According to the Book of Jin Tao Kan's Mother Zhan Chuan, Tao Kanchu was a small official in Xunyang County, managing fisheries. One day, he asked someone to give his mother a jar of bad fish. I didn't know that the mother refused the official things, sealed the fish and returned it. She also wrote to blame her son: "As an official, leaving the official things to me will not only do me no good, but will increase my worries." After remembering his mother's teachings, Tao Kan was diligent and honest, and made great achievements. On one occasion, Lian Xiao Fan Kui from Poyang visited and saw Tao Mu's family surrounded by disciples. When Tao Mu cut her hair and sold it to her neighbors for wine and food, she sighed, "If it weren't for this mother, this child wouldn't have been born." Tao Mu's honest story of sealing fish, repairing books and intercepting passengers is still praised today.
When the father of Cui Huan, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, became an official, Cui Huan's grandmother wrote the book Ten Commandments. At the beginning, she quoted her cousin Xin, who was a doctor in wasteland, as saying, "It's really good news for my son to be an official. Some people can't survive in the clouds. If you hear that the goods are sufficient and the clothes are light and fat, this is bad news. " Cui Huan's grandmother "often emphasizes this statement and thinks it is true." The book also wrote: "Officials often give money and things to their parents, but parents know the fun and don't even ask where it comes from. Must be a wage surplus, honest and good; If it is unreasonable, how can it be different from a thief? " When Cui Huan's father was in Tang Gaozong, he used to be a senior official in charge of the functions and powers of the viceroy. According to his mother's orders, this official is honest and clean. Later, Cui Huan became prime minister, and he was not personally humiliated. As for Cui Huan's son Cui Zong and grandson Cui Wei, they are praised by the world for their incorruptibility.
Yuan He, a famous minister in the Northern Wei Dynasty, made many meritorious deeds and was named the King of Longxi. Although he is a senior official, he is honest and thrifty. In 479 AD, Yuan He knew that he was going to die, and wrote a book "A suicide note to scholars", warning his son: "Be loyal to the monarch and diligent in politics, and make an appointment to be close to yourself. When I die, I will be buried in a single coffin. It is useless to be full of filial piety. " In the feudal society where thick burial prevailed, it was really commendable that Yuanhe was in a high position but left a thin burial. Yuanhe's two sons later became senior officials, both honest and frugal, which is a much-told story.
In addition, for example, in Zhuge Liang's commandment book, "frugality and morality", in Zhu Bailu's "Family Instructions for Zhuzi" in the late Ming Dynasty, "a porridge and a meal, when thinking is hard-won; Half a thread, persistent thinking about material difficulties and so on. They are all famous sentences that people have been reciting.
Zeng Guofan wrote the word "frugality to keep clean" in a letter to his younger brother, warning him that although his official position has risen, he needs to be frugal in daily living expenses, social entertainment expenses, housing construction expenses, etc., and use frugality to restrain himself. "Cherish material resources without losing the family style of the poor." Inheriting the frugal family style does not care about outsiders' comments: "Not afraid of cold villages, not afraid of thrift, not greedy and generous, not greedy and unrestrained."
Zeng Guofan's status is getting higher and higher, and his expenses are getting bigger and bigger. He often introspects: "It is natural to return to frugality after extravagance." He also often blames himself for breaking the thrifty rule: "Only one day of thrift". He also warned his family to beware of the waste of the younger generation: "sons and nephews look at their eyes and eat their mouths, so it will be difficult to recover in the future." Brother must always pay attention. "
He often writes home and asks how frugality is doing: "How much has the word' frugality' been done at home and abroad recently? The family is too prosperous to last long. Please be careful. "