Chapter 48 Section 10: Three Rules for a Good Mother to Teach Her Children

Wang Mian (mianmian) was a famous painter and poet in the late Yuan Dynasty. His success came from his mother's care and discovery.Wang Mian's father was a hard-working farmer. Because of his poor family, he had to let Wang Mian, who was only seven years old, herd cattle.But Wang Mian was very eager to study. He often left the cow behind and hid outside the window of the village school to listen to the teacher's lectures.In this way, he did not know how many times he was beaten by his father.Wang Mian's mother loved her son very much. Although the family was very poor, she still talked hard and persuaded her husband to let her son go to school.After Wang Mian went to school, he worked very hard, and there was no oil to light a lamp at home. He ran to a temple alone, sat on the lap of a clay bodhisattva, and read by the light of the ever-burning lamp, often until dawn.His studious spirit moved a very learned Mr. Han and accepted him as a student.Although Wang Mian made rapid progress in his studies, his father always wanted his son to put down his books and farm with him. A world-renowned painter and poet.

Mrs. Zhou Gui was the mother of Gui Youguang, a great essayist in the Ming Dynasty.When Gui Youguang was four years old, she began to teach her son to read and write, so that he went to the county school when he was seven years old.Gui Youguang described his mother's strict education of him in an article entitled "The Story of the First Concubine" with infinite sorrow.If he sometimes tires of studying, his mother will severely criticize and educate him, so that he will not miss class no matter it is windy or rainy or cold or hot.Every night, my mother always lit the oil lamp, and led the younger brother and sister who had light to sit at the table, leaving a place near the light for him to read.Often when the siblings are asleep, the mother is still reading with him, urging him to do his daily homework well, and encouraging him to read a lot of other books.Over time, Gui Youguang laid a solid foundation of knowledge and became a well-known essayist when he was young.

Jiang Shiquan, who lived in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, was one of the "Three Masters of Jiangyou" who were as famous as Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi.His growth depends entirely on his mother's painstaking education.Jiang Shiquan's family was poor, and Jiang's mother worked hard spinning and weaving hemp from morning to night, but she never forgot to teach her son to read and write.When Shiquan was four years old, in order to teach him how to read, his mother chopped a handful of thin bamboo threads and formed different characters according to dot, horizontal, left and right strokes, and the priest Quan knew it.At the beginning, I taught one or two characters every day, and later increased to eight to ten. After knowing it, I took it apart and spelled new characters. I recognized the spelling and spelled it again and again, so that Shiquan mastered a large number of Chinese characters.When Shiquan was six years old, Jiang's mother taught him to hold a pen and write.When he was seven or eight years old, Jiang's mother put the book on her knees while weaving, let Shi Quan sit on her knees, and taught him to read word by word.On winter nights, my mother untied the padded coat, let Shi Quan sit close to his chest, covered his little feet with a thin quilt, and continued to study with him.Sometimes when Shiquan was tired from reading, he would take a nap in his mother's arms, and when he woke up, he would urge him to continue studying.Jiang Shiquan later grew up and became a famous scholar.In order to repay his mother's kindness in education, he invited an old painter to draw a "Mingji Night Class Picture" based on these things, and wrote an article himself entitled "Mingji Night Class Picture", This picture and article were widely praised by people at that time.