In 1987, someone in Liyang found a wooden box in a mud wall. The contents in the box were actually related to Zhou Dunyi.

In Liyang City, Jiangsu Province, there is a place called Zhangjiayuan. It is a little-known place, and even locals rarely know about it.

However, since the 1980s, Zhangjiayuan has become well-known to everyone. The reason is because someone discovered a treasure in an old house... which surprised archaeological experts for a while.

What treasure was found?

If you are also curious, I will reveal the secret to you below.

(All pictures in this article are from the Internet. Thank you to the original author. If your rights are infringed, please contact the author of this account to delete it. The pictures have nothing to do with the content, please do not comment) In early April 1987, Zhou Yunlong, a villager who lived in Zhangjiayuan, was preparing to build a new house.

So we planned to demolish all the six mud houses inside and outside.

This morning, Zhou Yunlong recruited more than ten laborers from the same village. They worked together to demolish the house. In one morning, they demolished the three mud houses in front. After all, they were more than 20 years old.

It doesn’t take much effort either.

In the afternoon, they continued to demolish the earthen house inside. When they got to the west side of the house, they found that one wall was thicker than the others. Even though several people tried their best to push it down, they couldn't push it down.

So Zhou Yunlong found a big hammer and knocked it little by little. Suddenly he hammered down, and a big hole appeared in the wall. At this time, people were shocked and thought it was a treasure cave.

Zhou Yunlong was also puzzled. He found a flashlight and shined it into the hole, and he vaguely saw a box fixed in the wall.

So Zhou Yunlong carefully opened the hole, and finally found that it was indeed a wooden box inside, which was about 30 centimeters long and 20 centimeters wide. There was also a lock on the wooden box, but unfortunately the lock was rusted.

People thought that the wooden box contained gold and silver, but in fact it was something more valuable than gold and silver.

At night, Zhou Yunlong carefully opened the wooden box, and what he saw was a box full of ancient books.

Zhou Yunlong was also puzzled. He cleaned out all the ancient books and carefully counted 17 books. Some of the books were titled "The Genealogy of the Zhou Family" and some were titled "Zhexi Chronicles of the Zhou Family".

At this time, Zhou Yunlong suddenly realized that this was the family tree that his father, who had been deceased for many years, once said. He had always thought that the family tree had been snatched away during the revolutionary movement, but he did not expect that his father had hidden it within the earthen wall of his home.

A few days later, Zhou Yunlong carefully looked through these genealogies, which recorded the origin of the Zhou family, genealogy tables, family mottos, etc. The most important thing is that based on these genealogies, it was determined that the Zhou family in Zhangjiayuan were all descendants of Zhou Dunyi.

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When it comes to Zhou Dunyi, many readers must be familiar with it. He was a famous writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. His saying "come out of the mud but remain unstained" ("Ai Lian Shuo") is still talked about by people today.

However, Zhou Dunyi's achievements in history are not only literature, but more importantly philosophy. He is also called the "originator of Neo-Confucianism" by later generations.

In the fourth year of Qingli (1046 AD), Zhou Dunyi served as the county magistrate in Chenzhou County. During this period, he established teaching and schools and spread Neo-Confucianism. He also accepted two apprentices, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, both of whom later became famous

Neophysician and educator.

In the fifth year of Xining (AD 1072), Zhou Dunyi resigned and returned to Lushan to live in seclusion. Unfortunately, he died of illness the next year at the age of 57.

After Zhou Dunyi, Neo-Confucianism developed greatly, and his thoughts and works also had a profound influence. For example, later Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming were all inspired by Zhou Dun's Neo-Confucian thoughts.

All in all, Zhou Dunyi's philosophy has influenced his achievements to this day, and even many Western philosophers admire Zhou Dunyi.

Many years later, the local cultural relics department launched a cultural relics survey. During this period, Zhou Yunlong took out 17 ancient books from his family, which surprised the experts for a while. These ancient books also became important materials for experts to study Zhou Dunyi.

Later, this matter was reported in the news, and Zhangjiayuan became a place for Zhou Dunyi's descendants to find their roots, and those ancient books were reproduced and preserved under the protection of experts.

Although most people cannot understand Zhou Dunyi's philosophical thoughts, his "Love of the Lotus" has been sung to this day, and it seems to be warning his descendants to be like lotus gentlemen.

For the descendants of the Zhou family in Zhangjiayuan, discovering the genealogy was a great event, so they later built ancestral halls and held grand sacrifices. This was also a matter worth celebrating for Chinese civilization.

In our Chinese history, there are many genealogies of great people that have been lost due to various reasons. Therefore, I also hope that experts will make discoveries in the near future and find more genealogies so that family culture can be passed on forever.

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