Xu Fuguan’s View on Confucian Filial Piety

Qinghai Sun(Qilu Culture Research Institute of Shandong Normal University)

Abstract

The Confucian concept of filial piety had deeply influenced the character, morality and spirit of the Chinese people, but in modern China, it had suffered many setbacks and once became synonymous with "autocratic politics", and thus Mencius was also labeled as the spokesman of the "filial piety school". Based on his profound insight into Confucian culture, Mr. Xu Fuguan reinterpreted the filial piety of Confucius and Mencius and clearly pointed out that the concept of filial piety originated from the system of passing on the throne to the son in the early Zhou Dynasty. Confucius universalized, emotionalized and popularized filial piety by "establishing a teaching based on filial piety"; while Mencius took human emotions as the foundation of filial piety and constructed people's inner morality with filial piety. The Confucian concept of filial piety should not only not be labeled as the "filial piety school", but also bred the buds of "democratic politics". Xu Fuguan's profound analysis of filial piety was of great significance for us to promote the culture of filial piety and then re-understood and reposition the status of Confucian filial piety in Chinese culture. 

Keywords

Confucian Filial Piety, Filial Piety School, Xu Fuguan

References

Xu Fuguan, The Formation, Evolution and Problems in the History of Chinese Filial Piety, Xu Fuguan's Collected Works, Vol. 1, Wuhan: Hubei People's Publishing House, 2002.

Wu Yu, Family System as the Basis of Authoritarianism, Wu Yu Records, Huangshan Book House, 2008.

Xu Fuguan, Methods and Attitudes in the Study of Chinese Intellectual History, Xu Fuguan Collected Works, Vol. 2, Wuhan: Hubei People's Publishing House, 2002.

Huang Jianguo, "On the Confucian School of Filial Piety", Philosophical Research, 2003 (3).

Yang Bojun, Mencius, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2014.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12345/jetm.v9i3.30920