Filial Piety in Chinese Religion
Filial piety was an integral part of Chinese culture and therefore was embraced by three of China's main religions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Among the three, Confucianism, with its well documented social hierarchy, supported the ideals of filial piety the most. Buddhism and Daoism also supported filial piety in some of their texts, but had monastic systems that prevented monks and nuns from being filial children.
The term filial piety refers to the extreme respect that Chinese children are supposed to show their parents. It involves many different things including taking care of the parents, burying them properly after death, bringing honor to the family, and having a male heir to carry on the family name (Brians 1). Practicing these ideals is a very important part of Chinese culture. Therefore, one would expect that filial piety would be incorporated into the major religions of China as it has been.
The ideal of respecting and behaving properly towards one's parents fits perfectly with Confucianism's ideal of respecting and behaving properly towards all elders. Confucius himself addressed the subject in the Analects:
When your father is alive observe his intentions. When he is deceased, model yourself on the memory of his behavior. If in three years after his death you have not deviated from your father's ways, then you may be considered a filial child. ("Confucian Teachings" 20).
According to Confucius, respect to one's father while he is alive is a given -- something that even animals do. But, to be a filial child, one must respect his parents even after their death. Confucius goes on to cite further specific examples of what a filial son should do for his parents. Am...
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...oist monk can not be a filial son.
Works Cited
Brians, Paul. "Examples of Filial Piety." 1998. Washington State Univ. 23 Feb 2003. Brians, Paul. "Examples of Filial Piety." 1998. Washington State Univ. 23 Feb 2003. <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/filial.html>
Hallisey, Charles. "Auspicious Things." Religions of Asia in Practice. Ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2002. 237-251.
"Book of Rewards and Punishments." Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey. New York: The Free Press, 1993. 142-145.
"Confucian Teachings." Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey. New York: The Free Press, 1993. 17-26.
"Precepts of the Perfect Truth Daoist Sect." Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey. New York: The Free Press, 1993. 146-150.
“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. 1 June 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
The Buddhist brought with them the concept of multiple gods and Buddha’s “spiritual state to provide the power for humans to make the transition into death and the afterlife successfully” (Corduan, 2012, p.410). Confucianism brought the obedience of the child to the parent into Chinese mainstream life, plus the “social stratification and codes governing dress, actions and communication” (Corduan, 2012, p.409). Taoism introduced the balance of forces in harmony in spirits in the form of yin and yang, thus creating that balance of nature and humans (Corduan, 2012). Christianity influenced Chinese life both socially and economically by introducing the concepts of “love for one’s neighbor, self-discipline, and trust” (Lu, 2014, p.2) as both essential and beneficial (Lu, 2014). All of these together with the traditional Chinese religion, give the Chinese culture it’s popular religion
In order to understand the effects that come with being a child soldier, one must first understand how a child ends up in such a position. To three teenage boys living in a small Indian village, the hope of a better life for themselves and their families as well as the affirmation of employment seemed promising. So pr...
The teachings according to Confucius refer to Confucianism. Confucianism is the multifarious classification of ethical, collective, political and pious philosophy developed by Confucius and the old Chinese practices (Bertrand, 1999). Confucianism aim is actually making an individual honorable but also making such an individual the character of learning and of proper manners. The ideal and faultless man has to combine the characters of a saint, an intellectual and gentleman. Confucianism is a religious conviction whose adulation is focused on offerings to the dead. The idea of responsibility is extensive beyond the precincts of morals and holds close to the minutiae of daily living.
and tension in our country. The controversy in our society is whether the death penalty/capital punishment serves as a justified form of punishment. Justice can be served by inflicting the death sentence for murder.
Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.
Bracken, Patrick and Celia Petty (editors). Rethinking the Trauma of War. New York, NY: Save the Children Fund, Free Association Books, Ltd, 1998.
Confucianism and Daoism are two influential schools of thoughts that have existed in ancient China around the 6th century BCE. The former, led by the politician and philosopher Confucius, proposed that humans live in society according to a set of predefined rules and that they transform society through political action. Whereas the latter, led by the philosopher Lao-Tzu, promoted the idea of inaction; people should go with the flow instead of taking action to control their lives and dominate their surroundings. Although, at first glance Daoism and Confucianism seem to be two opposing philosophies, a more in depth analysis of two of their key ideas –filial piety and education—reveals that they do share some similarities.
Singer, P.W. “Children at War.” Military History 24.6 (2007): 1-5. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.
Since little has been known about Jacques Cartier, there isn’t much known about his early education documents have shown evidence that Cartier is well educated in cartography, navigation, astronomy, mathematics, and seamanship in his earlier days, which he s...
Although Judaism and Confucianism appear to be on different realms of the religious spectrum, they have similar traditions deriving from dissimilar roots. The significance of family in Confucianism is strongly upheld by the filial piety rooted within all of the traditions and beliefs. Meanwhile, Judaism’s emphasis on God’s word as being the ultimate path for a righteous life is supported throughout the Jewish adherence to the special laws commanded by God. Whether the foundation of the religion is rooted from filial piety or God’s commandments, both Judaism and Confucianism reflect similar standards in family rituals, religious beliefs, and moral conduct.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
In Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” Dickinson portrays what it is like to go through the process of dying. According to Mark Spencer of the Explicator, the speaker portrays death as a two-step process. It is said that this particular poem makes more sense if read from the perspective that reconciliation with God is a delayed process. In this poem the speaker has ended their existence on earth but have yet to reach the final step. The horses are pulling the carriage “toward Eternity” which suggests that the final step has yet to be reached. The speaker says that “Centuries” feel “Shorter than the day” implying that although an end will come, it will not come soon. Although the end is said not to come soon, it will seem like nothing to those who have passed. A grave site is compared to a house when the carriage passes a “Swelling in the ground”, because indeed the speaker will stay in this home until her final day comes. The speaker then becomes “quivering and chill” wearing her thin flimsy clothing but then realizes that the clothing has become appropriate for what is to come. The speaker indicates that the carriage is only pausing because the current state she is in is only temporary (Spence). It is said that the speaker looks death in the eye and escapes ...