Every family has such a hope that the future generations will continue and the family can prosper for a long time .
For this “goal”, every generation is working hard to make money, thinking that they have money, a house, and a family business , the offspring will prosper. As a result, it is not uncommon for families to decline in the second generation.
For family issues, Zeng Guofan, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, gave his own views.
The families of officials and officials in the world are usually only handed down to one generation before they are depressed, because most of them are playboys;
The family of merchants can generally be passed on for three generations;
A family of farming and reading, that is, a family based on farming and reading, can generally prosper for five or six generations;
The family of filial friends is a family that pays attention to filial piety and manages the family based on harmony, which can often last for ten or eight generations.
In Zeng Guofan’s view, the richer the family, the less sustainable it is, because dudes are after all conservative Can’t live with the money and foundation of the predecessors. It is very likely that they will lose all their property, even themselves.
The development of the family is not as simple as we imagined. As long as you have money, you can have nothing to worry about. You must know that these three types of families cannot be passed down for five generations, and no matter how rich you are, it is difficult to change them.
1. The family of officials and eunuchs cannot pass down five generations.
We often say,Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, Mo Bully the young and poor.
Actually, these words originally referred to “officials”. Especially in ancient times, as long as a scholar was born in his family, and he was successfully named on the gold list, I believe his family will change.
However, when this person is rich, his descendants will become arrogant and domineering, bullying others everywhere, and at the same time If you don’t work hard, you just want to gnaw at your parents.
Twenty or thirty years later, when the first generation leaves, the second generation is really desperate. BecauseOthers respect their family, just because of the face of the first generation. Without the first generation, can others still look up to their family?
The so-called “people take tea to cool”. No one in power can last long. Any powerful family may not be able to flow smoothly. You know,The morals of the world are balanced, and every family will have a day of prosperity.
So,The more elders in the official family, the stricter the Education of future generations. Because you don’t educate them, it’s easy to go downhill.
Second, the family of merchants, cannot pass Five generations.
When it comes to the issue of “making money”, I believe that most people have bright eyes and feel that they want to make more money for their children and grandchildren. More money will make their lives easier and allow the family’s blood to be better passed on.
If we all think this way, it will really mislead future generations.
It is not money that is passed down, butA spirit, a hope. Like those “upstarts”, can they pass on for a long time? Perhaps, the first generation encountered a “lost” situation.
More than ten years ago, I saw a boss who made tens of millions by chance, so he was very happy and thought that as long as My children and grandchildren are diligent and thrifty, and I can continue to make money, so my family will prosper.
The result is,After a few years, the boss played too much leverage, Bankrupt and in debt. Nowadays, not to mention the prosperity of the family, even his wife and children have left him, which is very sad.
To put it bluntly,Money cannot be passed on. Because there are countless market opportunities and market crises in this world, wealth will be reshuffled. The family of merchants needs to change its development strategy in time.
3. Farming and reading family, no more than five generations.
Why does Zeng Guofan think that the farming and reading family should not exceed five generations at most? Because “competition” appeared.
Agricultural and reading home, today, is what we often call “middle class”. This batch of middle class is actually dominated by the “pseudo-middle class” and supplemented by the “new middle class”.
What is a pseudo-middle class? For example, some families have overdrawn their money for several generations and bought a house in the city, so that their children have a higher starting point. Therefore, many parents hope that their children can go further and change their destiny.
To be honest,This kind of pseudo-middle class is actually very poor in resisting risks, basically a market When the fluctuations come down, they can’t bear it anymore. Of course, the earning power of this group of people is much stronger than low production.
One generation settled down in the city, one generation rolled in the city, and one generation hoped to climb to a higher level. Every step in this process is very difficult. There are also some people who are not as introverted as others, and even have problems getting married and having children.
We can find that there are too many urban youths today who have no expectation of getting married and having children. This is the huge problem faced by the pseudo-middle class and middle-class families.
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Family, although there will be a day when it disappears, but if the family is to be passed on for a longer time, I think, what Zeng Guofan talked about “virtue” and “filial piety”, that is particularly important.
A family with money but no morals will decline very quickly, because once the elders leave, the whole family will fight for property, and the family will be divided . These descendants without “filial piety” and “virtue” are actually very difficult to last long.
A family with a bit of foundation and sufficient virtue, the whole family lives in harmony and there is no huge conflict, then they In a “stable” development environment, the hopes of generations can be passed on.
In the final analysis, virtue and filial piety are the foundation of “managing a family”.
Text/Deer in Shushan