The Reproduction Of Filial Piety In A Community: Discourse And Practice

In recent years people have paid more and more attention to the encouragement of filial piety. Deeply embarrassed by the spiritual crisis caused by the decline of filial piety, people are trying to explore the value of this traditional morality, in order to advance the moral construction of a harmonious society. But as the society changes, the rules of traditional filial duty have changed a lot. Which is filial and which is unfilial are widely debated. In reality people have encountered a series of plights of filial piety, for example, outside employment is in conflict with"not go far away while parents are old", family planning has put people in the trouble of"with no heir is the most unfilial behavior", and cremation is not in line with the traditional filial instruction of"bury and memorize parents with proper ritual". The research on these problems is important, as it helps us to study and understand traditional filial piety over again, and to advance the harmonious society construction in the process of carrying on and developing the essence of traditional filial instructions. So the exploration of the inner logic and human value of filial practice from field work is necessary, which is the practical meaning of this thesis.Considering this article's starting point of theory, we find that the research on filial piety on hand has usually put emphasis on the text analysis, and explained the idea of filial piety from intellectuals in the culture of great tradition, with no regard to the practice of everyday life. Some other researchers take filial piety as a psychological concept, using questionnaire method to investigate people's idea of filial duty, and have ignored the specific social and cultural context of the practice of filial duty, so the research lacks on-the-spot experience and the flavour of life. Still some research has separated the material and moral aspects of the practice of filial duty, and has put emphasis on either aspect partially, especially had a bias against filial piety in the folk culture of the little tradition, thinking that it has founded on the material aim of property inheritance, with no regard to its spiritual and ritual aspect.This research is trying to break through the limits of above trends, and to explain the filial practice in the culture of little tradition through the analysis of filial piety contradictions in the author's experience of field work, to explore the spiritual value of filial piety. And the author also has tried to put filial piety in an active social and cultural context to analyze how it is reproduced and to show the vitality of the little tradition. Generally speaking, the theoretical meaning of this thesis lies in trying to explore the aspects worthy of anthropological research quoted from the presentations of filial piety in classical literature, and to make conversations with the related western theories of anthropology (the theories of the spirit of gifts and community).The main contents of this thesis include discourse and practice of filial piety in the family, community and the state. The author has embodied filial piety into three aspects: the relationship between generations, the order of customs in the community and the logic of put oneself of the place of another. The field is a village community in the south central part of Henan province called Guzhai.Guzhai is located in Wuyang county, Luohe city. It is a face-to-face community, and local people have lived there for generations, so they are very familiar with each other. It is a village of various surnames, without big families. Villagers'lives go around the tempo of busy season and slack season in farming. Outside employment can not cut off people's local identity. The filial piety as common moral has met a series of troubles in the face of outside work, commodity economy and the state's control of birth and cremation. While local people strive to deal with these problems, they have realized the value of filial devotion, and reproduced filial piety.The practice of filial piety in the family manifested as asymmetrical reciprocity between generations. With the entrance of ancestors and grandchildren of the family line, the asymmetrical trend becomes symmetry. During this process, people pursue continuity of ancestry and ethic of roles in the family. The practice of filial piety has ensured the continuity and harmony of family. With more and more fluidity of society and the widespread trend of outside employment, the asymmetrical reciprocity between generations has been strengthened. People have clarified mutual dependence between generations during the process of coping with these outside chances as well as challenges, and have reproduced filial piety.The practices of filial duty in family and community have a common ground, which is people's understanding and identity of the logic of conducting oneself and the pursuit of the ultimate meaning of life. And its manifestation in life is the rule of renqing (human reciprocity), which requires that people should emphasize the exchange of feelings and the continuity of relations. So the practice of filial piety from family can be extended to community. The punishment of unfilial behaviors highlights the community's common understanding of filial piety. And the rituals, festivals and communal life of community have all infused people with the rule of human kindness, and transferred filial piety. The development of commodity economy has made money more and more important in local people's life, but the rule of renqing always exceed the rule of money. People have made filial piety reproduced when they are trying to construct the order of customs in the community, with the rule of renqing.The filial piety of family and community has encountered a series of plights when it faced the state's power, especially the control of birth and cremation has put people in a dilemma. In their eyes, the process of birth and death is in a continuum. Traditional funeral has expressed their understanding and pursuit of life meaning, including the vertical and horizontal designs. While the policies of birth control and cremation reduced their meaning as human in the two sides. So when the state plans to push the policy of birth control and cremation, it should consider people's pursuit of ultimate meaning of life, which is the foundation of the practice of filial piety. Only by fully respecting this foundation can we ease the tension between filial piety and loyalty to the country, and carry forward filial piety of the culture of little tradition, in order to advance the construction of harmonious society.The new ideas in this thesis include: 1. The practice of filial piety is the unity of material and moral, with secular and above worldly pursuits. In family it is manifested as unity of asymmetrical reciprocity between two generations and symmetrical reciprocity in three generations. Some research has concerned on reciprocity between two generations, with less attention to the third party. While the pursuit of one's life and family continuity in filial practice can only be revealed when the third party of the intergenerational reciprocity– the ancestors from above and the descendents of the third generation enters. And the triad reciprocity reinforces the two partners in intergenerational exchange-parents and children to obey the common rule, namely, they have to transfer the obligation of life, ensure the succession of the family line, and each to fulfill his duty according to ethic of roles. So the practice of filial duty in the family is not only limited to the care of this life, but also includes the funeral and memorial ceremony after parents'death. The most important is the continuity of family line. Besides material repayment, people put more emphasis on the expression of filial devotion and the spiritual consolation to the parents.2. Filial duty comes from family, but it goes beyond family. Some researchers have bound filial piety to familism, and considered that with the decline of family organization, there is no need to advocate filial piety. This research has attempted to transcend this framework, and to probe the maintenance mechanism of filial piety in the culture of little tradition from the point of community. The community here emphasizes its people's intimate relations developed from long-term common life and the common cultural meaning system created in interaction, as the Gemeinshaft put forward by sociologist Ferdinand T?nnis. And the author has tried to explore the discourse and practice of filial piety on the ground of the community's common understanding. The practice of filial piety in the community also involves material and spiritual aspects, especially the related religion and ritual activities expressed people's moral needs, which should not be overthrown as superstition. The secular and sacred communal life has promoted people's understanding and identification of the spiritual community, and has intensified their need of it during the process of dealing with transformation of the state's power.3. Both the idea of filial piety in classical literature and the theory of the spirit of gifts and community in anthropology emphasize the pursuit of spiritual meaning above the worldly life. The pursuit will not change as time goes, so filial piety and the related western anthropological theory have the common platform to make conversations. It is the pursuit of human dignity, value and the ultimate meaning of life that has given filial piety the capacity to reproduce itself. The culture of the little tradition has constructed spiritual community on the basis of ensuring people to realize human dignity and value. Different from the emphasis on the contract between human and gods in the western theory of anthropology, which has extended to the rules of human reciprocity, filial piety has laid emphasis on human's subjective practice, and has spread the rules of human reciprocity and the pursuit of the ultimate meaning of life to the relations between human and gods. These rules and pursuits have been strengthened with the symbols of gods, ghosts and ancestors in the culture of little tradition.As the topic on discourse and practice of filial piety is complicated, and the author's knowledge and capacity is limited, this article is only a superficial representation of filial piety based on field work. If there are chances for deep research later, the author can make further exploration of the topic, such as people's understanding of the relations between filial piety and retribution, customs and loyalty, the supporting effect of the rule of human kindness to filial piety, and how can filial piety be in tune with the citizen moral necessary for the nation-state construction. These problems should be further investigated in field work and discussed in theory, which is an important research subject.