The book "Family Instructions of Yan Family" has a wide range of contents, but we can still get a glimpse of Yan Zhitui's ideological context from the book.
1, the way to preserve our sanity Yan Zhitui was born in a noble family, and his life was almost guaranteed. His specific life experience has cast his specific ideological character, so compared with the orthodox thoughts in Confucian classics, some thoughts in Yan Family Instructions can be said to be distorted to some extent. However, Yan's thought did not jump out of the Confucian system, so Confucianism occupied a dominant position in his thought. The most prominent of them is that he advocates preserving our sanity. This is inseparable from his specific life experience.
Yan Zhitui was educated by Confucianism since childhood, and Confucianism was deeply rooted in his mind, so he obeyed Confucianism all his life. Therefore, he educated his descendants, hoping that they could follow the Confucian ethics, so as to survive in society without being overthrown. Moreover, because Yan Zhitui is in troubled times and has suffered a lot, he has a strong sense of hardship and fear of disasters, so he hopes that his descendants can understand the stakes in the real society to avoid disasters in troubled times. Because Yan Zhitui was born into an official family, he has been an official for generations and has been an official all his life. After years of experience in officialdom, he realized the difficulty of being an official and protecting himself. Therefore, he hopes that his descendants can maintain the social status of the official family, and don't sink into slavery and feel ashamed of their previous lives.
For the above reasons, his thoughts are often contradictory. For example, if you want to live in troubled times, you must avoid disputes in officialdom, which conflicts with the attempt to maintain the social status of the government; In order to protect officials and avoid disasters, there are contradictions with orthodox Confucian ethics. This paper analyzes the contradictory thoughts embodied in Yan Jiaxun.
It goes without saying that Yan Zhitui surrendered to Confucianism. He wrote in the article "Command Soldiers":
Yan's family was divided by Zou, Lu or Qi. The world takes elegance as its profession, and secretaries are everywhere. ..... The world is in chaos, and well-dressed people, although unable, or gather followers, violate the vegetarian industry and have a small fortune. Since I won the weak, I look to the previous generation, so I am bent on this and future generations will yearn for it!
This passage clearly shows that Yan Zhitui has not only inherited the Confucian cause that his ancestors engaged in, but also hopes that future generations will not abandon this cause. However, due to his life experience, some of his thoughts are distorted, which is not in harmony with orthodox Confucianism. The most representative is the choice between benevolence and life. Confucianism appreciates killing people to become human beings. "The Analects of Confucius Wei Linggong" said: A benevolent person, a benevolent person, does not have to survive and harms benevolence, while a benevolent person commits suicide. As a disciple of Confucianism, Yan Zhitui also used this view to educate future generations in the chapter "Keeping Healthy": A husband should not hesitate to live, but he should not be pitied. It's a pity that this gentleman is desperate, does difficult things, and dies of greed. If you are sincere and filial, you will see thieves; Righteousness is offensive; Lost their lives, the whole family helped the country; You don't blame a gentleman for losing your body.
In this passage, Yan Zhitui put forward two attitudes towards life: don't hesitate, don't pity. The so-called "unforgivable pity" means killing yourself and becoming a human being. Yan Zhitui's thought seems to be the same as that advocated in The Analects of Confucius and Wei Linggong. However, after reading the whole book "Yan Family Instructions", especially after saving trouble, stopping foot, admonishing soldiers and keeping in good health, we will feel that the focus of Yan Zhitui's admonition to his descendants is not to educate them how to deal with the fatal disaster, but to educate them how to survive. If you want to live, you must be content and yield, so that you can protect yourself and avoid disaster. There are many such views in Family Instructions, such as: gravel injury is not as good as spear and halberd, satirizing disaster, speeding up dust, and guarding against the extreme.
Jin Ming Ren Yun:' If you don't say much, you will lose if you say more; Nothing, no trouble. To zai sijie also!
The way of heaven and earth ghosts and gods is full of evil. Modesty can avoid harm.
A husband who keeps in good health must worry about disasters first and be healthy all over. If he has this life, he should raise it again. Don't just raise it without life.
Yan Zhitui was born in troubled times, and people's lives will be threatened at any time. He went up and down several times by himself, and his life was almost guaranteed. Therefore, the bumpy experience made him realize that only by surviving can he talk about Wang Zhidao and the family business. However, it is a dilemma to live in troubled times without violating Confucian ethical standards and maintaining the existing social status. Because in that era when the country was divided and the regime changed frequently, the governors had to face the painful choice of being loyal to the old Lord and taking refuge in the new Lord. On this issue, Yan Zhitui's heart is also extremely contradictory.
On the one hand, he praised Tian Pengluan, an official of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and Mrs. Xie, Wang Shizi of Poyang, for their unyielding feats of sacrificing their lives, and severely criticized Qi generals who had more slaves than others. I lament that He Xianzhi's conduct is so difficult and that it is so easy to identify maids and concubines. On the other hand, in the face of the country's demise, he is a prisoner, but he is a Shi Li Xiao Liang, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui, who can serve the old master and do his best for the new master. In the article, he has a passage to defend his three-dimensional behavior in life: unyielding his second surname, the festival of Yi Qi; What's wrong with you? Yi Heji is right. Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the family has been ruined, the country has been annexed, and the monarch and ministers have been divided.
Here, he used the words of Mencius, a Confucian sage, to point out that although Boyi's unyielding surname is noble and noble, Yi Yin can serve any monarch and is also responsible. Since the monarch and his subjects are inseparable, it is understandable that a minister serves two, three or even four masters, because this is in line with Confucius and Mencius. Although Yan Zhitui defended his experience, after all, as an official of the Han nationality in the Southern Dynasties, he was forced to be an official in the Northern Dynasties after being captured, and his heart was very painful.
In the Southern Dynasties, he witnessed the disaster brought by Xianbei soldiers to the people of the Southern Dynasties. After the Northern Dynasties, he was framed by Xianbei soldiers with suspicion, which was almost a disaster. So his mentality at that time was different from that of Yi Yin's active participation in politics. He served as an official, mainly to educate future generations and not humiliate his ancestors, but he did not expect to make a difference in politics, which was quite different from the Confucian concept of actively participating in the WTO. Therefore, he repeatedly asked future generations of officials to maintain a cautious and gentle attitude: officials call themselves Thais, but in terms of foreign products, looking forward to 50 people and looking back at 50 people is enough to avoid humiliation and overturning. If they are above this, they will give up and suppress the private court. I am Huang Menlang, and I can retire. At that time, I was traveling, afraid of being vilified, and I thought about it, but I didn't have time.
Since the chaos, seeing the wind and cloud, the emblem is fortunate and has the right to seize the opportunity. Filling holes and valleys at night is sad, not ten people and five people. Be careful! Be careful! . Don't be a big official in troubled times. This passage is clear enough. Officials below the middle class have a certain status, so it is enough not to humiliate the bureaucrats' families. Officials who are superior to China's products have too much power and are at the center of the political whirlpool, which is easy to be overthrown. They should resolutely refuse. This is Yan Zhitui's conclusion from summing up his ups and downs in official career. This reflects his philosophy of life to preserve our sanity.
2, pay attention to learning, practical thinking If Yan Zhitui opposes future generations to pursue high officials and high salaries, and participates in politics to avoid disasters and survive in troubled times, then he encourages future generations to study hard and pay attention to hard work in order to gain the ability to make a living, which is also for the sake of making a living in troubled times. For example, in the article Mianxue, he explicitly said:
Fu Ming's Six Classics is a book with hundreds of books, but it can't get virtue. It's still an art, you can pay for it at your own expense. Father and brother can't always live together, and the country can't always protect itself. Once you are displaced and there is no one to protect you, you should ask for help. As the saying goes, "It is better to have a Ji Bo than to accumulate wealth". People who are eager to learn and valuable have no knowledge.
In the same article, he also said that those who were captured in the war, those who have read books and even ordinary people can still be teachers; Those who have never read a book, even the children of bureaucrats, can only plow fields and raise horses for others. Taking his own experience as an example, he explained that it was because of his study and knowledge that he could still be an official in the case of changing dynasties. It can be seen that Yan Zhitui encouraged his children and grandchildren to study hard, with a strong purpose.
Yan Zhitui emphasized that learning must be realistic and not superficial. He wrote in the article Mianxue: My husband studies because he wants to be happy and distinguish right from wrong, so that he can listen well. ..... People in the world can only talk, but they can't do it. Loyalty and filial piety are unknown, and benevolence and righteousness are insufficient; Litigation, no need to be reasonable; Slaughter thousands of families, no matter who they are; Asked him to build a house, I didn't know that the lintel was horizontal and the tax was vertical; As a field to ask, you don't have to know that Xiaomi is early and Xiaomi is late; Reciting and talking about divination, satirizing and reciting ci fu, things are excellent and idle, things increase and materials increase, and military economy is not used at all: therefore, it is despised by martial people and vulgar officials, and fertile land is good!
He believes that learning must be combined with practice: either strengthen the cultivation of one's own moral quality; Or improve the ability to handle practical affairs, such as solving crimes, governing the people, building houses, farming and so on. It is of no practical significance to study just to be able to speak freely and write poems. Based on this pragmatic point of view, he mercilessly criticized the disadvantages of being pampered, divorced from reality and doing nothing. Yan Zhitui himself was born in an aristocratic hall, and he knew the essence of the aristocratic class. He was unlearned and useless. So his exposure of the aristocratic class is very powerful. For example, he pointed out in the article "Involved" that the officials of the gentry have always smelled of seaweed, and there is nothing they can do if they know everything and try everything. Living in a peaceful world, I don't know that there are chaotic disasters; Your highness, I don't know if I have something urgent to call Chen; I didn't know I had the pain of plowing crops. Above the government and the people, I don't know that there is hard work, so it is difficult to cope with world events.
Usually these people are always praising their clothes and shoes. They will ride when they go out and hold them when they go in. In the suburbs, there are no riders, and some of them have never ridden a horse. When they saw a horse screaming and jumping, they were shocked and said, this is a tiger. Why is it called a horse? Yan Zhitui's comments hit the nail on the head at that time, with the purpose of warning future generations to study hard, do things in a down-to-earth manner, learn from their strengths and base themselves on society.