He wrote that "it is easy to move from frugality to luxury, but difficult to move from luxury to frugality." It is impossible for even the most disciplined and fortunate families to achieve high rank in every generation, not to mention those families in which profligate playboys undo the accumulated achievements of their ancestors.
在這篇家訓中，司馬光強調「由儉入奢易，由奢入儉難」，再怎麼幸運的家族，都不可能累世做大官，何況落拓不羈的世家子最容易敗壞先人家業，因此驕奢習氣是絕對要不得的。