A Study On The Filial Piety Of Scholar Of Ficials In The Tang Dynasty From The Epitaph

There are a large number of historical materials about the filial piety thought and filial piety behavior of the scholar-officials in the epitaph materials of the Tang Dynasty.Through collecting and arranging these historical materials,explore the source of the filial piety thought of the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty,and analyze the relationship between their filial piety thoughts and Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism,and sort out the filial piety behavior of the scholar-officers in the family,clan,society and country.On this basis,analyze the characteristics of the filial piety of the scholar-officers in the Tang Dynasty,mainly from the longitudinal changes of the Tang Dynasty and from the perspective of comparing the scholar-officials’ filial piety with the emperor and common people.Finally,a comprehensive analysis of various factors affecting the filial piety of scholars and officials in the Tang Dynasty is carried out,mainly from the perspectives of law,system and policy,school education,family education,and social customs.There are three sources of filial piety thought of Tang Dynasty scholars and officials seen in the epitaph: Confucianism,Taoism,and Buddhism.The filial piety thought of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Tang Dynasty was mainly derived from the Confucian filial piety ethics.In Confucian thought,the education and guidance of filial piety,which is a natural affection,was emphasized,making it a standardized filial piety ethics.The rulers of the Tang Dynasty played an important role in promoting the development of filial piety from a natural feeling to an ethical moral respected by the whole society.The filial piety thought of the Tang Dynasty scholar-bureaucrats seen in the epitaph is also related to Taoist thought,especially the concept of "nature" in Taoist thought and its related theories,which make the filial piety thought of the Tang Dynasty scholar-bureaucrat appear natural,innocent and unintentional.Emphasis on thin burial and indifference to life and death.The filial piety thought of the Tang Dynasty scholar-bureaucrats seen in the epitaph is also related to Buddhist thought,especially the thought of repaying kindness in Buddhism.Buddhism absorbed the Confucian filial piety thought,and compiled scriptures explaining the reasons and methods for children to repay their parents’ kindness.The epitaphs found in the epitaphs related to the Buddhist thought of repaying kindness are mostly grateful for the parenting kindness from the perspective of future generations.Combining the Confucian filial piety thought with the Buddhist filial piety thought,the "responses of virtue",which is concentrated in the "Book of Songs,Liao’e",has become the "return of kindness" that appears in large numbers in epitaphs.The implementation of the filial piety behavior of the Tang Dynasty scholarbureaucrats as seen in the epitaph involves four dimensions: family,clan,society,and country.The filial piety of the scholar-officials in the family was mainly to take care their parents.In terms of taking care of their panrents when they are living,the epitaphs show that the filial piety of the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty mainly included dedicated support,giving fame to their parents.Worship their parents materially and honor their parents spiritually.In terms of posthumous burial,the epitaphs show that the filial piety of the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty mainly included going to the mourning,serving the mourning,selecting the burial place at the time of the burial,and preparing an epitaph.The filial piety of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Tang Dynasty within the clan scope included three aspects: one was the offering to the ancestors,the second was raising the orphans of the clan and the preservation of the clan,and the third was the burial of the clan after death.There are three main ways of spreading filial piety in the society of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Tang Dynasty: one is to lead by example,practice filial piety by oneself,and be appreciated and learned by the village community;the second is to spread filial piety in the local area when serving as a local official;The third is to recommend people with filial deeds from local areas to the center.Scholar-bureaucrats extended their filial piety at the national level by entering official positions.There are many cases of loyalty to the country and the event of winning filial piety with loyalty in the epitaphs and handed down documents of the Tang Dynasty.Scholar-bureaucrats practice filial piety by transferring filial piety to loyalty and making a name for their parents.The characteristics of the filial piety of the literati and officials in the Tang Dynasty were first reflected in the differences between the early and late periods.In the early Tang dynasty,the scholar-officials’ understanding of filial piety mostly focused on the family and the dedication to support their parents,and their reasons for becoming an official were all from the perspective of supporting their parents.In the understanding of the relationship between loyalty and filial piety,it was emphasized that filial piety precedes loyalty,and the understanding of loyalty in the early Tang Dynasty had the characteristics of ambiguous object and meaning.In the epitaph,when describing the behavior of scholar-officials,filial piety often preceded loyalty.Under the influence of the idea of filial piety before loyalty,scholars in the early Tang dynasty often chose to abandon loyalty and follow filial piety when there was a conflict between loyalty and filial piety.In the late Tang Dynasty,the understanding of filial piety changed,and most of them emphasized that the end of filial piety was to raise parent’s name and to stay the promotion of family.In the later period of tang Dynasty,the cognition of the object of loyalty was further clear,and the loyalty was defined as loyalty to the king and the country.At the same time,the understanding of loyalty and filial piety,the relationship between family and country was not divided.In the sequence of the relationship between loyalty and filial piety,it was emphasized that loyalty precedes filial piety.In the later period of Tang dynasty,the number of loyal officials and the number of scholar-bureaucrat’s returned increased obviously,and the trend of shifting filial piety to loyalty was strengthened day by day.The reason why the filial piety thought and filial piety behavior of the scholarbureaucrats in the Tang Dynasty appeared to be different in the Tang Dynasty was influenced by the following factors: First,the decline of the clan system made the gentry lose their political and economic privileges.Due to the loss of family status and glory,the conditions for the family to precede the country and filial piety to precede loyalty were no longer existed,and the importance of loyalty to the monarch became increasingly prominent.The imperial examinations became the main source of senior bureaucrats in the late Tang Dynasty,and the social mobility was further strengthened.On the one hand,the old gentry had a strong sense of crisis,and at the same time,the number of common people who were promoted to court through the imperial examination was also increasing.The increased mobility means the instability of the status of the scholar-officials themselves and their families,thus creating a great sense of crisis.Therefore,the filial piety of the descendants of the tomb owners in the epitaphs mostly emphasizes protecting the glory of family and showing relatives by being loyal to the country.The rulers of the late Tang Dynasty strengthened the education of loyalty and filial piety to their subjects by revitalizing Confucian education and reforming the system of imperial examinations.Under such a background,the cognition of the Confucian ethics and the relationship between loyalty and filial piety was further deepened by the scholars.Tang dynasty scholar-official class filial piety characteristics also reflected in the close combination with the rites.Compared with the filial piety of the emperors in Tang Dynasty,the scholar-officials in Tang Dynasty were able to observe etiquette and restraint when they made offerings to their parents during their lifetime and buried their parents after their death.They advocated frugality and did not excessively pursue luxury and filial piety materially,but paid more attention to the spiritual respect of their parents.Compared with the rudeness and ignorance and extreme filial piety of the common people in the Tang Dynasty,the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty were able to observe the proprieties and rationality in the process of filial piety during their lifetime and funeral of their parents after their death.They knew how to restrain their sorrow to practice the norms of the ritual system and did not injure their own bodies at will.The reason why the filial piety thought and behavior of the literati and officialdom in the Tang Dynasty were closely combined with the ritual system was that the literati and officialdom in the Tang Dynasty were the writers of the ritual system texts,who compiled a large number of the ritual texts,including the notes on the ritual system,the script system,the family instructions and the family commandments.Secondly,the scholarbureaucrat class was also the active practitioner of the ritual system,and the Confucian thought of restraint and rational spirit,had a great influence on the scholar-bureaucrat’s filial piety thought and behavior.The laws,systems and policies,school education,family education and social customs of tang Dynasty had great influence on the filial piety thought and behavior of the scholar-officials.The law played a compulsory and fundamental role in guiding the filial piety of the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty,and there were corresponding and severe punishment measures for the behaviors that did not meet the minimum standards of filial piety,such as providing for the deceased,taking different wealth and violating the rules of bereavement,which was an important guarantee for the implementation of the filial piety of the scholar-officials.The state regarded filial piety as an important criterion for official selection,knighthood,title pursuit and commendation,and promoted the scholastic officials to practice filial piety from the level of positive guidance.Meanwhile,the policy of respecting the elderly also provided guidance for the scholastic officials to practice filial piety.The emphasis on the content of filial piety in school education and family education has a long-term and important influence on the cultivation of the filial piety thought and the practice of filial piety behavior of the scholar-officials.In addition,the social customs of tang Dynasty attached great importance to filial piety,from rulers to civilians,all actively practiced filial piety,such a social environment had an important impact on the practice of filial piety of the scholastic officials.