The Research On The Etiquette Of Respecting And Caring For The Elderly In The Spring And Autumn And Warring States Period

Starting from the appearance of human being, respecting and caring for the old-age has always been an important issue in people’s social life. As social animals, human beings live in all kinds of social relations all the time. The family relationships of parents and children are that parents raised their children. The elderly create a colorful world and rear children with hard work. They teach children the ability to survive, and enhance their ability to adapt. The elderly leave valuable material wealth and spiritual wealth on the world. So respect for the elderly is a human nature. The etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly has its inevitability in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period. The author introduces the background of the formation of respecting and caring for the elderly in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period. The author mainly analyzes the important reasons why the etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly come into being in this period from four aspects: the social level of productivity, the social form of “state in the family”, the social values--- the Confucian concept of loyalty and filial piety and the respect for the value created by the elderly.The paper mainly discusses the scope and the etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period. The first, the author defines the "old age" in this period using relevant literature, and does a comparative analysis to the two similar concepts of respecting and caring for the elderly and traditional filial piety. The second, the author discusses the respect and preferential treatment for the elderly in this period from the three aspects: the family, society and politics. The author discusses the main etiquette forms of respecting old-age of this period from five aspects: the control of the etiquette, the country drinking ceremony, the ceremony of raising the venerable elders, the courtesy of regard and offering food to the venerable elders, the rites of funeral services. Considering the ancient concept of regarding death as life, the author puts the funeral rites into the category of respecting and caring for the elderly.The etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period has an important influence on the society at that time and later ages. The paper mainly discusses the influence and reconsiders the etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period. With the analysis of the ceremony in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, this paper illustrates the importance and necessity of respecting for the elderly. Besides, the author also makes a deep reflection on today’s pension problem. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, the etiquette of respecting for the old-age does have its limitations: the etiquette producers are tedious and rigid, the status of parents and children is not equal, many preferential policies pay much attention to political flaunt and less attention to feasibility, and so on. However, it is because there are so many tedious regulations, people are constrained and the etiquette is well implemented. The filial piety, which is advocated by the etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly, is the respect of the children to their parents, of the society to the elderly. They all respect for the value created by the elderly. Reflecting on the contemporary endowment problem, the regulations of the law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly are not so tedious, parents and children are equal, but there are still many problems. The etiquette of respecting and caring for the elderly advocate filial piety, which is the social respect for the elderly of their life and value. How to let the children aware of the importance of respecting and caring their parents? How to improve the national morality? How to let the children support their old parents actively? It’s still our direction we need to strive for. Facing the social aging phenomenon, to let the elderly get better care, to establish and perfect the social old-age service system that the community, society and government all participate in which is based on the family, and to improve the relevant social security system is still a difficult task.