本文試圖探討宋代家族教育興起後，儒家的政治理念如何在官學及書院之外，透過家族的管道傳播給士庶子弟。本文以影響宋代家族教育內容的主要人物之一司馬光為例，分析他所編撰的《書儀》、《居家雜儀》及《家範》等三種家訓書的成書原因、內涵及影響。此三書不僅是提出種種行為倫理規範，以供當時臣民士庶遵行，其背後更含有司馬光「以禮治國、以禮治家」，家齊則國治的政治理念。雖然在北宋其書流通有限，且未能真正落實，但是對於南宋朱熹及後世影響甚巨，故不可忽視。

Beginning from the Sung Dynasty, a new clan system was gradually established in China. This provided another way of educating both the gentry and commoners, an educational system separate from the state schools and academies.Ssu-ma Kuang, an important statesman and historian in the Northern Sung, played an important role in the construction of a new tradition of clan education. He edited three books about clan education: Book of Etiquette and Ceremonies (Shu-I), Manners and Customs for Daily Life (Chu-Chia-Tsa-I) and Family Model (Chia-Fan). Those books not only taught the gentry and peasant families how to behave themselves politely, but also transmitted Kuang’s idea of “governing the state through propriety (Li)” and “managing the clan(s) through decorum,” where Li-decorum (or Li-propriety) is of course a crucial principle from classical Confucianism. Although these books had no direct and immediate influence on the people’s daily life at that time, they did have a great influence on Master Chu-His’s Neo-Confucianism and on people’s thinking and behavior in later times