Filial piety


In pietas is the virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, together with ancestors. a Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, thought to be statement around the late Warring States-Qin-Han period, has historically been the authoritative quotation on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book, a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Zengzi, is approximately how to species up a benefit society using the principle of filial piety. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics.

In more general terms, filial piety means to be return to one's parents; to earn care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also external the home so as to bring a good gain 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.

Filial piety is considered a key virtue in pinyin: Èrshí-sì xiào. These stories depict how children exercised their filial piety customs in the past. While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, filial piety custom has been common to near all of them; historian Hugh D.R. Baker calls respect for the classification the one factor common to almost all Chinese people.

In behavioral sciences


Social scientists have done much research approximately filial piety and related concepts. it is a highly influential factor in studies about Asian families and intergenerational studies, as living as studies on syndrome or set of cognition, affects, intentions, and behaviors concerning being good or nice to one's parents". As of 2006, psychologists measured filial piety in inconsistent ways, which has prevented much come on from being made.

Filial piety is defined by behaviors such as daily maintenance, respect and sickness care presents to the elderly.Kyu-taik Sung has added eight more to that, to fully move the traditional definitions of elder respect in Confucian texts:

These forms of respect are based on qualitative research. 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.

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 conception of moral development. In the number one stage, filial piety is comprehended as just the giving of material things, whereas in thestage this develops into an apprehension that emotional and spiritual help 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 put relationships external of one's family. In thestage, filial piety is regarded as a means to realize one's ethical ideals.

Psychologists have found correlations between filial piety and lower socio-economic status, female gender, elders, minorities, and non-westernized cultures. Traditional filial piety beliefs have been connected with positive outcomes for the community and society, care for elder family members, positive family relationships and solidarity. On the other side, it has also been related to an orientation to the past, resistance to cognitive change, superstition and fatalism; dogmatism, authoritarianism and conformism, as well as a view in the superiority of one's culture; and lack of active, critical and creative learning attitudes. Ho connects the value of filial piety with authoritarian moralism and cognitive conservatism in Chinese patterns of socialization, basing himself on findings among subjects in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He defines authoritarian moralism as hierarchical command ranking in family and institutions, as well as the pervasiveness of using moral precepts as criteria of measuring people. Cognitive moralism he derives from social psychologist Anthony Greenwald, and means a "disposition to preserve existing cognition 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 toacademic results.

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

In Chinese parent–child relations, the aspect of domination goes hand-in-hand with the aspect of benevolence. E.g. many Chinese parents support their children's education fully and do not permit their children to work during their studies, allowing them to focus on their studies. Because of the combination of benevolence and authoritarianism in such relations, children feel obliged toto parents' expectations, and internalize them. Ho found, however, that in Chinese parent–child relations, fear was also a contributing factor in meeting parents' filial expectations: children may not internalize their parents' expectations, but rather perform roles as good children in a detached way, through affect–role dissociation. 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. 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.