On Confucian Filial Piety and Its Modernization: Duties, Rights, and Moral Conduct

After the Qin dynasty, Confucian ethics slowly became rooted in the lives of the general populace. Not only did Confucian ethics become the standard for family, social, and national ethics for the average Chinese, it even influenced the Chinese outlook on life and world view. Zhang Zai's Xi ming and Zhu Zi's Ren shuo are the most explicit explanations of the Confucian outlook on life and world view.1 Modern scholars have found that Confucian ethics interrelate and influence many special characteristics of traditional Chinese society. Since ancient times China has been a family clan society. After the Qin and Han dynasties China was governed under political systems and established on an economy of agriculture. The social, political, and economic systems and the environment were all tightly woven together with Confucian ethics. From either of the three systems or from all of them, one could clearly see the locus of the development of Confucian ethics and the effects of its interrelations. On the other hand, I could also use Confucian ethics to explain the phenomenon of the formation of traditional or modern Chinese society, politics, and economics. What is worth paying attention to is that Confucian ethics has formed a "holistic system"2 with a political philosophy, an ideology of the nature of the mind, a world view, and ontology. The effect that this has had on every aspect of Chinese society is also holistic. If all aspects of Chinese society are holistic, then naturally I could also explain Confucian ideology with a view of holism.