Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Teachings I: The Foundation of a Good Person 25Confucius was very much concerned with the neglect of parents, especiallywhen they became older and were no longer influential and active in thefamily ’ s affairs. As part of emphasizing service to the living, he criticizedthose who carried out elaborate funerals but neglected their parents whenthey were alive.Confucians argue that the bond between parent and child is the mostfundamental of human relationships. Filial piety plays an important rolein philosophical discussions, but filial piety is not an intellectual abstraction.It is the natural love felt toward parents and it could be found ineveryone ’ s heart: small children naturally love their parents. The naturalties of affection that children have for their parents are based, the Classicof Filial Piety says, on gratitude for one ’ s life: “ It is parents who give life;what could be greater? ” 4 In the Analects Confucius makes the argumentthat the requirement of three years of mourning for parents is based on thethree years of complete helplessness through which parents nourish theirchildren. 5 The three years of mourning are a reflection of this debt. Weowe our parents for the gift of our life and nothing we can do could everrepay that. Parents care for us when we are helpless; as we grow older wemust repay that care.Did Confucius mean that filial piety should be absolute? Does it requirecomplete obedience? One of the passages in the Analects has been a focusfor this question. In it, someone told Confucius, with some pride, that in hispart of the country there are men so upright that, in one case, when a fatherstole a sheep, the son turned the father in to the authorities. Confuciusresponded, “ Where I come from, upright people are not like that. Fatherscover up for their sons and sons cover up for their fathers. Uprightness isfound in doing that. ” 6 Confucius is saying that the relationship betweenfather and son must trump all other considerations, even laws and justice.Does this mean that one is required to practice filial piety, no matter whatcriminal behavior one ’ s parents are involved in? Some later commentatorshave said that, if the practice of filial piety requires immoral behavior,like lying, this would be taking filial piety too far. Filial piety should notbe blind. Filial piety should be checked by moral propriety: parents andchildren should act properly and, if parents do not, children are not boundby filial piety. However, this was not the way the notion of filial piety wasunderstood in history and in practice. 7 In the classical texts, we never seeConfucius talking about any limits to filial piety.There are many times when what Confucius says seems reasonable andlogical. Then, there are times when what we read seems terribly foreignto us. Unconditional obedience based in filial piety is one of the ideas thatstrike most twenty - first - century Westerners as unreasonable, or, at best,quaint. Most of us think that we should grow up to become an individual,our own person. Filial piety is set in a different context. There the ideal is