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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filial piety | 1/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:13:12.177574+00:00 | kb-cron |
Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors within the context of Confucian, Chinese Buddhist, and Daoist ethics. The Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, thought to be written around the late Warring States-Qin-Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book—a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Zengzi—is about how to set up a good society using the principle of filial piety. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics. In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to show love, respect, and support; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uphold fraternity among brothers; to wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; to display sorrow for their sickness and death; and to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death. Filial piety is considered a key virtue in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, and it is the main subject of many stories. One of the most famous collections of such stories is The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety. These stories depict how children exercised their filial piety customs in the past. While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, the custom of filial piety has been common to almost all of them; historian Hugh D.R. Baker calls respect for the family the one element common to almost all Chinese people.
== Terminology == The western term filial piety was originally derived from studies of Western societies, based on Mediterranean cultures. However, filial piety among the ancient Romans, for example, was largely different from the Chinese in its logic and enactment. Filial piety is illustrated by the Chinese character xiao (孝). The character is a combination of the character lao (old) above the character zi (son), i.e. an elder being carried by a son. This indicates that the older generation should be supported by the younger generation. In Korean Confucianism, the character 孝 is pronounced hyo (효). In Vietnamese, the character 孝 is written in the Vietnamese alphabet as hiếu. In Japanese, the term is generally rendered in spoken and written language as 親孝行 (oyakōkō) adding the characters for parent and conduct to the Chinese character to make the word more specific.
== In traditional texts ==
=== Definitions === Confucian teachings about filial piety can be found in numerous texts, including the Four Books, that is the Great Learning (大學), the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), Analects (論語), and the book Mencius, as well as the works Classic of Filial Piety (孝經) and the Book of Rites (禮記). In the Classic of Filial Piety, Confucius (551–479 BCE) says that "filial piety is the root of virtue and the basis of philosophy" and modern philosopher Fung Yu-lan describes filial piety as "the ideological basis for traditional [Chinese] society". For Confucius, filial piety is not merely a ritual outside respect to one's parents, but an inward attitude as well. Filial piety consists of several aspects. Filial piety is an awareness of repaying the burden borne by one's parents. As such, filial piety is done to reciprocate the care one's parents have given. However, it is also practiced because of an obligation towards one's ancestors. According to some modern scholars, xiào is the root of rén (仁; "benevolence, humaneness"), but other scholars state that rén, as well as yì (義; "righteousness") and li (禮; "propriety") should be interpreted as the roots of xiào. Rén means favorable behavior to those whom we are close to. Yì refers to respect to those considered worthy of respect, such as parents and superiors. Li is defined as behaving according to social norms and cultural values. Moreover, it is defined in the texts as deference, which is respectful submission, and reverence, meaning deep respect and awe. Filial piety was taught by Confucius as part of a broad ideal of self-cultivation (君子; jūnzǐ) toward being a perfect human being. Modern philosopher Hu Shih argued that filial piety gained its central role in Confucian ideology only among later Confucianists. He proposed that Confucius originally taught the quality of rén in general, and did not yet emphasize xiào as much. Only later Confucianists such as Tseng Tzu focused on xiào as the single most important Confucianist quality.
=== Detailed descriptions ===