Filiality (xiao) has been a significant concept in Chinese culture.
Its significance is shown by the fact that its idea was elevated to a
system of philosophy by Confucians in the Zhanguo period (475-221
B.C.E.). The purpose of this study is to clarify why filiality was
important and what the philosophy of filiality essentially meant.
Filiality was not merely a familial ethic. In the Western Zhou
period (the 11th c. to 770 B.C.E.), it meant sacrifices to ancestors.
Filiality toward fatherhood was essentially obedience to headship of
lineage groups, and it was expressed in ancestor worship. When lineage
gradually collapsed in the Chunqiu period (770-475 B.C.E.), its
significance must have been restricted. In fact, however, filiality was
given a new meaning by Zhanguo Confucians. First, Confucius emphasized
the mental aspect of filiality, and then Mencius thought of filiality as
the basis from which general ethics were generated. The various ideas of
filiality were collected in a book: the Book of Filiality. This book,
presenting the dichotomy between love and reverence, argued that a
father-son relationship had an element shared by a monarch-retainer
relationship and that filiality should be shifted into loyalty.
The essential achievement of this philosophy was the recognition of
the dualistic nature of human beings; any human relationship was a
social relation between two social roles as well as an emotional
connection between two characters. The former was the basis for culture
and society. It was the aspect of culture inherent in human nature that
should be developed to bring about social justice. This dualism was
derived from the ambiguity of fatherhood in ancestor worship. As
ancestor symbolized the social role of lineage headship, the philosophy
of filiality symbolically connected fatherhood to the social role of
authority in general. Filiality was identified with devotion to the
absolute basis for humans and society that was symbolized by fatherhood.
This thesis, analyzing ancient Chinese philosophy of filiality,
presents a hypothesis concerning the essential structure of ancestor
worship, which can be summarized as the symbolism representing higher
levels of authority on the basis of parental authority.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6924 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Ikezawa, Masaru |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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