The chief rules for family life are, (i) Friendliness, (ii) Magnanimity, (iii) Dignity, (iv) Rectitude, (v) Diligence, (vi) Economy, (vii) Cleanliness, (viii) Quietness. He makes the Head of the House responsible, as setting the example, and exhorts him to repentance (if he falls short) before God and his ancestors. The whole book is eminently practical, and he recommends what would be a startling change of immemorial custom, that the son should not marry until he is grown up and able to support a wife in a home of his own—namely, not under his father’s roof. This is an innovation which is beginning to be seen elsewhere, as the result of foreign intercourse. As a writer, Governor Yen is concise and practical: he has completely broken away from the old Chinese classical style. His last work is written, like all his books, in simple mandarin instead of in beautiful classical mandarin, so that every one may be able to understand it. This is the more noteworthy, because the additional cost entailed was $5,400 per leaf; he states this fact in the preface of _What the People Ought to Know_. His one object appears to be the uplift of the people in every way, and he believes in God and in righteousness. As an index of his view of life it may be interesting to quote a few of the forty Family Maxims which form the concluding chapter of his above-named book. “Unjust wealth brings calamity.” “Vitiated air kills more people than prison.” “To be cruel to one’s own is to be worse than a beast.” “Of people who lack a sense of responsibility—the fewer the better.” “If your conscience tells you a thing is wrong, it _is_ wrong: DON’T do it.” “The experience of the uneducated is much to be preferred to the inexperience of the educated.” “The wise are self-reliant, the stupid apply to others.” “There is no greater calamity than to give reins to one’s desires, and no greater evil than self-deception.” Governor Yen, it will be seen, from his words as well as from his deeds, is a clear-sighted, independent thinker, and he believes in religious liberty. His reforms deal with a wide range of things—opium-smoking, narcotics, polygamy, infanticide, early marriages, early burial, gambling, training and morals of the troops, compulsory free education for boys, the introduction of uniform weights and measures, alteration in legal affairs. All these and other matters have within the last five years occupied his thoughts and been practically dealt with—no small achievement, especially when the insecurity of his position and lack of trained men to carry out his projects is taken into consideration.