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"The first in Jiangnan" Zheng Yimen
Zheng Yimen, also known as the "first in Jiangnan", is located in Zhengzhai Town, Pujiang County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, covering an area of about 5,000 square meters, and is an important site of ancient Chinese family culture. From the first year of Chonghe in the Northern Song Dynasty (1118) to the third year of Ming Shun (1459), the Zheng family lived together here for more than 340 years, and was famous for its filial piety.
Historically, a family living together for generations was watched by the imperial court, which can be called "righteous door". Among the "righteous doors" commended by the dynasties, the general fifth and seventh dynasties are rare and valuable, while Zheng Yimen, the fifteenth generation, lived together, went through three dynasties, spanning more than three centuries, the three dynasties of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are listed for their biographies, and the outstanding cultural celebrities of various eras stop for it... The Zheng family lived so righteously that they were repeatedly honored by the imperial court and were given the title of "the first family in Jiangnan" by Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty.
In the land of Zhong Lingyuxiu in Jiangnan, this cultivation and reading house located on the bank of the Pujiang River has been famous for more than 900 years. The soul that drives this family to continue and live endlessly is its family rule, the Zheng Code.
The "Zheng Code" is the magic weapon for the Zheng family's housekeeper to govern the family. It translates the Confucian concept of "filial piety" like a mathematical formula into a highly operational code of conduct. After several generations of creation, revision, addition and deletion, it was finally fixed as 168 articles, involving domestic management, children and grandchildren education, crown marriage and funeral sacrifice, life and learning, living and living in the world, etc., which can be called the most complete family management norms in the world. It even divides the management members of the extended family into 18 types of positions and 26 people, forming a network-style multi-layered structure. The order of a large family was thus established seamlessly. It is this wisdom that guides this family forward in the long river of history.
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"Zheng Family Fan", the first literary dictionary of family education
Housekeeping: There is a way to govern the family
The Zheng family has gone through the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties without decline, and is closely related to its rigorous way of governing the family. The "Zheng Family Fan" has formulated many measures in terms of housekeeping management to ensure the orderly order of various affairs in the clan, and the first article points out the important function of the ancestral hall in the family. The ancestral hall is used to enshrine the ancestral gods, and the Zheng family has important affairs to go to the ancestral hall to pray to the ancestors. On the first and fifteenth days of the first month of each month, the clan must hold a worship ceremony in the ancestral hall, and the fresh fruits must be worshipped on traditional festivals.
The "Zheng Family Fan" respects the authority of the parents, "the parents always govern the affairs of the family", "if there is something under it, it must also be consulted and then done, and it must not be private leave, and it must not be private". Parents are based on public selflessness and must not be biased by private feelings. If he is at fault, the whole family can advise him at any time, but the method of persuasion must be based on filial piety and not harm the family's harmony.
Life and learning: Strict self-cultivation
Article 102 of the "Zheng Family Fan" stipulates that children and grandchildren must treat their parents with respect and treat their brothers with kindness, so that they can have the atmosphere of a filial piety home. In daily life, the younger generations should call the elders by their size and generations, and are not allowed to call them by name. Those who speak ill of each other, are arrogant and rude, and who behave in violation of the code of ethics, are educated and punished.
Of course, the descendants should do their best to serve the elders, and those who respect the elders should not hold their children hostage because they are proud of their status. As a parent, you should treat your family sincerely, and you should not speak casually and act arbitrarily. In front of the younger generations, parents should act strictly with themselves and lead by example. When encountering problems, do not be too calculating in the details, do not be confused, be graceful and generous when making decisions, measure people, and usually love the family as if you were loving your own body.
Education for children and grandchildren: godsons are good
"The way of man, why should he be taught first?" This is stated in Article 90 of the Zheng Family Fan. In order to get a good education for their children and grandchildren, the Zheng family set up a family school to educate and encourage their children with benevolence and filial piety, and exempted them from tuition. Dongming Jingshe (later known as Dongming Academy) was founded in the early Yuan Dynasty as a place for the descendants of the Zheng clan to study, but also accepted students from all over the world to study. Song Lian, known as the "head of the founding ministers" of the Ming Dynasty, studied at Zheng Yimen, and then taught at the Eastern Ming Jingshe for more than 20 years, and reviewed the "Zheng Family Fan" for the Zheng family.
The "Zheng Family Fan" stipulates that the children and grandchildren study and study, with filial piety as an important content, and the clan strictly disciplines and restricts the study, morality, and behavior of the children, so as to ensure that the children have good conduct and physical and mental health, and meet the needs of the Qi family and the governance of the country and the world.
Dealing with the world: benevolence and integrity
In handling the affairs of the clan well, the children of the clan should cultivate themselves and the family at the same time, but also care for others and live in harmony with their neighbors. From the perspective of the family, restraining the clan to be honest and honest is a major feature of the Zheng family. Articles 86, 87 and 88 of the Zheng Family Fan are prescribed for those who are appointed as officials. After their descendants become officials, they should abide by the law and work hard to do political affairs, and should not get involved in corruption and bribery in order to insult the family and violate the family law. When you go out to become an official, you must also abide by the family model, and after you leave your post, you should not be too greedy for the official position, nor should you think that you have been an official, and you should be arrogant to your people. Sooner or later, the children of officials must remember how to repay the country and care for the poor and poor people. From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Yimen had about 173 officials, especially in the Ming Dynasty, with 47 people, and the highest official rank was in the Rebbe Shangshu. Article 88 stipulates: "Those who have children and grandchildren who have heard about it with stolen ink shall be stripped of their names in the "Spectrum" when they are born, and they shall not be allowed to enter the ancestral hall when they die." If the person falsely accused, this is not the case. "None of the descendants of the Zheng clan has been deposed for perverting the law for corruption.
Crown Wedding And Funeral Offering: Keep the ceremony upright
There are more than 20 articles in the Zheng Code on crown marriage and funeral sacrifices. For example, children who are 16 years old can hold a crown ceremony, but they must be able to recite Confucian classics such as "University", "Zhongyong", "Analects", "Mencius", and be able to explain the truth, otherwise they will perform the crown ceremony until they are 21 years old. If the younger brother can recite it first, he will perform the crown ceremony before the older brother, which is intended to motivate the older brother. In terms of sacrifice, except for the four-hour sacrifice, it is not allowed to sacrifice and seek blessings in violation of the regulations. "Whenever a grave is born, the filial son should be sacrificed with plain clothes." "You are not allowed to drink alcohol, eat meat, or listen to music during the day, and you are not allowed to sleep outside at night." "Sacrifice is done in filial piety, in order to repay the sincerity of the book." When holding funerals, the Zheng family, in accordance with the provisions of the "Wengong Family Ceremony", was not deceived by superstition, and did not use drum music to hold funerals, and did not drink alcohol and eat meat before the funeral was over.
In addition, "Zheng Family Fan" has also set up many public welfare projects, such as opening a medicine market, diagnosing and administering medicine to neighbors and relatives with diseases, encouraging children and grandchildren with surplus funds to build bridges and pave roads, advocating benevolence and righteousness, not forgetting the poor and not forgetting the poor, and not overbearing the poor, and taking helpfulness as a traditional family virtue.
The family rules and family disciplines of governing the family, teaching the son, self-cultivation, and dealing with the world in the "Zheng Family Fan", as well as the very distinctive practice of indoctrination, are the consolidation and development of the ancient Chinese family system, and have a profound impact on the secularization of Confucian ethics and culture. Zhu Yuanzhang, the family law of the Zheng family, which is based on filial piety and righteousness, and the family rules and family laws based on cultivation and reading, are extremely valued, and even introduced a lot of content of the "Zheng Family Fan" into the laws of the Ming Dynasty.
According to some principles of public life put forward by Confucian ethical philosophy, the concepts of "harmony is precious", "charity and", "do not do to others" have been fully reflected in various codes of conduct. From the rigorous and meticulous "Zheng Family Model", we can get many enlightenments: one is to cultivate human morality, advocating filial piety to parents, brothers and brothers, and the principle of hard work and frugality; second, to educate and educate people, through the establishment of righteous schools, hire famous teachers, and give back to the society while educating the children of the middle-class people; the third is to be honest and honest, and from the family point of view, officials are "obedient to the public and diligent in government, and do not be greedy." To this day, the traditional virtues and principles contained in them are still the driving force for us to forge ahead. It is the details of life that determine a person's behavior and moral character; it is the wisdom of family governance that has been passed down for generations to guide a family forward.
◎ This article was originally published in the "People's Political Consultative Conference Daily" (author Wang Jie), the original text has been modified, the source network, the copyright of the picture and text belongs to the original author, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.