Yan's family instructions emphasize the moral education of human relations with filial piety as the core, and inherit the Confucian thoughts of filial piety and benevolence. When carrying out family education, we should first carry out moral education, which is also the foundation of being a man.
Yan's family instructions put forward that we should pay attention to the education of children, especially prenatal education. Yan Jiaxun said: "Life is still young, and the spirit is patented. When you grow up, you should think about it, so you must teach early and don't miss the opportunity." It means that people are more likely to concentrate when they are young, and their thoughts are easily influenced by the outside world when they grow up, so we must attach importance to early childhood education.
Yan Jiaxun's core is to study and be a man. He believes that reading can be "pleasing to the eye and good for hearing" and puts forward the educational thought that learning art requires talent. He advocates that the purpose of art education is to entertain the body and mind and cultivate the sentiment.
Yan Jiaxun proposed to choose a virtuous person as his life idol, that is to say, his life idol must be a virtuous person, not a superficial person without real talent and learning, so that his children will not get lost in their later lives.
Yan's Family Instructions suggested that parents should be role models for their children. Yan's family instructions strongly oppose blindly doting on children, and suggest that parents combine strictness with kindness when educating their children. Only through strict education can children become talents. Training and supervision are very important. Corporal punishment can be taken when necessary.