The book of filial duty · Confucius
II. THE TWENTY-FOUR EXAMPLES OF FILIAL DUTY
Instead of the _Hsiao Hsüeh_, or _Teaching for the Young_, which is usually grouped with _The Book of Filial Duty_, I have chosen _The Twenty-four Examples of Filial Duty_ by way of illustration to the _Hsiao Ching_. They are naïve and terse, and yet not without their simple charm. Even where they lend themselves to exaggeration, as in the story of the old gentleman who dressed himself in gay garments and frisked in front of his very venerable parents, they are not meaningless nor devoid of humanity. The lesson to be drawn is that our duty towards our parents is the first obligation in life, and that we should go, if necessary, to all lengths to fulfil it. Nothing is known of the authorship of these stories, or the time in which they are written. Each story is accompanied by its commentary, and probably the stories themselves originated during the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644), the commentaries belonging mostly to the latter years of that dynasty. The period dealt with in these tales is a very wide one, and ranges from the time of the great Emperor Shun (_circa_ 2300 B.C.) down to the Sung dynasty (A.D. 900-1200). There have been many editions of _The Twenty-four Examples_ in Chinese, mostly embellished with quaint and original woodcuts, of which the figure on the cover of the present volume, kindly supplied by Mrs. Lionel Giles, is an example.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.