Concept
Filial piety
Overview
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.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support;-- without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the other?' CHAP. VIII. Tsze-hsia asked what filial piety was. The Master said, 'The difficulty is with the countenance.
Confucius, The Analects of Confucius
Names Filial piety several times; the author is tied to Filial piety in the knowledge graph.
The reason for its survival after so many centuries is not hard to seek. Family life has always been, from time immemorial, the foundation-stone of the Chinese Empire, and filial piety is the foundation-stone of family life. Nor does this duty of son to father merely extend to the living. The living head of the family pays due reverence to the countless ancestors who have preceded him.
Confucius, The book of filial duty
States what Filial piety is; the author is tied to Filial piety in the knowledge graph.
It is thus that uprightness will be found." It is interesting to contrast this story with that of the elder Brutus and his sons, upon which we in the West were all brought up. Chao Ki, expounding the Confucian doctrine, says it is contrary to filial piety to refuse a lucrative post by which to relieve the indigence of one's aged parents.[19] This form of sin, however, is rare in China as in other countries. The…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
States what Filial piety is; names Filial piety several times.
Related ideas
- Book of Rites
- Love
- Cheng Hao
- Nuclear family
- Mao Zedong
- Yuan dynasty
- Warring States period
- Mencius
- Great Learning
- Ren (philosophy)
- Chinese Buddhism
- Mencius (book)
- Qing dynasty
- Yi (philosophy)
- Sutra
- Analects
- Taoism
- Joseon
- Korean Confucianism
- Neo-Confucianism
- The Buddha
- Qualitative research
- New Culture Movement
- Doctrine of the Mean
Place in the tradition
Part of Confucianism.