requestId:68728ce217fff5.37607950.
Filial piety and charity: Re-explanation of Confucian virtue
Author: Wang Pei
Source: Author authorized by Confucianism.com, published by “International Confucianism” No. 1, 2025,
Abstract: In the face of the contemporary contradictions in today’s society, Confucian filial piety requires new comments to develop the vitality of traditional virtues. Generally speaking, Confucianism believes that parents’ love is innate, and filial piety needs acquired education. In modern times, because old parents often lose their ability to deal with it by themselves, the concept of filial piety particularly emphasizes the care of adult parents for their adult parents. Filial piety, as a virtue of adult descendants, is closely related to the preservation of old parents. Nowadays, conflicts between descendants and parents often occur earlier, such as between minor descendants and parents. This is intended to point out that whether it is filial piety or kindness, we must discuss it from the two aspects of natural love and the virtues that have been gained. This allows filial piety and charity to have more practical explanations for the relationship between family and children in China today, and provides more standardized guidance on the practical aspects of ethics.
Keywords: filial piety; kindness; Confucianism; virtue
Author profile: Wang Pei, assistant professor at the Chinese Academy of Drumi Hong Kong, and a middle-level researcher at the Chinese Academy of Drumi Hong Kong (Dumi Hong Kong 999077)
Teacher Ye.
The contemporary conflicts in Chinese society today are undestructive. [①] The basic common understanding between law, society and human science is that the relationship between family and child is a relationship of “cross-temporal reciprocity” [②] or “cross-temporal exchange” [③], and the interaction between “kindness” and “filial piety” is the most important. At the same time, some Confucian scholars stick to the three explanations [④] and believe that filial piety is super targets, and that women can have pure and true filial piety to their unkind parents. [⑤] Recently, historians are also trying to explore the reasons why new school students in the May Fourth New Civilization Movement were ruined. They found that Wu Yu, Lu Xun, and Hu Yang had doubts about traditional values due to some special experiences in their family careers. [⑥] This theory is intended to point out that filial piety, as a virtue, must be reflected in the specific historical context and social landscape, and at the same time, it also needs to be compared and explored with charity. This article will begin by discussing whether filial piety, which does not require kindness, can exist by exploring the original face of Shun’s filial piety and its transformation. Secondly, this article will evaluate the original meaning of “filial piety” in the pre-Qin period, aiming to explain that filial piety first pointed to the relationship between adult descendants and age parents, which have obvious age restrictions. Then, this article will further point out that in the contemporary Chinese family relationship, the filial piety of future generations to parents is too early, without considering the parents’ charity for their children, leading to a series of thingsThe international conflicts. Finally, this article will make a standardized ethical discussion from the two levels of charity and filial piety, charity and filial piety.
1. The archetype of Shun Xiao’s story and its changes
The most classic abstraction of the rebellious son in Chinese civilization is Emperor Shun. The reason why Shun was given was because Shun Xiao moved the sky. Shi Shun is a model of Confucian sage kings, both a list of human ethics and an archetype of domineering politics. In the classics of the Confucianism of the Qin Dynasty, the frequency of appearing as a sage king in the human world is very high. According to the statistics of Yang Rubin: “The “Speech” mentioned 文 four times, Shun six times, Shun two times; Mencius mentioned 文 twenty-seven times, Shun ninety-seven times, Shun fifty-two times (Tang and Yu); Xunzi mentioned 文 twenty-five times, Shun thirty-four times, Shun sixteen times.” [⑦] The number of times Shun was mentioned even exceeded 文, and its main nature can be seen. The main reason why Shun was pure filial piety, he showed his ability to still be filial in the most difficult environment.
Shun did not have a family environment that he was kind to. “Shang Shu·Xu Dian” records: “Father, mother is stern, and elephant is proud.” A detailed section worth noting is that “Shang Shu” does not explain that the mother of “Shen Shu” here is Shun’s stepmother, and even in the discussion about Shun in “Mencius·Wan Chapter 1” does not clearly state that Shun’s mother is the stepmother. Cui Shu, a Qing Dynasty scholar, once mentioned in “The Record of the Tang and Yu Kao Xin Ji”: “The Record of History says: ‘The mother of Shun passed away, and the son taught her that the child was born in the room; she loved her wife and often wanted to kill Shun.’ I followed the “Book” and “Mencius” in “The Record of History”, but “Book” and “Mencius” did not mention stepmothers, but “Shi Record” was a fantasy because of her love…”[⑧] A scholar who has long studied customs and fairy tales discovered a rule: because the author could not bear to devote his cool work to the protagonist’s biological mother, the classic character “a traitor” appeared. [⑨] The discussion of children in modern mindsets also responded to this point, and Melanie Klein proposed that children would protect the mother whom they did not want. [⑩]
For the status of Shun’s original family, we can hereby use the passage of Mr. Zhang Xianglong to discuss the Harry Potter passage: “The more unsuccessful this family is, the more it can reverse and restore the main and origins of the demise: Harry only receives ultimate protection or even a certain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teacher Zhang Xianglong also emphasized in his book that any bullying of his parents at home will endanger all the foundation of contact. [12] So, what if the family atmosphere that creates a murderous family atmosphere happens to be their own parents? I was afraid it would be difficult to pass the ethical review of Confucian philosophy in later generations.
The details of “The Shou Suo’s teachings are more clearly seen in “The Legend of the Emperor’s Birth” are in “The Emperor’s Birth”: “Shun’s father was blind, and Shun’s mother passed away. The Shou Suo gave birth to the Shou Suo’s image and was arrogant. The Shou Suo loved her descendant’s wife and often wanted to kill Shun, but Shun escaped; and if she had a young man, she would enjoy happiness. She worked hard for her father, stepmother and younger brother[13], and she would never understand it.” In this, Shun’s face was more ambiguous, unlike the descriptive words “shou” that clearly used to describe her [14]. At the same time, when describing Shun’s father and brother to kill him, they did not specifically emphasize the dysfunction of this stepmother: she had neither support nor objection. However, in the metamorphosis of Shun’s stepmother was very active in killing Shun. Some stories even obscured the traces of Shun’s father and Shun’s brother planning to kill Shun: Shun’s father was traveling far away in business, and the conflict in the family was that his poisonous stepmother, who was favored by Shun’s father, wanted to kill Shun. Brother Shun only exists in the story scene and does not act in any way. The evil man who is the only one in the whole family is Shun’s stepmother. [15] Classics have their original text, while classical simplicity does not exist without the review of learners and natural changes in oral transmission. [16]
It is obvious that Shun was in an incredible and ultimate state in the origin classics: his father, mother and younger brother didn’t like him. It just so happens that this is too inappropriate for the world, so the classic and common stories of descendants will spread a different version. The difference in these versions focuses on whether Shun’s mother was actually his biological mother. In this prototype story of filial piety, why did Shun grow into the holy king who moved the world in a family that had no love for him? Shun won the love of the whole country, and he could not win the hearts of his parents and younger brothers until his death, but he loved his family. What kind of meaning could he be able to do this? The worldly ways will make one’s heart-to-heart hypocritical, at most his passing biological mother loves him. In the hearts of descendants since “Historical Records”, the establishment of Shunxiao was not without any real conditions. The change in the story of Shun’s filial piety brings the historical tr TC:
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