Yan Jiaxun is still a valuable work for modern people. First, the parenting methods and ways of treating people in the book provide us with useful reference; Second, this book helps to understand the social status and customs of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Thirdly, the titles of phonology, documentary evidence and articles in the book provide rich materials for the study of ancient classics, phonology, history, culture and literary theory. For example:
I feel guilty at night and regret what I lost yesterday. (preface to Yan jiaxun) make mistakes in the morning and wake up at night; If you did something wrong yesterday, you should repent today. Explain that it is important to correct mistakes in time.
However, you can be thrifty and not stingy. Those who are thrifty, save luxury and be thrifty and not stingy. ("Yan Family Instructions Governing the Family") You can be frugal but not stingy. Thrift is a ritual saving, and meanness is unsympathetic even in times of difficulty and crisis.
Sincerity is better than cleverness. ("Yan Jiaxun Famous Articles") Clever hypocrisy is not as good as clumsy sincerity. Hypocrisy and lies cannot stand the test. Fool for a while, but not for a lifetime.
Living with good people is like entering Lan Zhi's room, and you are fragrant; Being with the wicked is like entering the land of abalone, which stinks. Living with a kind person is like entering a room full of orchids. Over time, I smell all over. Living with the wicked is like entering a shop selling salted fish, and it stinks over time.
There are many famous aphorisms as above.
However, due to historical limitations, there are inevitably many feudal dross in family precepts.
First, put your family interests above the interests of the country and the nation. The book of the wise teaches people to be sincere and filial, to be cautious and to make a name for themselves. At the end of the last article "Final System" in Family Instructions, you emphasized the simplicity of funeral, but asked you to make a name for yourself.
Secondly, because he was born in troubled times, he was good at abstaining from horses, lived in exile and was knowledgeable, which enabled him to master a set of vulgar life secrets and formed the duality of his personality. On the one hand, he praised the unyielding duality and the festival of unity; On the one hand, it emphasizes what is wrong and what is right.
Third, promote the religious thought of karma. As Huang said in the preface to Yan Jia Xun in the second year of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty, martial arts and official management are linked to each other, and there is no negative training. But the chapter of "returning to the heart" expounds Buddhism and flows into heresy. He stressed that the family should return to the heart and not take it lightly. Your Cao is not strong enough, so I will try my best to convince you. The so-called return to the heart means taking Buddhism as the spiritual pillar. He said: Confucians and gentlemen are still far away from the kitchen, and they can't bear to die when they see their lives, and they don't eat their meat when they hear their voices. There are people who are easy to be killed, and there are many disasters brought to future generations when they die. He also cited: In the Liang Dynasty, people often bathed with chicken egg whites, and the clouds made them glow. Every time they bathed for twenty or thirty dollars, they heard thousands of chickens chirping when they died. Qi has an invitation from the imperial court, and the family is very luxurious. He didn't kill the cow himself, which is not beautiful. He is thirty years old and very ill. When he saw the cow coming, he was stabbed and died. Seven or eight cases proved his view of karma.
Although there are many feudal dross in family precepts. However, it is still a useful historical material in the excellent cultural heritage of the motherland. As an ethics teaching book, it is a universal and far-reaching work in feudal society, which has been popular all over the world since the Tang and Song Dynasties. The purpose of studying this book is to absorb the essence of democracy, eliminate the dross of feudalism, and make the past serve the present.