rules of children

弟子規

Come read classical Chinese! Rules for Children (1) Rules for Children talks about the advices given by wise men from ancient times. First, you must obey your parents, respect your older siblings, love your younger siblings, be careful in your speech, and keep your promise to others. You should have a generous love towards others, and try to befriend people with good manners. If you can do the above and still have energy left, you can proceed to study literature and other knowledge. Rules for Children is a compilation of advices and lectures by wise men from ancient times. This book emphasizes that it is important for a person to build moral character first before learning knowledge, the idea being it is not enough just to have knowledge. A person must also have good moral character. And the key to good moral character is to obey one's parents. Therefore, in what follows, we will look at some stories about filial obedience. Zih Lu Carries Rice to Feed His Parents Zih Lu was one of Kong Zih's disciples. He was very obedient to his parents. His family was very poor. They could only afford meat and fish during special festivals. The rest of the time they only had wild vegetables to eat. To support his parents, each day Zih Lu walked long distances to the market to buy rice and foraged for wild vegetables to take home and cook for his parents. After his parents passed away, King Chu appointed him as a civil servant because his ability and character were highly appreciated. Although he was escorted wherever he went and enjoyed d elicacies of every kind , he sighed, “Though I am well off now, I miss the days when I walked a long way to carry the rice and picked wild vegetables to support my parents.”