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Fangweng jiaxun 放翁家訓

Sep 26, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Fangweng jiaxun 放翁家訓 "Lu Fangweng's family instructions" is a treatise on Confucian principles written by the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) writer and philosopher Lu You 陸游 (1125-1210), whose style was Fangweng 放翁 "Free Old Man".

The book was finished in 1168 and served to instruct his own sons and grandsons. He recommended that it was not necessary to achieve a high state office with a rich salary, but to strive for a righteous position of social respect. Yet it was also not correct to sink down to the status of a profit maker (a "mean man", xiaoren 小人) on the market, but the highest respect of all social groups was to toll to the peasants. Lu You hoped that his sons would not disguise their strengths, but also collaborate with those of fame and power.

The Fangweng jiaxun is to be found in the series Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

Source:
Jiaoyu da cidian bianzuan weiyuanhui 教育大辭典編纂委員會, ed. (1991). Jiaoyu da cidian 教育大辭典, part 8, Zhongguo gudai jiaoyu shi 中國古代教育史 (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe), Vol. 1, 248.