Do you know what family instructions are? They are common beliefs that family members follow. In ancient China, people passed down their family instructions from generation to generation.
Some schools in Zhejiang are encouraging students to learn more about their own family instructions. At Hangzhou Gongyi Middle School and Hangzhou Xuejun High School, it was part of students' winter vacation homework to learn about their family instructions.
Meng Yaohan, 16, from Hangzhou Xuejun High School, looked at her family instructions. One of them is "Don't take the wrong way", a piece of advice that has been passed down for 100 years. Her father told her how her grandfather stuck to his "right way" to become an engineer. "It encouraged me to pursue what I love," she said.
Shen Duanjie, 14, from Hangzhou Gongyi Middle School, has got good from his family instructions"— democratic" (民主的) and "equal". In his own words, they have helped him get along with his parents.
The school has also published books about two classic collections of family instructions—The Family Instructions of Zhu Xi and Family Instructions of Yan Clan. The books include dialogues and pictures drawn by students.
Gong Zhenyue, 14, drew pictures for one of the instructions in Family Instructions of Yan Clan. She was impressed by the instruction, which says that parents should not only love their children, but also educate them. "It made me understand my parents' strictness with me," she said. She made it her own family instruction.
