" Humanism " And "Filial Piety "——Investigation On The Core Of Confucian Ethics

Human beings are the precious creatures. Confucius expected human highly as accomplished individuals loaded with humanistic attributes. In addition to satisfying personal biological and physiological instincts, an accomplished individual needs to further extend their self-identity through ethical behavior and professional achievement with ultimate spiritual satisfaction. Most of the people of our country failed to live a life with self-esteem.Previous findings unfolded that dominant filial piety virtue built upon absolute obedience to parental wishes was severely distorted which has hampered the development of humanity in China. As today’s social ethics fail to accommodate the distorted filial piety, the parents, lack of self-esteem, become obedient to their children. Hence, the focus of the thesis is on the conflicts between parents and their children with intention to clarify the true sense of humanity.Filial piety as part of Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the history and culture. In the early centuries when most of the people only knew their mothers, the knowledge of experienced elders was revered and helped the survival of general public. During Yin Shang dynasty, the frequently held sacrificial ceremony activities were mainly to please ghost and Gods that differed from the ancestor worship as evolved later. Filial piety was developed as an ethical virtue in Zhou dynasty to consolidate a patriarch-centered familial system and maintain clan unity. Confucius further promoted and coined filial piety system of benevolence with expectation of anthroposophy.The filial piety was used as part of the political power during Han dynasty to maintain their control of the regimes. The concept of obedience to parents and country began to be generalized, sacred and even dogmatic. Filial piety was even casted as the means for political maneuvering as revealed in book Xiaojing. The filial piety sects manipulated filiality as part of politics that severely deviated from the humanistic benevolence as envisioned by Confucius. From Han on till the late Qing, the Chinese politics was basically embedded in central control. As a result of absolute authority, the filial piety cencept became more and more patriarchal.The severe contradictions between blind patriarch obedience to elders and absolute authority shackled the thinking and sentimental feelings that further evolved into additional anomalous ethics. After the May Fourth Movement, it was generally concluded that feudal ethics results in the loss of self-identity. The author observed that the life threating ethical feudal code may not be the sole reason for the aberrance. The key is that the benevolence nature of filial piety was thoroughly misunderstood with wrongly practiced. To live a meaningful life, one should not only meet the objective requirements of ethical codes, but transform oneself into the embodiment of morality.In closing, the conclusions are:(1) the enforcement of filial piety without love and kindness is not what Confucius espoused for.(2) important as it is, filial piety should not be exercised in absolute rules. Close as father and son, their interaction should base on self-identity and love without absolute authority.(3) to recover filial piety with benevolent nature and meet the social ethics, the doctrines in Xiaojing should be abandoned completely and replaced with teachings in The Analects.