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Zhengshi guifan 鄭氏規範

Sep 26, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Zhengshi guifan 鄭氏規範 "Master Zheng's rules and guidelines" is a book on Confucian family management written by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Zheng Taihe 鄭太和 xxx.

The book includes 168 paragraphs describing the duty to present offering at the ancestral altar, the tasks that all members of a family have to take over, beginning with the family head, to his sons and the female members of the household. The author says that sons had to express filial piety towards their parents and to fulfill their duties in a sincere and simple way, and that the family head must neither be too rigid nor too lenient in his treatment of the various family members. In the age of twenty sui, a son has to learn how to manage financial matters of a household, before he could take over this duty for himself. Women had to serve their parents-in-law with the spirit of filial piety, their husband with that kind of etiquette that separates men and women, and her sisters-in-law with harmony.

The book is included in the series Xuehai leibian 學海類編 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

Source:
Jiaoyu da cidian bianzuan weiyuanhui 教育大辭典編纂委員會, ed. (1991). Jiaoyu da cidian 教育大辭典, part 8, Zhongguo gudai jiaoyu shi 中國古代教育史 (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe), Vol. 1, 249.