By Jiang Peng

Living through the Southern and Northern Dynasties(420-589) to the Sui Dynasty (581-618) in ancient China,Yan Zhitui (531-597),a scholar-official who grew up in the Southern Liang Dynasty (502-557),had a life full of turbulence and unpredictability.He witnessed the most prosperous heyday of the state in his youth.Yet,after the outbreak of the Hou Jing Rebellion (548-552),the once mighty Liang State soon collapsed,and the Western Wei Regime which occupied northwestern China (535-556) took advantage of the opportunity and came to loot Liang.Yan was then captured.

Ironically,it was just two years later that the Western Wei also fell apart and gave way to the Northern Zhou State (557-581).In the chaos of the political coup,Yan braved formidable difficulties to flee from the Northern Zhou to the Northern Qi State,whose land covered the Northern Plains in China,where he spent his stable and peaceful life for twenty years or so;but that was not the end.In 577,Yan found himself a captive again when the Qi Dynasty was conquered by the Northern Zhou.History always repeats itself in a similar form.After only four years of ruling in the unified North,the Northern Zhou was toppled by Yang Jian,also known as Wendi Sui (literally meaning “civil emperor,” a kind of symbolic name often posthumously conferred on emperors),who became the founding emperor and began the reign of the Sui Dynasty (581-618).

南北朝至隋朝期间，出生于南方梁朝的士大夫颜之推，人生经历丰富，年轻时，他目睹了南朝最为繁华的时光。随着“侯景之乱”爆发，南朝繁华付诸东流，之后不久，梁朝也灭亡了。征服者是来自北方关中地区的西魏政权，颜之推被西魏军队俘获。

有趣的是，短短两年后，西魏也灭亡了，被一个叫北周的政权取代。颜之推趁机逃离，历经千辛万苦，来到华北平原的北齐国。颜之推在北齐大概过了二十年的安稳日子。随后，北齐被北周灭，他再度做了亡国奴。历史总是惊人的相似，戏剧性的事件再次上演，灭北齐统一北方才四年功夫，北周政权也被隋文帝杨坚降服，隋朝统治历程开启。

颜之推一生经历过梁朝、西魏、北齐、北周、隋五个朝代，并目睹其中四个政权的灭亡。这样复杂的人生经历，让颜之推看到了很多常人看不到的东西，于是他将乱世中的感悟写成一本名叫《颜氏家训》的书，希望这些经验教训能帮助他的子子孙孙洞明世事，健康成长。

《颜氏家训》里有这样一个故事。颜之推生活在北齐的时候，有一位士大夫对他说，他有一个儿子，十七岁，学习不错，想让他学习鲜卑语，弹弹琵琶。颜之推知道，士大夫之所以这么要求儿子，是因为当时北齐最高的统治阶层是鲜卑贵族，说的是鲜卑语，而且北齐皇帝很喜欢琵琶。说鲜卑语、弹琵琶，就是为接近、服侍达官贵人，投其所好。

听完之后，颜之推没说什么。之后，他把这件事记录在《颜氏家训》里，感叹道，这人怎么会这样教育孩子呢？……