Family Instructions for the Yan Clan

Yan Zhitui lived through the collapse of three dynasties, was taken captive twice, and served four different courts. In old age he wrote down for his sons everything he had learned about surviving such a world: how to educate children, manage a household, choose a wife, speak with care, study the classics and the correct pronunciation of characters, practise medicine and calligraphy, avoid the dangers of fame and keep Buddhist faith. Personal, practical and full of observations of north and south China, the Family Instructions became the model of a whole genre. This complete new English translation gives all twenty chapters. Names are given in modern pinyin and key terms are rendered plainly rather than buried in jargon, so the arguments, stories and debates can be read straight through by anyone curious about Chinese thought.