1. Fan Zhongyan once bought a house in Suzhou to prepare for retirement. A Mr. Feng Shui said that this house has excellent Feng Shui, and there must be someone who can be an official living here. Fan Zhongyan thought, since the geomantic omen of materials can make future generations rich, it is better to transform it into a bookstore and impart knowledge to students in Suzhou city. In the future, these students can get ahead, which is more meaningful than the wealth of their descendants. So he took the donated house and turned it into a bookstore. Not for their own offspring, but for the people, very selfless.
Second, when he lived in Shangqiu, he asked his second son, Fan Chunren, to go to Suzhou to buy 500 welcome wheat. Ren Jun was still young at that time. He happened to meet Fan Zhongyan's old friend Shi Yannian when he bought wheat and sailed through Danyang. In a chat with Shi Yannian, he knew that three people had lost their families. In the past two months, he had to stay in Danyang because he had no money to go back to his hometown. Ren Jun immediately gave Shi Yannian the wheat and the boat. After returning home, he talked to his father about the difficulties Shi Yannian encountered. Fan Zhongyan is very satisfied with Chunren's practice.
Fan Zhongyan's father died when he was very young. He didn't take good care of Fan Zhongyan and his mother. Fan's mother remarried because her life was unsustainable. After her death, people didn't want to bury her in Fan's ancestral grave. However, after Fan Zhongyan became an official, he did not bear a grudge against the clan, but often took care of the poor in the clan. Good for evil, forget the past, and have a kind heart.
4. In his later years, he spent a lot of money to buy 1000 mu of land near Suzhou and build Yizhuang. This Yizhuang is not simply to help the poor, but to set up Zhai Yi, Yixue and Yitian, and the income from the cultivation of Yitian is used for Zhai Yi and Yixue. He also formulated a "Yizhuang Rule", which stated Yizhuang's business model and poverty alleviation standards, ensuring that the poor can get education while eating and drinking, indicating that other poor people with foreign surnames can also get help.
Coupled with Fan Zhongyan's good family education, many of his virtues have also been inherited by future generations, so the Fan family can produce talents and the family will last forever.