Filial piety

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} Template:Redirect Template:Infobox Chinese Template:Asian philosophy sidebar Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, particularly within the context of Confucian, Chinese Buddhist, and Daoist ethics.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Citation needed

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.Template:Citation needed

TerminologyEdit

The western term filial piety was originally derived from studies of Western societies, based on Mediterranean cultures.Template:Sfn However, filial piety among the ancient Romans, for example, was largely different from the Chinese in its logic and enactment.Template:Sfn Filial piety is illustrated by the Chinese character Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). The character is a combination of the character Template:Transliteration (old) above the character Template:Transliteration (son), that is, an elder being carried by a son.Template:Sfn This indicates that the older generation should be supported by the younger generation.Template:Sfn

In Korean Confucianism, the character Template:Linktext is pronounced Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). In Vietnamese, the character {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is written in the Vietnamese alphabet as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. In Japanese, the term is generally rendered in spoken and written language as Template:Linktext (Template:Transliteration) adding the characters for parent and conduct to the Chinese character to make the word more specific.

In traditional textsEdit

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DefinitionsEdit

Confucian teachings about filial piety can be found in numerous texts, including the Four Books, that is the Great Learning ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), the Doctrine of the Mean ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), Analects ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), and the book Mencius, as well as the works Classic of Filial Piety ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and the Book of Rites ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).Template:Sfn In the Classic of Filial Piety, Confucius (Template:BCE) says that "filial piety is the root of virtue and the basis of philosophy"Template:Sfn and modern philosopher Fung Yu-lan describes filial piety as "the ideological basis for traditional [Chinese] society".Template:Sfn

For Confucius, filial piety is not merely a ritual outside respect to one's parents, but an inward attitude as well.Template:Sfn Filial piety consists of several aspects. Filial piety is an awareness of repaying the burden borne by one's parents.Template:Sfn As such, filial piety is done to reciprocate the care one's parents have given.Template:Sfn However, it is also practiced because of an obligation towards one's ancestors.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

According to some modern scholars, Template:Transliteration is the root of Template:Zhp,Template:Sfn but other scholars state that Template:Transliteration, as well as Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp should be interpreted as the roots of Template:Transliteration. Template:Transliteration means favorable behavior to those whom we are close to.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration refers to respect to those considered worthy of respect, such as parents and superiors. Template:Transliteration is defined as behaving according to social norms and cultural values.Template:Sfn Moreover, it is defined in the texts as deference, which is respectful submission, and reverence, meaning deep respect and awe.Template:Sfn Filial piety was taught by Confucius as part of a broad ideal of self-cultivation (Template:Zhi) toward being a perfect human being.Template:Sfn

Modern philosopher Hu Shih argued that filial piety gained its central role in Confucian ideology only among later Confucianists. He proposed that Confucius originally taught the quality of Template:Transliteration in general, and did not yet emphasize Template:Transliteration as much. Only later Confucianists such as Tseng Tzu focused on Template:Transliteration as the single most important Confucianist quality.Template:Sfn

Detailed descriptionsEdit

File:24 parangons of filial piety - Huang Tingjian.jpg

Koteiken, one of The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety, depicted emptying a chamber pot for his mother. Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1848.

Confucian ethics does not regard filial piety as a choice, but rather as an unconditional obligation of the child.Template:Sfn The relationship between parents and children is the most fundamental of the five cardinal relationships (Template:Zhi) described by Confucius in his role ethics.Template:Sfn Filial piety, together with fraternal love, underlies this system.Template:Sfn It is the fundamental principle of Confucian morality:Template:Sfn filial piety was seen as the basis for an orderly society, together with loyalty of the ministers toward the ruler, and servitude of the wife toward the husband.Template:Sfn In short, filial piety is central to Confucian role ethicsTemplate:Sfn and is the cardinal virtue that defines, limits, or even overrides all other virtues.Template:Sfn

According to the traditional texts, filial piety consists of physical care, love, service, respect, and obedience.Template:Refn Children should attempt not to bring disgrace upon their parents.Template:Sfn Confucian texts such as Book of Rites give details on how filial piety should be practiced.Template:Sfn Respect is envisioned by detailed manners such as the way children salute their parents, speak to them (words and tone used), or enter and leave the room in which their parents are, as well as seating arrangements and gifts.Template:Refn Care means making sure parents are comfortable in every single way: this involves food, accommodation, clothes, hygiene, and basically to have them "see and hear pleasurable things" (in Confucius' words)Template:Sfn and to have them live without worry.Template:Sfn But the most important expressions of, and exercises in, filial piety were the burial and mourning rituals to be held in honor of one's parents.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

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;Template:Sfn to perform the duties of one's job well (preferably the same job as one's parents to fulfill their aspirations);Template:Sfn to carry out sacrifices to the ancestors;Template:Sfn to not be rebellious;Template:Sfn to be polite and well-mannered; to show love, respect, and support; to be near home to serve one's parents;Template:Sfn to display courtesy;Template:Sfn to ensure male heirs;Template:Sfn to uphold fraternity among brothers;Template:Citation needed to wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness;Template:Sfn to display sorrow for their sickness and death;Template:Sfn and to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death.Template:Sfn Furthermore, a filial child should promote the public name of its family, and it should cherish the affection of its parents.Template:Sfn

Traditional texts essentially describe filial piety in terms of a son-father relationship, but in practice, it involves all parent-child relationships, as well as relationships with stepparents, grandparents, and ancestors.Template:Sfn

Filial piety also involves the role of the parent to the child. The father has a duty to provide for the son, to teach him in traditions of ancestor worship, to find a spouse for him, and to leave a good heritage.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A father is supposed to be "stern and dignified" to his children, whereas a mother is supposed to be "gentle and compassionate". The parents' virtues are to be practiced, regardless of the child's piety, and vice versa.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, filial piety mostly identified the Template:Em's duty, and in this, it differed from the Roman concept of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which defined mostly the father's authoritative power. Whereas in Roman culture, and later in the Judeo-Christian West, people in authority legitimized their influence by referring to a higher transcending power, in Chinese culture, authority was defined by the roles of the subordinates (son, subject, wife) to their superior (father, emperor, husband) and vice versa. As roles and duties were depersonalized, supremacy became a matter of role and position, rather than person, as it was in the West.Template:Sfn

Anthropologist Francis Hsu argued that a child's obedience from a Confucian perspective was regarded as unconditional, but anthropologist David K. Jordan and psychologist David Yau-fai Ho disagree.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Jordan states that in classical Chinese thought, "remonstrance" was part of filial piety, meaning that a pious child needs to dissuade a parent from performing immoral actions.Template:Sfn Ho points out in this regard that the Confucian classics do not advocate "foolish filial piety" (Template:Zhi).Template:Sfn However, Jordan adds that if the parent does not listen to the child's dissuasion, the child must still obey the parent,Template:Sfn and Ho states that "rebellion or outright defiance" is never approved in Confucian ethics.Template:Sfn

Filial piety not only extends to behavior of children toward their parents, but also involves gratitude toward the human body they received from their parents,Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Xiaojing: "Template:Interp: 'Your body, including hair and skin, you have received from your father and mother, and you should not dare to harm or destroy it. This is the beginning of xiao.'"</ref> as the body is seen as an extension of one's parents.Template:Sfn This involves prohibitions on damaging or hurting the body, and this doctrine has affected how the Confucianists regarded the shaving of the head by Buddhist monks,Template:Sfn but also has created a taboo on suicide, regarded as "unfilial behavior" (Template:Zhi).Template:Refn

Relation with society at largeEdit

File:2017-02-25 A Stone That Was Written 'Filial piety' of the Kwanyang Elementary School.jpg

A memorial stone at a Korean elementary school, with the inscription "filial piety".

Filial piety is regarded as a principle that ordered society, without which chaos would prevail.Template:Sfn It is described as "an inevitable fact of nature", as opposed to mere convention,Template:Sfn and it is seen to follow naturally out of the father-son relationship.Template:Sfn In the Chinese tradition of patriarchy, roles are upheld to maintain the harmony of the whole.Template:Sfn According to the Neo-Confucian philosopher Cheng Hao (Template:CE), relationships and their corresponding roles "belong to the eternal principle of the cosmos from which there is no escape between heaven and earth".Template:Sfn

The idea of filial piety became popular in China because of the many functions it had and many roles it undertook, as the traditional Confucian scholars such as Mencius (Template:BCE) regarded the family as a fundamental unit that formed the root of the nation. Though the virtue of Template:Transliteration was about respect by children toward their parents, it was meant to regulate how the young generation behaved toward elders in the extended family and in society in general.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Furthermore, devotion to one's parents was often associated with one's devotion to the state,Template:Refn described as the "parallel conception of society"Template:Sfn or the "Model of Two".Template:Sfn The Classic of Filial Piety states that an obedient and filial son will grow up to become a loyal official (Template:Zhi)—filial piety was therefore seen as a truth that shaped the citizens of the state,Template:Sfn and the loyalty of the minister to his emperor was regarded as the extension of filial piety.Template:Sfn Filial piety was regarded as being a dutiful person in general.Template:Sfn

Nevertheless, the two were not equated. Mencius teaches that ministers should overthrow an immoral tyrant, should he harm the state; the loyalty to the king was considered conditional, not as unconditional as in filial piety towards one parents.Template:Sfn

In East Asian languages and culturesEdit

Confucian teachings about filial piety have left their mark on East Asian languages and culture. In Chinese, there is a saying that "among hundreds of behaviors, filial piety is the most important one" (Template:Zhi).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In modern Chinese, filial piety is rendered with the words Template:Zhp, meaning "respect and obedience".Template:Sfn While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, 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.Template:Sfn Historian Ch'ü T'ung-tsu stated about the codification of patriarchy in Chinese law that "[i]t was all a question of filial piety".Template:Sfn Filial piety also forms the basis for the veneration of the aged, for which the Chinese are known.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, filial piety among the Chinese has led them to be mostly focused on taking care of close kin, and be less interested in wider issues of more distant people:Template:Sfn Template:Sfn nevertheless, this should not be mistaken for individualism.

In Japan, devotion to kinship relations was and still is much more broadly construed, involving more than just kin.Template:Sfn

In Korean culture, filial piety is also of crucial importance.Template:Sfn However, filial piety in the later Joseon dynasty, created a tension for women on marriage, between "filial values" and "filial emotions" during the later Joseon dynasty, since women, on marrying, owed their filial piety to their husband's family and not to their birth family.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite Q</ref> These tensions and the normative values of this neo-Confucian patrilineal and patriarchal society are evidenced in pansori and the many versions of various moral tales.<ref name=":0" /> Books published on filial piety include Hyohaengrok ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) first published in late Goryeo times and revised and republished in 1428,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Register of Loyalty and Filial Piety (1655-1788) ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) a register of those receiving government rewards for filial piety from 1655 to 1788.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Taiwan, filial piety is considered one of eight important virtues, among which filial piety is considered supreme. It is "central in all thinking about human behavior".Template:Sfn Taiwan generally has more traditional values with regard to the parent-child relationship than the People's Republic of China (PRC). This is reflected in attitudes about how desirable it is for the elderly to live independently.Template:Sfn

In behavioral sciencesEdit

Social scientists have researched filial piety and related concepts.Template:Sfn It is a highly influential factor in studies about Asian families and in intergenerational studies, as well as studies on socialization patterns.Template:Sfn Filial piety is defined by several scholars as the recognition by children of the aid and care their parents have given them, and the respect returned by those children.Template:Sfn Psychologist K.S. Yang defined it as a "specific, complex syndrome or set of cognition, affects, intentions, and behaviors concerning being good or nice to one's parents".Template:Sfn Template:As of, psychologists measured filial piety in inconsistent ways, which makes it difficult to progress.Template:Sfn

Filial piety is defined by behaviors such as daily maintenance, respect, and sickness care offered to the elderly.Template:Sfn Although in scholarly literature five forms of reverence have been described, multi-cultural researcher Kyu-taik Sung added eight more to that, to cover the traditional definitions of elder respect in Confucian texts:Template:Sfn

Care respect	making sure parents are comfortable in every single way
Victual respect	taking the parents' preferences into account, e.g. favorite food
Gift respect	giving gifts or favors, e.g. presiding meetings
Presentational respect	polite and appropriate decorum
Linguistic respect	use of honorific language
Spatial respect	having elders sit at a place of honor, building graves at respectful places
Celebrative respect	celebrating birthdays or other events in honor of elders
Public respect	voluntary and public services for elders
Acquiescent respect	listening to elders without talking back
Consultative respect	consulting elders in personal and family matters
Salutatory respect	bowing or saluting elders
Precedential respect	allowing elders to have priority in distributing goods and services
Funeral respect	mourning and burying elders in a respectful way
Ancestor respect	commemorating ancestors and making sacrifices for them

These forms of respect are based on qualitative research.Template:Sfn Some of these forms involve some action or work, whereas other forms are more symbolic. Female elders tend to receive more care respect, whereas male elders tend to receive more symbolic respect.Template:Sfn

Apart from attempting to define filial piety, psychologists have also attempted to explain its cognitive development. Psychologist R.M. Lee distinguishes a five-fold development, which he bases on Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development. In the first stage, filial piety is comprehended as just the giving of material things, whereas in the second stage this develops into an understanding that emotional and spiritual support is more important. In the third stage, the child realizes that filial piety is crucial in establishing and keeping parent-child relationships; in the fourth stage, this is expanded to include relationships outside of one's family. In the final stage, filial piety is regarded as a means to realize one's ethical ideals.Template:Sfn

File:Kano Motonobu - Scenes from 24 Paragons of Filial Piety - 2004.46A - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg

Painting with scenes from The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety. Kano Motonobu, 1550

Psychologists have found Template:Clarify between filial piety and lower socio-economic status, female gender, elders, minorities, and non-westernized cultures.Template:Citation needed Traditional filial piety beliefs have been connected withTemplate:Specify positive outcomes for the community and society, care for elder family members, positive family relationships, and solidarity. Filial piety has also been related toTemplate:Specify an orientation to the past, resistance to cognitive change, superstition and fatalism, dogmatism, authoritarianism, conformism, a belief in the superiority of one's culture, and a lack of active, critical, and creative learning attitudes.Template:Refn Ho connects the value of filial piety with authoritarian moralism and cognitive conservatism in Chinese patterns of socialization, basing this on findings among subjects in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He defines authoritarian moralism as hierarchical authority ranking in family and institutions, and pervasive use of moral precepts as criteria of measuring people. Cognitive moralism he derives from social psychologist Anthony Greenwald, and is a "disposition to preserve existing knowledge structures" and resistance to change. He concludes that filial piety appears to have a negative effect on psychological development, but at the same time, partly explains the high motivation of Chinese people to achieve academic results.Template:Sfn

In family counselling research, filial piety has been seen to help establish bonding with parents.Template:Sfn Ho argues that filial piety brings along an obligation to raise one's children in a moral way to prevent disgrace to the family.Template:Sfn However, filial piety has also been found to perpetuate dysfunctional family patterns such as child abuse: there may be both positive and negative psychological effects.Template:Sfn Francis Hsu argued that pro-family attitudes informed by filial piety, when taken on the level of the family at large, can lead to nepotism and corruption, and are at tension with the good of the state as whole.Template:Sfn

In Chinese parent-child relations, the aspect of authority goes hand-in-hand with the aspect of benevolence. For example, many Chinese parents support their children's education fully and do not allow their children to work during their studies, which allows them to focus on their studies. Because of this combination of benevolence and authoritarianism in such relations, children feel obliged to respond to parents' expectations, and internalize them.Template:Sfn Ho found, however, that in Chinese parent-child relations, fear also contributed to meeting parents' filial expectations: children may not internalize their parents' expectations, but rather perform Template:Em as good children in a detached way, through affect-role dissociation.Template:Sfn Studying Korean family relations, scholar Dawnhee Yim argues that internalization of parents' obligations by children may lead to guilt, as well as suppression of hostile thoughts toward parents, leading to psychological problems.Template:Sfn Jordan found that despite filial piety being asymmetrical in nature, Chinese interviewees felt that filial piety contained an element of reciprocity: "...it is easy to see the parent whom one serves today as the self who is served tomorrow." Furthermore, the practice of filial piety provides the pious child with a sense of adulthood and moral heroism.Template:Sfn

HistoryEdit

Pre-Confucian historyEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The origins of filial piety in East Asia lie in ancestor worship,Template:Sfn and can already be found in the pre-Confucian period. Epigraphical findings such as oracle bones contain references to filial piety. Texts such as the Classic of Changes (Template:BCE) may contain early references to the parallel conception of the filial son and the loyal minister.Template:Sfn

Early ConfucianismEdit

Template:See also

File:Annoted The Classic of Filial Piety.jpg

Page of the illustrated version of the Classic of Filial Piety, annotated by Kuan (1286–1324)

In the Tang dynasty (6th–10th century), not performing filial piety was declared illegal, and even earlier, during the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE–3rd century CE), this was punished by beheading.Template:Sfn Behavior regarded as unfilial such as mistreating or abandoning one's parents or grandparents, or refusing to complete the mourning period for them, was punished by exile and beating, or worse.Template:Sfn

From the Han dynasty onward, the practice of mourning rites came to be seen as the cornerstone of filial piety and was strictly practiced and enforced. This was a period of unrest, and the state promoted the practice of long-term mourning to reestablish its authority. Filial piety toward one's parents was expected to lead to loyalty to the ruler, expressed in the Han proverb "The Emperor rules all-under-heaven with filial piety".Template:Sfn Government officials were expected to take leave for a mourning period of two years after their parents died.Template:Sfn Local officials were expected to encourage filial piety to one's parents—and by extension, to the state—by behaving as an example of such piety.Template:Sfn The king himself would express filial piety in an exemplary way, through the ritual of "serving the elderly" (Template:Transliteration). Nearly all Han emperors had the word Template:Transliteration in their temple name.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The promotion of filial piety in this manner, as part of the idea of Template:Transliteration, was a less confrontational way to create order in society than resorting to law.Template:Sfn

Filial piety was a keystone of Han morality.Template:Sfn

During the early Confucian period, the principles of filial piety were brought back by Japanese and Korean students to their respective homelands, where they became central to the education system. In Japan, rulers gave awards to people deemed to practice exemplary filial conduct.Template:Sfn

During the Mongolian rule in the Yuan dynasty (13th–14th century), the practice of filial piety was perceivedTemplate:By whom to deteriorate. In the Ming dynasty (14th–17th century), emperors and literati attempted to revive the customs of filial piety. Though in that process, filial piety was reinterpreted, as rules and rituals were modified.Template:Sfn Even on the grassroots level a revival was seen, as vigilante societies started to promote Confucian values. Members of this vigilance movement composed the book The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety.Template:Sfn

Introduction of BuddhismEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Dazu 2007 797.jpg

Buddha image with scenes of stories in which he repaid his parents. Mount Baoding Buddhist Sculptures, Dazu, China.

Filial piety has been an important aspect of Buddhist ethics since early Buddhism,Template:Sfn and was essential in the apologetics and texts of Chinese Buddhism.Template:Sfn In the Early Buddhist Texts such as the Nikāyas and Āgamas, filial piety is prescribed and practiced in three ways: to repay the gratitude toward one's parents; as a good karma or merit; and as a way to contribute to and sustain the social order.Template:Sfn Buddhist scriptures portray the Buddha and his disciples practicing filial piety toward their parents, based on the qualities of gratitude and reciprocity.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Initially, scholars of Buddhism like Kenneth Ch'en saw Buddhist teachings on filial piety as a distinct feature of Chinese Buddhism. Later scholarship, led by people such as John Strong and Gregory Schopen, has come to believe that filial piety was part of Buddhist doctrine since early times. Strong and Schopen provided epigraphical and textual evidence to show that early Buddhist laypeople, monks, and nuns often displayed strong devotion to their parents, and concluded that filial piety was already an important part of the devotional life of early Buddhists.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

When Buddhism was introduced in China, it had no organized celibacy.Template:Sfn Confucianism emphasized filial piety to parents and loyalty to the emperor, and Buddhist monastic life was seen to go against its tenets.Template:Sfn In the 3rd–5th century CE, as criticism of Buddhism increased, Buddhist monastics and lay authors responded by writing about and translating Buddhist doctrines and narratives that supported filial piety, comparing them to Confucianism and thereby defending Buddhism and its value in society.Template:Sfn The Mouzi Lihuolun referred to Confucian and Daoist classics, as well as historical precedents to respond to critics of Buddhism.Template:Sfn The Mouzi stated that while on the surface the Buddhist monk seems to reject and abandon his parents, he is actually aiding his parents as well as himself on the path towards enlightenment.Template:Sfn Sun Chuo (Template:Circa) further argued that monks were working to ensure the salvation of all people and making their family proud by doing so,Template:Sfn and Liu Xie stated that Buddhists practiced filial piety by sharing merit with their departed relatives.Template:Sfn Buddhist monks were also criticized for not expressing their respect to the Chinese emperor by prostrating and other devotion, which in Confucianism was associated with the virtue of filial piety. Huiyuan (334–416) responded that although monks did not express such piety, they did pay homage in heart and mind; moreover, their teaching of morality and virtue to the public helped support imperial rule.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

From the 6th century onward, Chinese Buddhists realized they had to stress Buddhism's own particular ideas about filial piety in order for Buddhism to survive.Template:Sfn Śyāma, Sujāti, and other Buddhist stories of self-sacrifice spread a belief that a filial child should even be willing to sacrifice its own body.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Ullambana Sūtra introduced the idea of transfer of merit through the story of Mulian Saves His Mother and led to the establishment of the Ghost Festival. By this Buddhists attempted to show that filial piety also meant taking care of one's parents in the next life, not just this life.Template:Sfn Furthermore, authors in China—and Tibet, and to some extent Japan—wrote that in Buddhism, all living beings have once been one's parents, and that practicing compassion to all living beings as though they were one's parents is the superior form of filial piety.Template:Sfn Another aspect emphasized was the great suffering a mother goes through when giving birth and raising a child. Chinese Buddhists described how difficult it is to repay the goodness of one's mother, and how many sins mothers committed in raising their children.Template:Sfn The mother became the primary source of well-being and indebtedness for the son, which was in contrast with pre-Buddhist perspectives emphasizing the father.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, although critics of Buddhism did not have much impact during this time, this changed in the period leading up to the Neo-Confucianist revival, when Emperor Wu Zong (841–845) started the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, citing lack of filial piety as one of his reasons for attacking Buddhist institutions.Template:Sfn

Filial piety is still an important value in some Asian Buddhist cultures. In China, Buddhism continued to uphold a role in state rituals and mourning rites for ancestors until late imperial times (13th–20th century).Template:Sfn Sūtras and narratives about filial piety are still widely used.Template:Sfn The Ghost Festival is still popular in many Asian countries, especially those countries which are influenced by both Buddhism and Confucianism.Template:Sfn

Late imperial periodEdit

File:Guo Ju from 24 Paragons of Filial Piety by Okumura Masanobu.JPG

Woodblock print with illustration of The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety. Okumura Masanobu, early 1730s.

During the 17th century, some missionaries tried to prevent Chinese people from worshiping their ancestors. This was regardedTemplate:By whom as an assault on Chinese culture.Template:Sfn

During the Qing dynasty, however, filial piety was redefined by the Kangxi Emperor, who felt it more important that his officials were loyal to him than that they were filial sons. Civil servants were often not allowed to go on extended leave to perform mourning rituals for their parents. The parallel conception of society therefore disappeared from Chinese society.Template:Sfn

Patriarchalism and its enactment in law grew more strict in late imperial China. The duties of the obedient child were much more precisely and rigidly prescribed, to the extent that legal scholar Hsu Dau-lin argued about this period that it "engendered a highly authoritarian spirit which was entirely alien to Confucius himself". The late imperial Chinese held patriarchalism high as an organizing principle of society, as laws and punishments gradually became more strict and severe.Template:Sfn

During the same time, in Japan, a classic work about filial practices was compiled, called Biographies of Japanese Filial Children (Template:CJKV).Template:Sfn

19th–20th centuryEdit

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

In Japan, filial piety was not regarded as an obstacle to modernization, though scholars disagree about why this was so.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

The late imperial trend of increased patriarchalism made it difficult for the Chinese to build strong patrimonial groups that went beyond kin.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

Developments in modern societyEdit

Template:Conservatism in East Asia In 21st-century Chinese societies, filial piety expectations and practice 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.Template:Refn Amplifying this trend, the number of elderly people has increased quickly.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Care-givingEdit

File:Headrest with Scenes of Filial Piety LACMA M.73.48.83.jpg

Stone headrest with scenes of filial piety, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

In modern Chinese societies, elder care has changed. Studies show a discrepancy between parents' filial expectations and the behaviors of their children.Template:Sfn The discrepancy with regard to respect shown by the children makes elderly people especially unhappy.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Industrialization and urbanization have affected the practice of filial piety, with care being given more in financial than in personal ways.Template:Sfn Template:As of, 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".Template:Sfn Respect to elders remains a central value for East Asian people.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

Work ethos and business practicesEdit

In PRC business culture, filial piety is decreasing in influence. Template:As of, western-style business practices and managerial style were promoted by the Chinese government to modernize the country.Template:Sfn However in Japan employees usually regard their employer as a sort of father, to which they feel obliged to express filial devotion.Template:Sfn

Relation with lawEdit

Template:See also 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn