Simply Discussion Yan Family Lectur

Yan Zitui wrote his Family Lecture to give lesson to his offspring and fulfill ambition of settling down and getting on with his pursuit. His work was acclaim as'family lecture's ancestor in ancient and modern times'by Zhi Zhai, which was a common and final comment of predecessors. Zitui's work was arranged as Literary Biography in Qi Shu and Northern History, from which we can know Zitui's special and plentiful knowledge. Zitui was born in troubled times, lived for four dynasties, and suffered state collapse three times, hadn't he has many of emotions and feelings? So, I read Family Lecture to pursue a new opinion, not like that of predecessors. Its contents are many and varied, such as study, conducting himself in society, dealing with something, figures and personae, classical works, custom, anecdote, through which we can look at something in Six Dynasties Times. Although Zitui had a favor for Buddhism, but in fact he was a pure Confucian. So his work was focused on scholarly honor or official rank, cultivation his moral character, management his family, administration state, and making the world peace. Zitui emphasized on writing and gained what one has learned, and his work can compare with that of Liu Yanhe. Because of predecessor's absence of studying zitui's works, I can discuss it intentionally.