Speaking of Fan Zhongyan, everyone is familiar with it. The sentence in his famous poem "Yueyang Tower", "Be anxious when the world is worried first, and be happy when the world is happy later" had a profound impact on later generations.
Fan Zhongyan left eight words of family motto for his descendants: "Self-reliance, study, thrift, and good deeds." He did these eight words himself, and also asked his descendants to follow this.
1. Self-reliance
Due to family changes, Fan Zhongyan developed a hard-working, thrifty and kind character since childhood. After his mother remarried, he lived a life of dependence on others, which taught him that in order to get ahead, he must be self-reliant.
2. Reading
When he was two years old, his father passed away. His mother had to take Fan Zhongyan back to his hometown. Due to difficulties in life, her mother remarried Zhu Wenhan, a local official in Changshan County. Therefore, Fan Zhongyan changed his stepfather's surname to Zhu Shuo.
Two years later, his stepfather returned to his hometown after his term of office expired. Zhu Yue returned to his hometown of Changshan County with his mother, which is now Henan Village, Changshan Town, Zouping County, Shandong Province. From then on, Fan Zhongyan began his childhood life here.
At the age of four, he studied hard at Liquan Temple. Because his family was poor, he ate millet porridge and pickled vegetables.
When he was in his 20s, he happened to know his family background. Deeply stimulated, he said goodbye to his mother and left the Zhu family. In the fourth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1011), Fan Zhongyan went to Yingtianfu Academy to study.
Here, Fan Zhongyan is known for his diligence and excellent results.
In the eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu reign (1015), Fan Zhongyan passed the Jinshi title. After being named on the gold list, he served as the manager of the Guangde Army and joined the army. After I got a stable job, I took my mother here to honor her.
He wrote a letter to the emperor, officially recognizing his ancestors and restoring his surname to Fan, with his given name Zhongyan and his courtesy name Xiwen.
3. Qing Jian
Fan Zhongyan is a child who has suffered a lot. His father died when he was young, and his life as a dependent made him develop a good habit of thrift. This good character has been with him throughout his life.
In his later years, Fan Zhongyan recalled his glorious life. He said: "I have experienced many turmoils in my life, but I can only endure poverty, so I can avoid disasters."
4. Doing good deeds
Doing good deeds means doing good deeds, and Fan Zhongyan has done many good deeds. Fan Zhongyan had been an official for decades, and most of his salary was used to give alms to others, so he didn't even have enough funeral expenses when he died.
In the long history of China, Fan Zhongyan has always been a positive image with almost no negative comments. Wang Anshi, who was also from the Song Dynasty, praised Fan Zhongyan as "the teacher of a generation", while "History of the Song Dynasty" evaluated Fan Zhongyan as "a famous minister of a generation."
Since he had been an official for a long time and was busy at work, he and his children lived in two places, so he used letters to educate his children. These letters are Fan Zhongyan's summary and summary of running a country, running a family, and being a human being.
Fan Zhongyan had high hopes for his four sons. Instead of randomly deciding the direction of his children's lives like some fathers in ancient times, he combined their characteristics and personalities and let them do what is appropriate
The descendants of the Fan family have continued for more than 900 years, and descendants are still prospering today.