a baby in the qingming scroll

I have to say I love small babies. The baby in this frame was wearing a red coat, and learning to walk with someone’s help. I cannot tell he is the baby’s father or other relative. But we can see a lovely baby has attracted by the elder man who was helping someone else to pull the Donkey Cart. He must say, “Oh, what a lovely baby, when I get enough money from working in the capital, I will go to my home town, marry a girl and have my own lovely child.” on the left, there was another elder gentleman who pointed at the child, I guess he must be an educated man, he spoke to the man, “This kid would definitely have a brand future!” And he also said, “it is the first step to learn to walk, When the kid is at his five, he need to learn how to behave, such as cleaning the house and watering yard , at the age of fifteen, he must learn the great learning.”  I guess the elder man is trying to cultivate the small baby according the words from “preface of great learning(大学章句)”.
However, I guess there might be another story in this frame, the man did not take good care of the baby and let the baby play on the street alone, and a donkey cart was going by and almost ran into the small baby. At this important moment, the driver turned the cart to the left, and avoids hurting the baby. So the man on the right who helping driving the cart, shout at the small baby and his/her relative, “watch out, young man, do not let a small child playing on a crowd street, it is dangerous!” At this meantime, an elder elite came by, pointed to the kid, and taught the young man a lesson “next time, you should take good care of your child; it is your responsibility to do that.”

In sum, no matter which scene described above happened on the frame, it all showed a kind of benevolence(仁). Benevolence is one of the primary doctrines indicated by Mencius. As he said, “仁者人（爱人）也，亲亲为大；义者宜也，尊贤为大；亲亲之杀，尊贤之等，礼所生焉。”In my own perspective, this specific scene has reflect a flank of Song society, which is one with benevolence, if so , when we compared with the contemporary China, it is a kind of harmonious society (和谐社会) somehow?

Reference:

• [1] Ebrey, Patricia. 1984.“Conceptions of the Family in the Song Dynasty.” Journalof Asian Studies 43: 219-45.
• [2] Baogang Guo. 2008. “China in Search of a Harmonious Society” . Rowman & Littlefield, 2008: 14-15

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