Family Morality In The Eyes Of Young Members

Chinese have emphasized the close relationship between family and country since ancient times, "If family is benevolent, so the whole country will be. If family is courtliness, so the whole country will be". Family with good tradition plays significant role in the process of one's moral growth. Compared with the modern nuclear family whose structue is relatively simple, clan has unique features in the aspect of family tradition and it provides rich experiences of moral life to the individual. The moral appearance in a clan's living has a measure of influence over the formation of individual virtues, too.Introduction in this dissertation contains the research origins,meaning,the research status at home and abroad, concept definition, research methods, and object of research. The author describes main features of the moral appearance in the Z's Family as "filial piety", "fraternal duty","human relationship" and "gender", partly based on the moral culture system of Confucianism and Fei Xiaotong's notion of "chaxu gejii". Fei regarded "filial piety", "fraternal duty", "loyally" and"faith" as elements of moral system in rural "chaxu geju". Besides, the author also considers local customs and practices in the X-villasge. life styles in the Z's Family and words about life in the Z's Family. The author calls “filial piety","fraternal duty",“human relationship" and "gender" as"Fou Dimensions" for short in the dissertation. "Human relationship" mainly means "renqing relationship" and "gender" mainly means "view of gender". After arranging and analyzing materials collected by field observation, interviewing record and so on. the author focuses on the following two questions: Firstly, what do the youths in the Z's Family think about "filial piety"."fraternal duty", "human relationship" and "gender" in life. Secondly, what influences the moral appearance may have on the formation of individual virtues.Chapter One mainly introduces the basic situation of the research objects, including descriptions about the X-village, the Z's Family and youths' impressions about the Z's Family.Chapter Two and Chapter Three show what do the youths think about "filial piety" and"fraternal duty", "human relationship" and "gender". Chapter Four, the last one. analyses the main cause of the youths' opinions on the "Four Dimensions" and what influences the moral appearance have on the formation of individual virtues.The author has found that the youths show some similarities and differences to the "Four Dimensions", combining observations on life in the Z's Family with self-experience. Similar point of views comes from the same living Environment in the Z's Family and different educational and social experiences forming differences. Real-life scenarios in the Z's Family, such as "the elders authority","tradition of respecting for the elders",defining "filial piety" according to the "voice"at the funeral,the elders' belief that "not adult,don't talk about 'filial piety"',"brothers' debts","courtesy calls for reciprocity","men meeting ” and so on,influent the youths' conceptions about the "Four Dimensions". "Filial piety": the youths attach importance to both "emotions" and"behaviors". "Fraternal duty": the youths emphasize small family and think that "how to arrange the whole family if you can't solve problems in small family well” and "do beyond self abilities"."Human relationship": the youths agree or disagree about it and tend to be "ruthless". "Gender"difference: the youths show implied consents about "male supremacy" but are concerned with the voice of female. As an investigator and a member of the Z's Family, the author analyzes "filial piety" distortions in turn of supporting the elders and sacrifices of father's generation, which was neglected by the youths. Clan life in village provide various and abundant living scenairios and moral experience to the individual, compared with the modern nuclear family in the city.Nevertheless,problems such as "the elders' authority",rational deficiency in intimate "human relationship" would have the negative influences in cultivating individual virtues.