Commentary on Zheng Banqiao's Family Letters

Author: Zheng Banqiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-29
Features: The Family Letters of Zheng Banqiao is a representative work of ancient Chinese "family governance" culture. The Confucian classic The Great Learning states: "When the mind is rectified, the body is cultivated; when the body is cultivated, the family is regulated; when the family is regulated, the state is governed; when the state is governed, the world is brought to peace." This means that for an individual to stand in society, one must first have a rectified mind; only by rectifying the mind can one focus on self-cultivation; only by cultivating oneself can one regulate the family, and then govern the state, ultimately bringing peace to the world. This is the principle that feudal scholars and officials never forgot over thousands of years—"self-cultivation, family regulation, state governance, and world peace." Among these, "family regulation" is a crucial aspect. The reason lies in the fact that in China's long feudal society, the family and clan always held a very important position. The rule of the feudal emperor was, in essence, a family rule centered on blood ties. Father passed on to son, with generations succeeding one another, and thus the feudal imperial power continued its long and enduring lineage. The succession of imperial power was, in the end, the succession of the family, and the feudal society thus weathered thousands of years of storms and winds. This book includes two parts: Commentaries on the Family Letters of Zheng Banqiao and Autographs of the Family Letters of Zheng Banqiao.