Filial Piety
I The Scope and Meaning of the Treatise
(Once), when Zhong Ni1 was unoccupied, and his disciple Zeng2 was sitting by in attendance on him, the Master said, "The ancient kings had a perfect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct, through which they were in accord with all under heaven. By the practice of it the people were brought to live in peace and harmony, and there was no ill will between superiors and inferiors. Do you know what it was?"
Zeng rose from his mat and said, "How should I, Shen, who am so devoid of intelligence, be able to know this?"
The Master said, "(It was filial piety.) Now filial piety is the root of (all) virtue3, and (the stem) out of which grows (all ...
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of the ruler; it is completed by the establishment of character.
"It is said in the Major Odes of the Kingdom:
Ever think of your ancestor,
Cultivating your virtue."4
Notes
1. This is the zi or "style" of Confucius.
2. Zeng Zi speaks in fourteen sayings in the Analects, e.g., 1.4. He names himself a bit later by his ming or "given name," Shen. His name is traditionally associated with the virtue of filial piety; see, for example, Analects 1.9 & 19.17 & 18.
3. "All virtue" means the five virtuous principles, the constituents of humanity: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, and fidelity.
4. Shi III, i, ode 1, stanza 6, p. 431. Mao 235.
II Filial Piety in the Son of Heaven
The Master said, "He who loves his parents will not dare (to incur the risk of) being hated by any man, and he who reveres his parents will not dare (to incur the risk of) being contemned by any man.1 When the love and reverence (of the ...
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ice."2
Notes
1The king had a great altar to the spirit (or spirits) presiding over the land. The color of the earth in the center of it was yellow; that on each of its four sides differed according to the colors assigned to the four quarters of the sky. A portion of this earth was cut away and formed the nucleus of a corresponding altar in each feudal state, according to their position relative to the capital. The prince of the state had the prerogative of sacrificing there. A similar rule prevailed for the altars to the spirits presiding over the grain. So long as a family ruled in a state, so long its chief offered those sacrifices; and the ...
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"Filial Piety." Essayworld.com. August 31, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Filial-Piety/70479.
"Filial Piety." Essayworld.com. August 31, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Filial-Piety/70479.
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