Litang jiaxun 里堂家訓

Litang jiaxun 里堂家訓 "Family instructions of [Master] Village Hall" is a book on private education written during the mid-Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Jiao Xun 焦循 (1763-1802), courtesy name Litang 里堂, from Jiangdu 江都 (today part of Yangzhou 揚州, Jiangsu). He wrote a commentary on the Confucian Classic Yijing "Book of Changes", Yi zhangju 易章句. His collected writings are called Diaogulou wenji 雕菰樓文集.

The book on education with a length of 2 juan was written over a long period of time during which Jiao collected statements of older writers and added his own thoughts and observations. About half of the book consists of quotations, mainly from the ancient masters Xu Shen 許慎 (c. 58-c. 147) and Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127-200) from the late Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE). Jiao Xun held that Confucian precepts for moral conduct were the precondition of "regulating one's life" (zhi sheng 治生). Young persons had to contain their desires (zi shou 自守), and parents had to see to it that learning was the business of young boys (shi zhi you ye 使之有業). Yet he also admitted that there was no unified method of education because people of different social groups and backgrounds would have their own approaches (ren ge you suo jin 人各有所近). The final aim of learning was to "surpass one’s [habitual] character and spirits" (zi chu qi xingling 自出其性靈).

The book is found in the series Chuanyanzhai congshu 傳硯齋叢書, Hezhong tushuguan congshu 合眾圖書館叢書 and Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書.