The Evolution Of Modern Chinese Concept Of Xiao

100 years ago,Isaac Taylor Headland,an American missionary,wrote in Home Life in China:"It is largely for the purpose of developing that one great principle of all the Chinese civilization,the foundation of all the Chinese social and ethical system-filial piety.No one can understand China and the Chinese until he has burned into his thought the fact that filial piety lies at the base of the whole Chinese domestic,social,religious,and civic life."Although xiao(?)is a native concept which characterizes the Chinese cultural and social characteristics,it is hardly to understand what is it.By cleaning and decoding the texts of ancient China and examining the words and practices in Chinese daily life,we give a definition as follow:xiao and xiao-dao(??)is the role expectation of society,social organizations and individuals to children and counterpart,which forms in the social and cultural environment of China.In other words,xiao is a social role including a series of specific norms and behavior patterns.On the one hand,it reflects the behavioral expectation of society,social organizations and individuals to children and counterpart,on the other hand,children and counterpart practice Xiao according to their understanding of child role and their definition of the situation.As specific norms and behavior patterns of children,xiao is a concept with extremely rich meaning.It almost regulates all of the acts in one's whole life in order to make the resources and information normally flow from children to parents.Based on the different media of the flow,we divide the meaning of xiao into 7 dimensions and 24 items.These dimensions comprise supporting,caring,respecting,obeying and advising,cherishing,comforting,mourning and sacrificing,which describe the dimensions of matter,body,status,power,sentiment,extending,and symbolizing.Among them,"mourning and sacrificing" which regulates the individual behavior after the death of their parents,is only symbolic for parents."Comforting" is "latent xiao-dao",which focuses on the behaviors that bring the potential impact to the parents' mentality and reputation,although they point to everyone except one's parents."Supporting","caring","cherishing" belong to Kuang-hui Yeh's "authoritarian filial piety",and "respecting","obeying and advising" belong to "reciprocal filial piety",however,all of these belong to "manifest Xiao-dao" which directly aims at parents.On the basis of concept analysis,we design "Encoding Form of Journal Articles about Xiao","Encoding Form of stories about xiao" and "Questionnaire of Chinese concept and behavior of xiao".Then,we draw randomly 315 articles,300 stories and 1200 persons in Qingdao City to do respectively content analysis and questionnaire.Finally,we research the modern change of Chinese concept of xiao both at the great tradition level and the little tradition level.Our study shows:1)In modern Chinese society,Filial piety is still important moral that was widely recognized,but its' meaning,status and function has changed.Firstly,both the intellectuals and the people lowly agree with "obeying and advising" and "mourning and sacrificing",while other dimensions are highly agreed.However,the intellectuals more agrees with"supporting" and "caring" that are regarded as "little Xiao" or "lower Xiao" in traditional society,but the people more favors "respecting" and "comforting" which are given higher value in the traditional theory on xiao.This difference shows that Xiao of little tradition is more traditional than xiao of great tradition.Seconly,the political function of xiao has been weakened.Thirdly,the object of xiao spread from paternal line and husband's clan to maternal line,wife's clan,non-relative and abstract aggregate.2)In the past more than 100 years,the change of xiao had experienced several historical periods.On the great tradition level,the history of xiao's change may be divided into four periods:the questioning period before 1919,the arguing period of 1919-1949,the opposing period of 1949-1979,and the reconstructing period since reform and opening up.The change of little tradition's xiao has experienced the high agreement before 1950s,the low agreement of 1960s and 1970s,and reconstructing since reform and opening up.These show that the traditional Xiao-dao's history of change is dramatic and zigzag.3)The modem change of xiao-dao is the result of many factors in the context of social transformation.Our research shows that every social upheaval in modern China leads to the drastic debate and the obvious change of xiao-dao.Among the many driving forces behind the change of xiao-dao,the political factor is most striking.In modern times,national political elites not only guide,influence,rebuild the intellectuals and people's concept of xiao,but also decide the direction and processes of xiao's change by claiming the idea of governing,formulating social policies,starting social movements.