Tell me about a family that has been rich for three generations, namely Kangjia in gongyi city, Henan. Kang Million Manor, located in the northwest of Gongyi city and on the shore of Luoshui, is a group of large-scale buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties, with clear bricks and gray tiles and magnificent momentum. From Mangling, it looks like a "golden turtle exploring the water" and from Luohe, it looks like a "golden lotus arch show". Its owner, the Kang family, has been flourishing for 12 generations for more than 4 years since the late Ming Dynasty. So, what are the reasons for the prosperity of Kang parents? According to local legend, this is because the Kang family chose a house with good feng shui. It is superficial and general to attribute the prosperity of Kangjia to geomantic omen. If you explore deeply, you will see that the prosperity of Kangjia lies in its profound and broad cultural background and spiritual tension passed down from generation to generation. Walking into Kang Million Manor, there is a quaint plaque hanging under the eaves of the hall, which is like an open book and a banner fluttering in the wind. This is the family motto handed down from generation to generation by Kang family. It reads:

"The Four Stories of the Taoist priest who stayed in farming said:' Leave inexhaustible ingenuity to return to nature, inexhaustible wealth to return to the imperial court, inexhaustible wealth to return to the people, and inexhaustible blessings to return to future generations'. There is no one who does not regret what he has done. Gao Jingyi said:' There is room for others to take a step forward; If you relax your money, you will have a aftertaste. " Push it, everything is natural. The old man in Tanyuan praised Yan Qitang with the word "Remaining Yu", and stamped the inscription of the Taoist priest to show his descendants.

The general idea is that you should not use all your skills to give back to nature, your salary to the court, your possessions to share with the people, and your wealth to be left to future generations. God opposes the taboo of greed and doing things too much, because there is no one who is not satisfied and goes too far without leaving regrets. Gao Jingyi said: When something happens, there will naturally be room for maneuver. As long as you relax your work, you will naturally have fun. Even in the world, many things are like this.

Kang Million Manor, which enjoys the reputation of "golden turtle exploring the water", developed into a fan-shaped building with the main residential area at the top of the village as the core on the basis of the increasing wealth of the Kang family, and built a representative of feudal fortress-like buildings on the Loess Plateau in North China in the 17th and 18th centuries. The main building complex is well preserved, and its exquisite carving techniques of brick, wood and stone leave a picture of folk houses and customs in the Qing Dynasty for the world.

Kang Million Manor, as a representative of Henan merchants, has prospered for more than 4 years in the 12th generation, which is closely related to good family instruction besides good management. The family motto plaque is now in the family heirloom exhibition room of the South Courtyard, and 61 exquisite large seal characters form the family motto of Kang family. It inherits Confucianism and condenses the culture of Henan merchants.

The book in the plaque says, "Doing business and making friends is a loss, entertainment is a concession, daily life is a thrift, and management is a gratitude. I am willing to make people despise my illness, and don't cheat me. The stupidity of my predecessors is beyond the wisdom of future generations, and loyalty is more than enough." The text is short, but it means profound, and there are few words to add or subtract, which is really strange.

Its content contains the idea of "not afraid to suffer losses and suffer hardships", and it is integrated with the concept of being a man and doing things in Kangjia. When doing business and making friends, we are not afraid of losing money. We should know how to be modest and courteous in our contacts, know how to be frugal in our daily life, and have a grateful heart. When others see my faults, they can't let others be wary of me everywhere. We can't judge the merits and demerits of our predecessors, but what we can do later is to be loyal and spare. This family instruction plaque is summed up after the "spare" plaque. The upper left corner of the plaque is engraved with pens, ink and inkstones, and the whole plaque is like an unfolded piece of bo paper. The ancestors of the Kang family left the family instructions of the Kang family for future generations. There is an abacus engraved in the lower left corner, hoping that future generations of the Kang family will learn to be thrifty in their daily lives. In this content, we can deeply feel that the Kang family's requirements for future generations are extremely strict. This plaque is a family instruction plaque for the children of the Kang family, and it is a concentrated expression of the Confucian doctrine of the mean, that is, "you can't reveal all your wealth, you can't exhaust all your potential" and "endure a calm moment and take a step back", which still has certain reference significance. This is also the mystery of the Kang family's prosperity for more than 4 years.