Research On Family Instructions In The Pre-Qin And Han Dynasties

The family instruction is a form of Chinese traditional family education with a long history and rich species.Family instructions began to sprout with the generation of Chinese patriarchal family. The assessing and teaching of the heirs before the demise of the Five Emperors contained a sermon significance of the elders to the younger generation. The scattered fragments of those teachings and admonitions written in later books and records, most of which were pseudographs, are questionable, and it is difficult to make a conclusion. However, studies show that the teachings and admonitions originated early, and so did family instructions. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, during which period the civilization was highly developed, family instructions had a new breakthrough, focusing on the practice of fetal education and family instructions of Zhou’s royals, of which the family instructions of Zhou Gong was the most prominent.During Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States, Zhou royal family declined, and feudal princes began to grow up. Zuo Zhuan, Guo Yu, Zhan Guo Ce and other historical records largely reflected the conditions of the family instructions during this period. The rise of scholars with different thoughts and points of view spurred the development of academic thinking, and according to their respective political positions and academic points of view, representatives from Confucians, Mohist, Taoist and Legalist launched general arguments on how to educate the young. Confucians believed in democracy and mildness, and differed slightly inside. The Mohist paid attention to the surroundings influencing people. Taoist advocated taking no action and silent teaching. Guan Zi recommended that people should adhere to their careers and social statues, and Han Fei emphasized on strict administration. During this period, how virtuous mothers such as Meng Mu lectured their sons was distinctive with a variety of kinds and rich contents.There were family instruction ideas in The Five Classics and other Pre-Qin literatures. The exposition on family relationships in Zhou Yi was frequently quoted and elaborated. A number of poems in The Book of Songs works reflected the family teachings and instructions’ prevalence among common people. Family responsibilities and social values were repeated in lectures of wishing and warning in Shi Guan Li and Shi Hun Li. Patterns and contents of family instructions were seen in lots of chapters in Book of Rites, especially in The Great Learning, where relations between family education, the society and the country were explained clearly for the first time, and the importance of family education was greatly emphasized. Book of Filial Piety expounded the Confucian filial piety comprehensively and systematically, elaborating the meaning of filial piety, the types, the implementing, and the functions features detailedly. Nv Xu’s curse in Li Sao also contained warning and admonishing.The development of family instructions was at a standstill in the Qin Dynasty. Han Dynasty following lasted more than four hundred years, during which period a large number of family instructions emerged. Investigations on those family instructions found59authors and75articles, and Eastern Han family instructions increased significantly compared to that of the Western Han Dynasty. Instructions concerned with emperors, self cultivating, scholarship, officials, funerals, female education and so on were quite outstanding. The far-reaching impact of the Pre-Qin Confucianism, the advocacy of the Han Dynasty rulers, the establishment of Imperial College and the Five Classics, and the support of scholar-bureaucrats contributed to the enrichment of Confucianism in Han’s family instructions. Huang Lao’s craft and Lao Zhuang’s ideology were separately valued at the beginning and the end of Han Dynasty, and the thriving of Taoism made family instructions have the features both of Confucianism and Taoism. The establishment of the appointment system promoted the judgment on public opinions in family instructions, and instructions against extravagance highlighted the awareness of simple burials.The Pre-Qin family instructions were mostly written posthumously, while in the Han Dynasty, they were written consciously. Compared with the Pre-Qin period, especially royal family instructions in Western Zhou Dynasty, the content of Han’s family instructions tended to be unchangeable, however, scholar-bureaucrats’ family instructions accounted for a large proportion. What’s more, family instructions in the Pre-Qin period were contained in other works, mostly in the form of Ming, Gao, or dialogues. While in the Han Dynasty, the types of writing were richer, and more forms, such as Shu, Xun, Jie, Shi and so on, had emerged.