Mengmujiaozi Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Mengmujiaozi legend tells how Meng's mother, née Zhang, taught her son by both precept and example and continually perfected his character. It took shape at Fushan subdistrict in Zoucheng city, Shandong, and spread from Zoucheng as its centre to a number of surrounding counties and districts, radiating from Shandong as its centre to the rest of the country and abroad: it is widely current in China and also in Japan, Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. The legend spread among the people mainly by word of mouth, and the ancient books contain only brief written records; the earliest records of the “Mengmujiaozi legend” are Han Ying's Supplementary Traditions of the Book of Songs and Liu Xiang's Biographies of Exemplary Women of the Western Han, and Wang Yinglin's Three Character Classic of the Southern Song.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Mengmujiaozi legend consists mainly of the episodes of the three moves to choose neighbours, cutting the weaving to teach a lesson, and not deceiving the child about the pig. The three moves to choose neighbours tells how Meng's mother first lived at Fun village, close to a graveyard. As a boy Meng Ke often played among the graves and made a game of burying the dead. Meng's mother said: this is no place fit for a child to live. So she moved to Miaohuying village by the market. Meng Ke again imitated the merchants haggling and crying their wares. Meng's mother still said, this is not where my child should live, and moved again to live beside the Zisi academy. Meng Ke was drawn by the sound of reading, often went into the academy to study the Odes and Documents and practise the rites of Zhou, and settled there. Cutting the weaving to teach a lesson tells how once Meng Ke played truant and came home early; Meng's mother in anger took a knife and cut the threads of the cloth she was weaving, saying: your abandoning your studies is like cutting the thread so that no cloth can be made—all your earlier work is wasted. Not deceiving the child about the pig tells how Meng Ke at the age of eight heard a pig squeal and asked his mother what the pig was being killed for; Meng's mother answered offhand, to give you to eat. So as not to break faith with her son, though the household was pinched she borrowed money to buy the meat and gave it to him. In such matters as taking care at the outset, inspiring resolve, cultivating character and encouraging learning, Meng's mother left later ages a whole scheme for teaching children, and she herself became the model of family education in ancient China. The Mengmujiaozi legend grew richer and more developed as it was transmitted, and its influence in Chinese society has been profound; in various places many gravestones and temples have even been built on its theme.
Three Moves to Choose Neighbours
The story of Meng's mother moving house three times to choose a good environment for her son's growth.
Cutting the Weaving to Teach a Lesson
The story in which Meng's mother compares her son's abandoning study to cutting the threads of cloth on the loom.
Not Deceiving the Child about the Pig
Meng's mother, unwilling to break faith with her son, borrowed money to buy the meat and gave it to him.
Sacrifices to Meng's Mother and Temples on the Theme
The gravestones, temples and sacrificial activities built in various places on the theme of the Mengmujiaozi legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Mengmujiaozi legend is known to every household in the Zoucheng area and is also widely current throughout the world.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Meng's mother laid stress on teaching by precept and example, cultivating Mencius's character by positive reasoning and persuasion through argument, and these methods were widely accepted and became an important educational model. The Mengmujiaozi legend has spread far at home and abroad; through a thousand years its strands of transmission have been complex, with social transmission and transmission by Mencius's descendants existing side by side. Insisting on proceeding from objective reality, teaching by precept and example and attending to the influence of environment on the child, the educational method embodied in the legend accords with modern educational ideas and plays a positive role in transmitting and carrying forward fine traditional Chinese culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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