Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/362

Rh well-ordered or in chaos, the home poor or rich, if only we can hold to the honorable Sing-kong's eight characters and my eight fundamentals we shall never fail to be a family of the higher class." To these were to be added three secrets of good fortune, filial conduct, industry, and reciprocity, of which the last named was defined by Confucius in his form of the golden rule as meaning, "What you do not desire do not inflict on others."

An interesting repetition of the above ideas on wealth and the practice of the homely virtues occurs in a letter written as late as 1867, on the occasion of his writing to tell his family that he could not send a large sum of money home. "Since I became viceroy of the Two Kiang I have never had to treat you so shabbily as now. Yet in a time when disorder reigns, the more abundant the money the greater is the anxiety. My family and that of my brothers need not gather together much silver or brass money. To have at command sufficient for the year's needs is to be reckoned as very wealthy in the land and fortunate among your fellow men. If the family wishes to rise it must depend entirely on rearing superior sons and younger brothers. If these are not superior in virtue and ability, no matter how much silver and brass money, rice, estates, clothing, or books may be amassed, it is all to no avail. Whether the younger generation in a family is superior in virtue or not is six parts due to birth and four parts to the home training. Our family has, from generation to generation, been blessed with perpetual virtue and clear teaching. Surely the honorable Sing-kong's instructions ought to be carefully received and clearly cherished. I have recently put the honorable Sing-kong's home practices into eight lines of verse,