An Analysis Of Confucius' Thought Of "Filial Piety"

The thought of "filial piety" is the essence of Chinese culture. In the Confucian ethic education, filial piety acts as the core of ethics and morality. It constitutes the characteristic of Chinese traditional culture and is also regarded as the solid strength to maintain family and clan, society, countries and the world. However, after the "five four movement" and the "Cultural Revolution" storm, with the transformation of modern Chinese society and the impact of western culture, On the one hand, many people lack warmth and respect toward "filial piety", and even treat it with a critical attitude, they take "filial piety" as the basic moral force for the feudal autocratic rule, which peeled off the children’s independent personality. It is regarded as the embodiment of feudal relationships and reflects the unequal parent-child relationship. On the other hand, a lot of people understand "filial piety" one-sidedly, only in these levels of understanding "filial piety" as ’obeying’ and growing up later to make elderly parents eat properly. Anyway, the concept of "filial piety" and its influence is real. Exploring the positive value of the concept of filial piety is necessary for guiding and establishing reasonable social values.From the perspective of the history of ideas, Confucius’s discussion on "filial piety" has a most profound and practical impact on the popularity of "filial piety" concept in the later generations. In "the Analects of Confucius", Confucius set the scope of "filial piety" in the daily life and treated it as the most basic norms of behavior. And in different contexts, faced up with different conditions, Confucius explained and defined the "filial piety" from different perspectives. Mining the essential meaning of "filial piety" said by Confucius and revivifying the true meaning of it in Confucius is significant for us to deeply understand the "filial piety" connotation. This paper attempts to return to the text and historical context to revivify the "filial piety".In this paper, the origin of the concept of "filial piety" and its evolution before Confucius were investigated firstly. Generally speaking, the origin of "filial piety" thought is closely related to the survival conditions of the primitive society. However, the origin of "filial piety" idea is controversial in academic field considering the existing literature research. This paper discusses these disputes, and gives its own point of view. Then, this paper discusses the evolution of the concept of "filial piety" in the "Spring and Autumn" period and the previous period. Secondly, this paper discusses how Confucius inherited and carried forward "filial piety" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is originated from the heaven, came into being in the most natural consanguinity and evolved into "the Analects of Confucius". "filial piety" has two levels of meaning. It means people must behave in accordance with the patriarchal etiquette and treat parents well. Finally, this paper discusses the influence of Confucius’ revolutionary transformation of the concept of "filial piety". Confucius constructed the "benevolence" thought based on "filial piety" and then endowed traditional "filial piety" in the Western Zhou Dynasty with new content.