For filial piety, the definition of "Erya", one of the earliest Chinese works explaining the meaning of words, is: "Good deeds are filial piety for parents." The Han Dynasty Jia Yi's "New Book" is defined as "the filial piety of the son Aili". Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty explained in the "Explanation of Words and Characters": "Those who do good deeds to their parents, from the old province, from the son, the son inherits the old man."
Xu Shen believes that the word "filial piety" is a ideographic character formed by omitting the form of the lower right corner of the word "old" and combining it with the word "son". From here, we can see that the ancient glyph of "filial piety" is consistent with the meaning of "good deeds of parents", so filial piety is a kind of good deed and virtue of children to their parents, and it is the moral quality that the younger generations in the family should have when dealing with their relationships with their elders.
Looking at the dynasties and generations in Chinese history, we can find that the Han Dynasty was the most valued and paid attention to filial piety.
So, why is that?
There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is the imperial court's selection system for officials.
During the Han Dynasty, whether it was before or after the Confucian thought that Dong Zhongshu strongly promoted, the most important indicator for the imperial court to select talents was to see the degree of filial piety of the candidates. After arriving in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court specifically listed a selection method based on filial piety to select officials, that is, the inspection system.
So, what does this system look like? What is it going to look for? How about a move?
In fact, this system is specially used to examine the words and deeds of the scholars, and then, there will be special officials to recommend talents in both xiucai and filial piety to the imperial court. At that time, Xiucai was mainly used to refer to those who had a certain degree of attainment in Confucianism and classic works. However, in the middle and late period of eastern Han rule, few people became officials by virtue of Xiucai.
There are two main reasons for this:
First, the culture of filial piety prevails in society, and people pay too much attention to filial piety;
Second, to do a show, you need to read a lot of books and have a wide range of knowledge interface, otherwise, people who don't know the big characters can also become officials, which is too unconvincing.
Filial piety is very different from Xiucai, which mainly refers to filial piety to one's parents. Therefore, even if there is no particularly outstanding talent and ability, people can still hold an official and a half position through filial piety. Therefore, the difficulty of becoming an official through filial piety is greatly reduced compared to Thato Cai. This may also be a reason why during the Eastern Han Dynasty officials, there were very few people from Xiucai and many people from filial piety.
At that time, soon after the implementation of the inspection system, a trend of filial piety arose in society, and everyone paid attention to filial piety. This has caused many stories of the Han Dynasty's folk and officialdom to be enjoyed, some surprising, some applauded, and some confused. Among them, in the famous history book of the Han Dynasty, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, there are many descriptions of the story of filial piety.
For example, the story of Zhao Zhi. Once, the thief went to Zhao Zhi's house to grab something, but Zhao Zhi's mother, who was in her eighties, happened to be ill and was sleeping. Therefore, in order to let his mother sleep peacefully, Zhao Zhi offered to invite the robber to dinner, and said to the robber: "In addition to some clothes and food left for my mother, my wife, children and money are waiting for you to take away at will, and I will definitely not stop you." Zhao Zhi's words confused the thief.
Later, this thief felt that Zhao Zhi was really a great filial piety, so that his mother could do this, so he could not bear to rob his things, turned around and fled. However, Zhao Zhi ran out after the thief with the family's money, and he shouted while chasing: "Brother Thief, you haven't robbed anything yet, the money is given to you..." Therefore, in the biography, people have a high evaluation of Zhao Zhi and rely on him very much. However, with the change and development of the times, people's concepts have gradually changed.
If there is a person around us who treats thieves like Zhao Zhi, everyone will only laugh at this person for being too stupid, people come to steal things, and you still offer them with both hands. And the vast number of women compatriots will certainly shout: Tell a man like Zhao Zhi, who gave up his wife and children, to go to the Women's Federation. However, the Han Dynasty was such a dynasty, and in the eyes of the Han people, parents were like the earth, and wives and children were only equivalent to clothes. If people value their wives and children too much, then they will be considered by others to be very immoral.
Another example is the high-ranking official Zhang Zhang. Once, he painted his wife's eyebrows and made up his makeup, and as a result, he was criticized by the central discipline inspection and was considered a disgrace to the scholars. Therefore, different times, people's evaluation criteria for an official are also different. Nowadays, we often say that if an official can benefit the people during his tenure, then the official is a good official. However, in ancient times, if he was able to educate and manage the people with morality and behavior, so that the place could be stable, then he was a good official.
That is to say, modern people evaluate the quality of an official mainly by his ability; in ancient times, the virtue of this official was the mainstay. As for the scholars and cloth, people believe that if the scholars can exert their talents, go to the official arena, and become the pillars of the country, it will be very respected and relied upon. Cloth clothes return to the countryside, with ideals, can also be regarded as a model. But who in all the dynasties and dynasties has been able to achieve true filial piety and lofty ambitions? Most people are hypocrites who pursue their own interests under various banners.
For a long time, there have been faults in the traditional Chinese filial piety culture, and the concept of filial piety has also faded. Of course, if someone can be a "hypocrite" or "false filial piety" for a lifetime, then this person can also be regarded as a true filial piety. Today, people's understanding and interpretation of filial piety is facing an unprecedented new situation, but unfortunately, whether it is the country's election system or the atmosphere of public opinion, people are more pursuing the most practical benefits.
Resources:
[Erya, Shuowen Jiezi, Book of the Later Han Dynasty]