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Yanshi jiaxun 顏氏家訓 "The Family Instructions of Master Yan" by Yan Zhitui 顏之推

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The book Yan Shi Jiaxun (Yanshi Jiaxun) is a compilation of the Northern Wei 北魏 official and scholar Yan Zhitui 顏之推 (born 531 AD) and deals with the discipline of one's own mind, the state and the family. He thus follows the guideline of the Confucian Classic Daxue 大學 "The Great Learning", a small book that recommends self-cultivation as the base for the welfare of the whole nation.
After centuries of Buddhist prevalence, Yan Zhitui was a vehement fighter for Confucian renaissance in the Northern Wei empire of the Yuan clan 元, a family that traces her own origins to the Tuoba people 拓跋, a non-Chinese nation. Adopting Confucianism as state doctrine gave the foreign Tuoba rulers the same legitimation like the Chinese rulers before them.
Yan Zhitui is also one of the few poets of the Northern Dynasties.
The chapters of the Yan Shi Jiaxun are:
1.序致 Xuzhi Introduction
2.教子 Jiaozi Education of a son
3.兄弟 Xiongdi Relationship among brothers
4.後娶 Houqu Stepmother and stepbrothers
5.治家 Zhijia Regulate your Family
6.風操 Fengcao Character and Behaviour
7.慕賢 Muxian Yearn for Wisdom
8.勉學 Mianxue Engage Well in Studies
9.文章 Wenzhang Learn to Write and to Compose
10.名實 Mingshi Make Conform Theory and Practice
11.涉務 Shewu Gain Practical Experience
12.省事 Xingshi Be Sparingly with Words and Deeds
13.止足 Zhizu Be Self-sufficient
14.誡兵 Jiebing Study the Art of War
15.養生 Yangsheng Preserve your Health
16.歸心 Guixin Submit Your Heart to the Righteous Cause
17.書證 Shuzheng Text Sources for the Family Instructions
18.音辭 Yinci Make sound your Words
19.雜藝 Zayi Miscellaneous Arts (painting, shooting, divining, mathematics, medicine etc.)
20.終制 Zhongzhi Complete the three-year mourning for your parents

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acked the disorders withoug, Li si administered the laws within. And yet the more action they took in the empire, the more trouble developed, the more laws the legislated, the more evils were produced, with the result that the greater the army they establiched the more enemies they had. As to the Qin Dynasty, it was not that they did not want proper government, they failed because they set up too many laws and their punishments were too harsh.Therefore the superior man will put emphasis on generosity for his own protection, and he will act in accordance with the middle way in order to gain control of the remote peop.e Then the epople will rspect his authority and wil be influenced by his example. They will accept his virtue and flock to his territory, they will praise his administration and will never oppose his government. They will obey his command without feat of punishment and they will be happy to work without hope of reward. In theis way they will be deeply influenced by his moral power and they will hold fast to the middle way…So the ruler’s influence on his people is just like that of the wind which sweeps over the grass. If the ruler worships warfare at his court, then the peasants will make armour and weapons in the filds. This is the way that the sovreign controls his subjects: if the people are extravagant, he responds with thrift, if the people are proud and licentious, he controls with his good conduct. In this way, it never happens that the sovereign is benevolent and his subjects are violent, and it never happens that when a ruler gives way to others on the road, his subjects will push themselves forward…

Translated by Mei-kao Ku "A Chinese mirror for magistrates"

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