Liao Sen of the Ming Dynasty once wrote the poem "Three Migrations of godsons":
In ancient times, who knew Meng Muxian, he diligently taught his son to move three times. Raise Moncan as a butcher, learn to teach the play of beans. Once kung fu is privately owned, the Ten Thousand Years Dao Tong Guo can be passed on. It seems that all the saints are thus said to be born without necessity.
Praise mengmu for her diligent godson, and finally make Mengzi a generation of sages.
MengMu (BC?) ~317 BC), the mother of Mencius, surnamed 仉 (zhǎng), was a Member of the Shanxi clan during the Warring States period. Later, he migrated to Shandong with his ancestors and settled in Zou (now Zoucheng, Shandong Province), known for his godson. Mencius was able to become the "yasheng" of Confucius's position in the orthodox ideological system of Chinese feudal society, thanks to his mother.
In ancient China, the saying of "prenatal education" has a long history. When she was pregnant in October, Meng Mu deeply realized the importance of "prenatal education". The "Han Shi Wai Biography" contains a passage of her: "I am pregnant with a child, the seat is not right, the seat is not right, the cut is not right, the food is not eaten, and the prenatal education is also." ”
Mencius's father, Meng Ji, went to the Song Dynasty to seek shi. But he died in a foreign country, when Mencius was only three years old. The isolated and helpless Meng Mu gritted her jade teeth and secretly resolved to rely on her own hands to obtain food and clothing, and to cultivate her son into a person who was useful to society. Since then, Meng Mu has not only carefully taken care of her son's diet and living, but also tirelessly paid attention to cultivating and shaping her son's perfect personality with "words" and "teaching by example".
Portrait of Meng Mu
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > honest and trustworthy to teach young children</h1>
Meng Mu attaches great importance to teaching by word and deed, and inspires and educates Mencius with her words and deeds and every move. The story of "buying meat and eating children" tells how Meng Mu used her own words and deeds to give Mengzi honest and undelinquent moral education.
When Mencius was very young, the neighbors killed pigs. Mencius asked his mother why she killed pigs? Meng Mu replied casually, "I want to give you meat!" But Meng Mu regretted it when she finished. Orphans and widows, the family's difficulties can be imagined, where is the surplus money to buy meat? Just now she just said in passing, Ben did not mean to buy meat. "Now he has just learned things, and I have deceived him, which is teaching him not to be trustworthy." No, I can't do that! Therefore, Meng Mu made up a piece, gritted her teeth to raise money, and bought the neighbor's pork for Mengzi to eat, indicating that her mother did not deceive him.
Buy meat
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > painstakingly handled for the son's "three moves"</h1>
The old saying: "Near Zhu is red, near ink is black", which means that the impact of the environment on people is very important. The Meng family was originally at the foot of Ma'an Mountain, living next to the cemetery, and from time to time saw funerals. The children learned to kneel and cry together. Meng Mu looked in her eyes and said in her heart, "This place is not suitable for my children to live!" What to do? The only way to do this is to change the living environment.
Under Meng Mu Zhang Luo, the mother and son moved to Miaohuying Village, ten miles away, which is a market. Bargaining during trading comes and goes. By ear, Mencius and the other children also learned how to do business as a businessman, and their personalities began to have a tendency to be more expensive. Meng Mu was uneasy in her heart, she did not want her son to be contaminated with mercenary city squire, insisting that she must choose a good environment suitable for her son to grow up.
About half a year later, she moved her family near a school palace. There are often readers there, elegant manners, follow the rules of etiquette, subtly affect the children nearby, they have a similar practice of the etiquette of giving way in and out of the palace. Meng Mu was very happy in her heart and sincerely sighed: "This is the best living environment for children!" ”
Meng Mu moved three times
Orphans and widows, it is not easy to move a home, and Meng's mother has moved three times in succession for the growth of her son, which shows that Meng's mother knows the importance of the objective environment for the growth of children. No matter how much difficulty you encounter, you must do it for the sake of your children.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the governor's reading metaphor</h1>
Playfulness is common to children. One day, Mencius actually skipped school to play outside for half a day. When he returned home, Meng Mu picked up a pair of scissors and cut off a piece of brocade woven from the waist, and when Mengzi was shocked, Meng Mu said:
You waste your studies, just as I cut off my weaving silk. A gentleman learns to be famous, and when he asks, he is widely known, so he lives in peace, and his movement is far from harm, and if he abandons his studies now, he will not be exempt from doing lowly labor, and it will be difficult to avoid disasters.
Meng Mu used "broken weaving" to warn of "dropping out of school", pointing out the serious consequences of giving up halfway through learning. The scene of "cutting off the weaving inspector" left a clear impression of both shock and fear in Mencius's small soul, and from then on he studied diligently and eventually became a famous Confucian in the world.
Inspector of Broken Weaving
In the face of Mencius's truancy, Meng Mu neither scolded nor beat, but used the "broken weaving" incident to make Mencius understand the importance of reading and learning not to give up halfway, so as to study diligently. This method of educating children with the help of the truth of things is indeed amazing!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > paved the way for Confucianism</h1>
In the Warring States period, the hundreds of sons competed for the odds and fought against each other, and the doctrines of ink and Taoism were once prominent, which made people dazzling. However, Meng Mu had her own ideas and personally found an excellent Confucian enlightenment teacher for Mencius.
At the age of fifteen, Mencius came to Qufu and began a formal Confucian education. At that time, Confucius's grandson Kong Ling taught the Six Arts, and he favored Mencius, saying to the left and right: "Mengzi is happy and benevolent, and he is called Yao Shun, and he is rare in the world." Since then, Mencius has been immersed in his disciples for five years, and his learning and virtue have advanced by leaps and bounds, and finally his learning has been completed, inheriting the mantle of Confucius.
Learn Confucianism
It should be said that Mencius chose Confucianism as the cause of his lifelong struggle, and finally became a "saint" who did not seek for his own body, sacrificed his life for righteousness, and only sought the country and the world for the sake of worrying about the world and others, which was inseparable from the influence of Meng Mu's early education.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > teach children to be self-disciplined</h1>
Meng Mu's education of her son is meticulous, even after becoming a parent, in the way of getting along with the husband and wife, Meng Mu also worries about him. Teach him to learn to be tolerant in the relationship between husband and wife, to introspect himself in everything, and not to blame others.
Mencius thought that his wife was too arrogant and had intended to divorce her. Meng Mu was righteous to her son:
Fu Li, will be the entrance, ask who is kept, so salute also. Will go to church, the voice is high, so abstain from people. Will enter the house, see will be down, so I am afraid to see people passing. Now that Ru is going to Yan's private place, there is no sound in the household, so that people can be inside, and they are looked at as ru, not rude, not rude.
Home and Fang can do everything, Mencius deeply felt that he was wrong. So the mustard in his heart was removed, and he got along with his wife as before.
The godson introspects himself
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the proto-son to go far and show his ambitions</h1>
Confucius said: "Parents are here, not far away." Mencius also wanted to travel around the world like Confucius, and had the dream of disseminating ideas and doctrines, seeking greater development, and realizing lofty ambitions. Helplessly, although he has the ambition of Qingyun, in order to serve his mother, he cannot bear to leave his homeland.
King Xuan of Qi refused to actively pursue his ideas, and he very much wanted the Song state, which was willing to adopt his political ideas, but he was worried that his mother would not be taken care of. In such a contradiction, time flies, Mencius has reached the age of knowing his destiny, and he is a little depressed. After Meng Mu knew her son's heart, she said a famous quote from time to time:
"The etiquette of husband and wife, fine five tastes, good at wine pulp, raising uncles and aunts, sewing clothes only, so there is a boudoir of cultivation, and there is no ambition to go abroad." In words, there is no righteousness of self-control, but there are three ways of obedience, so the young are subordinate to their parents, the marriage is from their husbands, and the death of their husbands is from their sons and ceremonies. Imako is an adult too, and I'm old! The Son acts in righteousness, and I act in my courtesy. ”
Statue of Meng Mu
She told Mencius that her duty was to take care of the housework and support her in-laws without having to travel far. The responsibility of men requires traveling in all directions to show their talents. Now the son has fulfilled his morals and ambitions, and he continues to abide by his own etiquette and righteousness at home, each getting what he deserves.
How remarkable are these words, coming from the mouth of a great mother with great maternal love! As a woman, Meng Mu's greatness is not only "fine five tastes, wine pulp, aunt raising, sewing clothes" and "three subordinate ways", but more importantly, she can give different degrees of teaching according to stages in the growth process of her son. She is like a candle, burning herself, illuminating the future for her son.
Three words and two words swept away Mencius's worries and concerns. Mencius was in a happy mood, so he bid farewell to his mother and embarked on a journey around the world. Mencius traveled around the world again and received an unprecedented respect and warm welcome. Many of his political ideas were successfully pursued and successfully implemented in the princely states.
Mencius traveled around the world
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > gongcheng died and left a good name</h1>
But at the moment when Mencius raised his eyebrows, his ambitions were unleashed, and he enjoyed the admiration of thousands of people, Meng Mu, who had devoted her life's work to her son, could not afford to be ill. Then she silently left the world she loved and the son she poured out all her maternal love. Meng Mu died alone and did not die under the knees of her children and grandchildren. But she was not alone and miserable, because she saw her son unleash his political ambitions in the nations and finally grow into a generation of sages. Filled with the joy of a successful mother, she closed her eyes happily. Because that's her biggest wish, and it's what she wants to see the most.
On the way to the burial home, in the places along the way, both the people's officials competed to pay tribute to the roadside to express their respect and mourning for this great mother. Today, in the foothills of Ma'an Mountain, twenty miles north of Zoucheng City, Shandong Province, there is the tomb of Meng Mu, where ancient cypress towering in the sky, there are stone carvings from past dynasties praising her steadfastness and motherly demeanor, and there is a Meng Mu Ancestral Hall.
Meng Mu Sanqian Ancestral Hall
Arguably, there is nothing greater than raising the son of a sage. Mencius was immortalized by his thoughts, and Meng Mu left a strong mark in the vast history of youth because of her love and her unique wisdom and insight.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
The various practices of Mengmu's teachings had a great influence on the growth of Mencius and the development of his thought. It laid a solid and solid foundation for his future commitment to the research and development of Confucianism. Meng mu's careful care and cultivation eventually made Mengzi a famous thinker, educator and politician in ancient China. Because he inherited and carried forward the ideas of Confucius, Confucius and Mencius were collectively called "the Way of Confucius and Mencius".
The story of "Meng Mu teaching her son" has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, and has become a model for mothers who educate their children, and Meng Mu is also known as "mothers teach one person". This great mother, with her extraordinary perseverance and tenacity, has been working hard for decades, adhering to the zhijie, nurturing Mencius with her heart, carefully raising him to adulthood, not only achieving Mencius, making it a "sub-saint" that later generations of Confucians aspire to; she herself has also left many godsons, and she herself has become a famous mother model for thousands of years, and is universally respected in Chinese history.
Zoucheng City, a national historical and cultural city and the birthplace of Mencius, chose the day when Mengzi was born as "Chinese Mother's Day", because it was this day that the Tong clan became a true mother. Since 2007, the "Chinese Mother Culture Festival" has been successfully held for more than ten consecutive years, which has effectively promoted Confucianism and mother culture.
References: "Meng Mu", "Meng Mu Godson", "The Four Wise Mothers of Ancient China"