Zhuge Liang Taught His Son to Uphold Virtue in 86 Characters

Zhuge Liang Taught His Son to Uphold Virtue in 86 Characters

In 234 AD, statesman and strategist Zhuge Liang’s health was deteriorating after many years of faithful, selfless service to Emperor Liu Bei of the Shu Han dynasty — including acting as a regent for his teenage son, Liu Shan. Unable to personally attend to raising his own son, he wrote a brief passage of instruction to the eight-year-old boy before he died. He called it Admonition to My Son: