Northern Wei Xiaowen Research

Filial piety culture is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. As thecore of Confucian culture, it has occupied an important place in thousands of years ofhistory. Filial piety culture closely linked with the self-cultivation, regulating thefamily, governing and pacifying that believed by the scholar-officials. In Chinesehistory, many dynasties were pursued "to rule the world by filial piety", which hasmade the filial piety culture permeate every aspects of political and social life of thecountry.According to the habits of historians, the Wei and Jin Dynasty run from A.D.220to A.D.589. This was the great division period in Chinese history, with a longduration, many nationalities involved and dozens of regimes established. From the"Five wild China" to the Northern dynasty, minority nationalities entered the CentralChina in succession, which injected fresh culture blood to the Central China. TheNorthern Wei dynasty, which was established by the Tuoba Xianbei, unified thenorthern regions by constant growing and war in the final. With unified from A.D.386to A.D.439and split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei in A.D.534, it lasted for148years, which was a miracle in the Wei and Jin Dynasty. As a minority nationalitythat entered the Central China, the rulers of the Northern Wei dynasty did not adhereto their backward traditions, but to fully absorb the advanced culture of the CentralChina, also, think highly of Confucian culture, and carry out a wide range ofConfucianism and Confucian ethics and moral education. Especially, the NorthernWei Emperor Xiaowen reform greatly improved the civilization level of the TuobaXianbei, promoted Northern Wei‘s regime construction and accelerated the historicalprocess of the integration of ethnic minorities that in the North. As an important partof Confucian culture, Filial piety culture was valued by the rulers of the Northern Weidynasty as a model, the Emperor learn the Sutra of filial piety personally; a series ofpolicies for pension and care for the elderly were implemented and to be implementedin the law; traditional filial piety was linked to appointments election, educationsystem, incentive systems, and circuit system. From here, we can see that in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the filial piety culture was very closely associated with thepolitical and social life.Studies on the filial piety culture, together with comprehensions of the social lifeand the ethics in the period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, can provide an importantperspective to the study of traditional Chinese filial piety culture. Summarize thelessons of the filial piety government of this period, can make a contribution tosocialist construction in the new era. This article attempts to study filial piety culture’sdifferent behavior in various aspects in this period and its effects on this period bytaking Tuoba Xianbei established Northern Wei as historical background, so as tomake up for today’s lack of academic study on filial piety culture of minoritynationalities in the ancient China, and do a original research for that Tuoba Xianbeiinherited the traditional Confucianism ethics.