颜之推

颜之推（531年—？），字介，琅邪郡临沂县（今山东省临沂市）人，南梁、北齐、北周、隋朝官员，撰有《颜氏家训》。

生平

东汉关内侯颜盛之后。大通三年辛亥（531年）生于江陵（湖北江陵），有颜之仪、颜之善两兄。七岁能诵《鲁灵光殿赋》。大同八年壬戌（542年），随湘东王萧绎在江州（江州治寻阳，今江西九江）。十九岁时（547年），为萧绎右常侍，加镇西墨曹参军，驻江陵。550年为萧方诸中抚军外兵参军。太清二年（548年），侯景之乱爆发，颜之推被俘，因侯景行台郎中王则相救未被杀害，囚送建康。552年，侯景败死，获释还江陵。萧绎在江陵自立，承圣元年王申（552年），为散骑侍郎，奏舍人事，奉命校书。554年，西魏攻陷江陵，再次被俘，迁移长安；后出逃北齐，出逃之日，刚好碰上豪水暴涨，于是他跟妻子弄了一艘船逃跑，在途中碰到危难，但最终成功逃脱。北齐宣帝天保七年（556年），在北齐任官。577年，北周兵陷晋阳，之推出任平原太守，守河津。北周大象（579年—580年）末，为御史上士。隋朝开皇中，太子杨勇召为学士，甚见礼重，几年后因病而去世。。

他结合自己从小学的家庭教育和切身经历，写了一本《颜氏家训》，主张早教。他认为，人在小的时候，精神专一；长大以后，思想分散，不易学习。袁衷称：“六朝颜之推家法最正，相传最远。”周作人对颜之推和《颜氏家训》极为佩服，《夜读抄》里写了一篇《颜氏家训》读书笔记。《钦定四库全书》杂家类有《颜氏家训》二卷。此外颜之推还有《冤魂志》三卷。

家庭

父亲

颜协，南梁湘东王记室参军

夫人

陈郡殷氏，南梁行台选郎殷外臣堂姐妹

儿子

颜思鲁

颜愍楚

颜游秦

孙子

颜师古

颜相时

颜勤礼

Yan Zhitui (Chinese: 顏之推; pinyin: Yán Zhītuī; Wade–Giles: Yen2 Chih1-t'ui1, 531–591?) courtesy name Jie (Chinese: 介) was a Chinese calligrapher, painter, musician, writer, philosopher and politician who served four different Chinese states during the late Northern and Southern dynasties: the Liang dynasty in southern China, the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties of northern China, and their successor state that reunified China, the Sui dynasty. Yan Zhitui was a supporter of Buddhism in China despite criticism by many of his Confucian-taught peers.

Family background

Yan Zhitui's ancestors were originally from Linyi in modern-day Shandong Province. His family belonged to the aristocratic Yan clan of Langya (琅琊顏氏). After the fall of the Jin dynasty's capital city of Chang'an during the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, the Yan family migrated south below the Yangtze River in 317. At the Eastern Jin's new capital of Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing) the Yan family became prominent amongst the elite families. The Yan family provided many officials that served the governments of the Eastern Jin dynasty and the succeeding Southern Dynasties in southern China. There was one dissident of the Yan family, though; upon the transition of the Southern Qi to Liang regimes in April to May 502, Yan Zhitui's grandfather Yan Jianyuan refused to serve the Liang court out of continuing loyalty to the Southern Qi. When Emperor Wu of Liang assumed the throne and control over southern China, Yan Jianyuan starved himself to death in an act of piety towards the dynasty he once served. Despite this act of devotion from his grandfather, his father Yan Xie decided to serve Emperor Wu and the new Liang dynasty. Yan Zhiyi and Yan Zhisan were his older brothers.

Descendants

He had three sons: Yan Silu, Yan Minchu and Yan Youqin.

Life

Yan Zhitui's father Yan Xie died in 539, when he was only nine years old (by East Asian reckoning). Without a father figure to guide or support him, Yan was raised largely by his elder brother. In his teenage years, Yan served as a lowly court attendant in the southern capital at Jiankang. Yet, when he was eighteen years old the infamous military general Hou Jing came to power in southern China in a rebellion against the Liang dynasty. Yan and a royal prince narrowly escaped execution once they were made prisoners of Hou Jing.

In 552, Yan Zhitui fled to Jiangling (江陵, in what is modern Jingzhou, Hubei), accompanying the Liang prince he served prior to Hou Jing's revolt. The Liang prince established a rival court, yet it was destroyed when Western Wei invaded from the north and captured Jiangling in January 555. At age twenty-four, Yan Zhitui had become an enslaved prisoner of war, carted off with 100,000 others to the Western Wei capital of Chang'an.

In 556, his family managed to escape Chang'an, and prepared to move east in hopes of returning to the Liang dynasty over southern China. However, the Chen dynasty would overthrown the Liang dynasty in the south with the ascension of Emperor Wu of Chen in November 557. Much like his grandfather who had refused to serve Liang once it usurped control from the Southern Qi state, Yan Zhitui decided not to serve the new Chen regime. Instead, Yan Zhitui was accepted in several court positions serving the Northern Qi dynasty in northeastern China. Yet, fate would have it that Yan would be forced to move again, this time after the Northern Zhou defeated the Northern Qi in February 577, becoming the sole ruling dynasty over northern China. At age forty-six, Yan Zhitui moved back to Chang'an where he had once spent time in captivity. For the next several years he was not appointed to any governmental posts, and suffered for a brief time in a state of poverty. When the Sui dynasty headed by Emperor Wen of Sui usurped control in the north from the Northern Zhou dynasty, Yan Zhitui was once again recognized and appointed to several scholarly and ministerial posts.