Abstract: Family instruction is a kind of education model used by the literati-official class in China’s past dynasties to educate their descendants on how to manage their families and conduct themselves in the society. Learning from this kind of historical materials, we can make a more scientific explanation of their thoughts and behaviors, the way of ruling the family and the desire to treat life. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, how to deal with and treat the specific family economic problems has become an important topic in family training. Among them, land problem is the most representative, which reflects the concept of family land in the late traditional society: the literati-official class stressed that the primary family problem is the land property rights; owning a certain amount of land property is essential for family continuity; moderate accumulation of land is the foundation of existence and development of the landlord families; the determination of land rent should be based on the harvest of tenant farmers as a prerequisite; the relative stability of rent should be maintained; and the unrestricted land expansion should be opposed, especially against compulsory land annexation. The family instructions can reflect the general mentality of the traditional family management; therefore, making full use of these materials is of great significance in the study of the inheritance and development of traditional rural society.

Key words: traditional society; family instruction; family economic management; land concept