacher to follow the army, witnessed bloody battles between him and the soldiers, and exercised his son's courage and learned how to use soldiers.At the end of each battle, he always asks the teacher to teach his son the art of war, and sums up the experience and lessons based on the victory or defeat of the actual battle.Later, he asked people to draw ancient examples of filial piety and his own experience of difficult battles into textbooks with rich pictures and texts, and awarded them to the scholars to watch them in the morning and evening, so as to cultivate their qualities of diligence, thrift and hard work.He warned the disciples: "Wealth is easy to be arrogant, hardship is easy to endure, and long-term is easy to forget."

In order to make his children and grandchildren not forget the difficulties of starting a business, and make them respect the ancestral law, he ordered Confucian teachers to compile two books carefully, and issued them for learning.One is "Zhao Jian Lu", which selects the good and evil cases of vassal kings since the Han and Tang Dynasties, emphasizing the method and necessity of personal moral cultivation from both positive and negative aspects; the other is "Zu Xun Lu", which selects his The precepts for educating the disciples in peacetime are required to be copied on the east wall of the inner palace of the main hall of the palace where they live, and to watch and reflect on themselves at any time to remember his teachings.

Zhu Yuanzhang once said to the teachers of the philosophers: "I, to the scholars, always tell them: one action should be guarded against being light, one word to laugh at one's arrogance, one is to teach the festival of diet, and one is to teach frugality. I am afraid that they will not know the hunger and cold of the people. Try to make them suffer from hunger and cold less; for fear that they don’t know the hard work of the people, try to make them do less hard work.” In order to let the sons know the hardships of the people, let them leave the deep palace when they are old, and live in their hometown Fengyang for a period of time , more contact with folk life.His fourth son Zhu Di was Ming Chengzu. When recalling this period of life later, he said: "I lived in Fengyang when I was young, and I knew all the details of the people."

In the palace, he also taught his sons at any time.One day, he retreated to the palace, and the princes served by his side.When their father and son came to an open space, he said to the sons: "It is necessary to set up pavilions and terraces as a place for sightseeing. Now, the envoys are ordered to grow vegetables. I sincerely can't bear to hurt the people's wealth and labor the people's strength." Ear. In the past, Zhou of the Shang Dynasty decorated the palace and did not care about the people. The world resented him, and the country died. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty wanted to build a terrace, but he spared a hundred gold. Remember my words, and always keep the precepts.” (Volume 37 of "Records of Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty")

Because Zhu Yuanzhang usually pays attention to family education, most of his sons are very capable when they grow up.The prince was simple in character and well aware of state affairs. The second, third, and fourth sons enfeoffed Xi'an, Taiyuan, and Beiping respectively, and became the pillars of the northern side of Fanping.The five sons are quite talented in literature. They wrote a hundred chapters of "Yuan Gong Ci" and "Materia Medica for Rescuing Famines". A rare botanical monograph.The eight sons, ten sons, and eleven sons are all famous for their proficiency in literature and courtesy.The twelve sons are all-round talents in civil and military affairs. They once opened Jingyuan Pavilion and recruited books and books of literati and school masters. They seem to have the style of celebrities.The seventeen sons are especially loved by Zhu Yuanzhang for their versatility and resourcefulness. He has written dozens of works such as "Tong Jian Bo Lun", "Secret History of the Han and Tang Dynasties", "Shi Duan", "Wen Pu" and "Shi Pu". Familiar with the rhythm of opera.All of these are the result of paying attention to family education.

It is not difficult for ordinary people to pay attention to children's education.However, it is rare among ancient Chinese emperors to devote themselves to the tutoring of princes like Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.Objectively speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang's family education not only successfully brought up his sons and laid the foundation for the politics of the early Ming Dynasty, but also his exemplary role influenced all officials.Follow the example from top to bottom, there is the family education atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty, which has lasted for more than 200 years, resulting in a large number of talents and famous scholars.