Do you want to accumulate virtue and be good? Farming and studying is a good boy.

Couplets given to sons and nephews by Zuo in the late Qing Dynasty.

The general meaning of couplets is that to become a prominent family, we must rely on our ancestors to do more good deeds; In order to cultivate good future generations, we must encourage farming and reading. Only by hard work and diligence can the family prosper and stand for a hundred years.

Left: A native of Xiangyin, Hunan Province, was ambitious since childhood and took it as his duty to revitalize the national economy and benefit the people. But he was a late bloomer, and only at the age of forty did he embark on the road of being an official. Left 40 to 70 years old. After the Xiang army destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, put down the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion and recovered Xinjiang. Born from the shogunate, he became a minister of military affairs. From an insignificant juren, it became the last backbone of the Qing Dynasty.

Zuo has four sons. When the eldest son was born, he was 35 years old. Because of his busy work, he can't talk to his children often, but he always pays attention to their growth. Give a trust to your godson for inculcating your child.

To study and be a man, you must first have determination.

He didn't advocate that children should take reading as the way of promotion in the imperial examination, but paid special attention to children's cultural education, hoping that they would be down-to-earth and become "practical talents". Zuo asked his children to "make up their minds before studying" and asked them to think clearly before reading, "What were ancient sages and heroes like at my age? What is knowledge? What is talent? Which one can I compare with him now? " He also wrote a letter about how his son read: "Read with eyes, mouth and heart." Inside and outside the letter, a father's ardent feelings are beyond words.