Confucian Thought Of Filial Piety And Its Modern Significance

Filial piety is a conventional norm of ethics and morals most vital to Chinese, and is considered one of the most important branches in Chinese traditional ideology and culture. Ever since the Confucian thought of filial piety, represented by Confucius,emerged in the pre-Qin period, it has undergone a historical process reinforcing itself into a fixed form of ideology, which has impacted upon generations of Chinese people enormously in terms of ethics values and attitudes towards life. People have never ceased their research upon Confucian thought of filial piety since ancient times, and the research achievements have been fruitful. However, few researchers have committed to a comprehensive and systematic analysis and interpretation of Confucian thought of filial piety. And, there have been misinterpretations and even distorted readings of certain thoughts and concepts in Confucian filial piety, such as “no disobedience”,“expostulation”, lavish burial, worship of gods, etc. Even more, there has not been a clear qualitative analysis and explication concerning the spiritual essence of Confucian thought of filial piety, as researchers still split over the choice between “filial obedience” and“filial respect”. The thesis, by means of comparative approach, literature review,reductive interpretation and so on, intends for a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the contents in Confucian thought of filial piety, as well as a revelation of the logical relations underlying various thoughts in Confucian filial piety, therefore having a grasp on the spiritual essence of Confucian thought of filial piety. On this basis, the thesis provides a dialectical analysis of the misinterpretations and distorted readings from scholars of all ages, with a view to recuperating the true nature of Confucian thought of filial piety, and revealing the significant value inherent in the thought. Confucian thoughts represent Confucianism at its earlier stage, and the great influence ofConfucianism on Chinese traditional culture is self-evident. Henceforth, by recuperating the true nature of Confucian thought of filial piety, it makes great sense not only in understanding the national characteristics in Chinese history and culture, but in motivating modern Chinese people to inherit and advocate Chinese traditional culture, to practice filial piety, and to promote the social morality as well. And that’s where the ultimate purpose of this thesis lies.