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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filial piety | 6/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:13:12.177574+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== 19th–20th century === During the rise of progressivism and communism in China in the early 20th century, Confucian values and family-centered living were discouraged by the state and intellectuals. During the New Culture Movement of 1911, Chinese intellectuals and foreign missionaries attacked the principle of filial piety, the latter considering it an obstruction of progress. In Japan, filial piety was not regarded as an obstacle to modernization, though scholars disagree about why this was so. Francis Hsu believed that "the human networks through which it found concrete expressions" were different in Japan, and there never was a movement against filial piety as there was in China. The late imperial trend of increased patriarchalism made it difficult for the Chinese to build strong patrimonial groups that went beyond kin. Though filial piety was practiced much in both China and Japan, the Chinese way was more limited to close kin than in Japan. When industrialization increased, filial piety was therefore criticized more in China than in Japan, because China felt it limited the way the country could meet the challenges from the West. For this reason, China developed a more critical stance towards filial piety and other aspects of Confucianism than other East Asian countries, including not only Japan, but also Taiwan. In the 1950s, Mao Zedong's socialist measures led to the dissolution of family businesses and more dependence on the state; Taiwan's socialism did not go as far in state control. Ethnographic evidence from the 19th and early 20th century shows that Chinese people still very much cared for their elders, who very often lived with one or more married sons.
== Developments in modern society == In 21st-century Chinese societies, filial piety expectations and practices have decreased. One cause for this is the rise of the nuclear family without much coresidence with parents. Families are becoming smaller because of family planning and housing shortages. Other causes are individualism, the loss of status of the elderly, emigration of young people to cities, and the independence of young people and women. Amplifying this trend, the number of elderly people has increased quickly. The relationship between husband and wife came to be more emphasized, and the extended family less so. Kinship ties between the husband and wife's families have become more bilateral and equal. The way respect to elders is expressed is also changing. Communication with elders tends to become more reciprocal and less one-way, and kindness and courtesy is replacing obedience and subservience.
=== Care-giving ===
In modern Chinese societies, elder care has changed. Studies show a discrepancy between parents' filial expectations and the behaviors of their children. The discrepancy with regard to respect shown by the children makes elderly people especially unhappy. Industrialization and urbanization have affected the practice of filial piety, with care being given more in financial than in personal ways. As of 2009, care-giving of elderly people by the young had not undergone any revolutionary changes in the PRC, and family obligations still remained strong, "almost automatic". Respect to elders remains a central value for East Asian people. Comparing data from the 1990s from Taiwan and the PRC, sociologist Martin Whyte concluded that the elderly in Taiwan often received less support from the government, but more assistance from their children, than in China.
=== Work ethos and business practices === In PRC business culture, filial piety is decreasing in influence. As of 2003, western-style business practices and managerial style were promoted by the Chinese government to modernize the country. However in Japan employees usually regard their employer as a sort of father, to which they feel obliged to express filial devotion.
=== Relation with law ===
In some societies with large Chinese communities, legislation has been introduced to establish or uphold filial piety. In the 2000s, Singapore introduced a law that makes it an offense to refuse to support one's elderly parents; Taiwan took similar punitive measures. Hong Kong, on the other hand, attempted to influence its population by providing incentives for fulfilling their obligations. For example, certain tax allowances are given to citizens who live with their elderly parents. Some scholars argued that medieval China's reliance on governance by filial piety formed a society that was better able to prevent crime and other misconduct than societies that did so only through legal means.
== See also == Child abuse in China Family as a model for the state – Theory of political philosophy Honour thy father and thy mother – One of the Ten Commandments
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
== Further reading == Berezkin, Rostislav (21 February 2015), "Pictorial Versions of the Mulian Story in East Asia (Tenth–Seventeenth Centuries): On the Connections of Religious Painting and Storytelling", Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 8 (1): 95–120, doi:10.1007/s40647-015-0060-4, S2CID 146215342 Traylor, K.L. (1988), Chinese Filial Piety, Eastern Press Xing, G. (2005), "Filial Piety in Early Buddhism", Journal of Buddhist Ethics (12): 82–106
== External links ==
Media related to Filial piety at Wikimedia Commons Xiàojing: The Classic of Filial Piety The Filial Piety Sutra, Buddhist discourse about the kindness of parents and the difficulty in repaying it