Filial Piety

Introduction

Filial piety is the duty, responsibility and the cultural value to treat the parents and ancestors with the maximum respect. In the Romance of the Gods, Episode XII-XIV, An Actress Scorns Wealth and Honor to Preserve Her Chastity and in Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger, filial refers to something that is associated with a daughter or son while piety refers to the virtuous habit or the quality that a person has, especially which is considered as the moral and ethical one such as honesty or loyalty. In addition to this, Filial piety includes the perception of taking care of one's parents and showing respect, support, love and courtesy to the parents. This involves the significance of keeping away from disgrace, loss, or rebellion to face of one's ancestors and family. In an individual respect, it is a collectivist value that includes standards, worth and beliefs of a collective ethnic group, family, community or tribe rather than of the individual family. For an individual, it is frequently expected to fulfil the needs of his or her parents before they actually arise. This step may involve the decision making that the best benefit one's family and parents though making self sacrifices for one's parents.

Discussion

The term filial piety is developed from Confucian traditions and Chinese which have been passed on to new generations through the storytelling. These stories include An Actress Scorns Wealth and Honor to Preserve Her Chastity and Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger and Romance of the Gods. The most prominent work which was done is Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger of Filial Piety, a collection of stories chosen while the author was in grief over his death of father. In this collection, there are stories of extraordinarily significant actions of filial piety by children from the times of primordial Emperor Shun down to the 12th century. For instance, in An Actress Scorns Wealth and Honor to Preserve Her Chastity, a character to pull off his shirt at night to let mosquitoes to bite him as a replacement for his parents. In such stories, the actions of the child are praised by the world and he or she is respected for being a perfect respectful and lovable person which is showing the filial piety. (Ikels, 2004)

Even though filial piety was first invented as a Chinese term, but the value or the meaning that it carries have identical forms which are similar to the Latin and the Asian cultures. Other cultures of East Asia that include Korean and Japanese cultures subscribe to the above mentioned values and beliefs of filial piety, where the other cultures of Asia might have parallel values with a little differences. This filial piety includes the individual duties, responsibilities, ethics also the obligations towards the family. In many cultures, filial piety is a strong attachment and identification of individuals with their families. (Ames & Rosemont, 1998)

From the text, the Romance of the Gods, it is understood that many cultures ...