1 Filial piety
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James St. André
Abstract
This chapter investigates the twin concepts of filial in English and xiao in Chinese. After noting their early, independent development, with one tied to ancestor worship and the other closely tied to Christianity, it teases out both commonalities and differences which, on the surface, seem quite similar, as both emphasise their ‘natural’ basis in father-son relations. After an initial period of contact where the two terms are conceptualised as basically synonymous, differences emerge in the English discourse surrounding the translation of the term xiao, leading eventually to two terms, filial duty and filial piety, being the most commonly used binomes, and then finally in the twentieth-century consensus devolving upon the term ‘filial piety’ in English as no longer a native English concept, but rather a translation of the Chinese concept xiao, which by the modern period is conceptualised as significantly different from natural feelings of a child towards parents, and believed to be holding China back from entering modernity. This new understanding of xiao in English then impinges on the concept in China, where it is thoroughly debunked by many leading intellectuals and by the Chinese Communist Party, only to be resuscitated in the post-Mao era in the services of the state, partly through the intervention of overseas Chinese communities. The chapter combines digital humanities approaches to large databases of material along with close reading of passages from key texts in both Chinese and English from early Chinese classical texts through contemporary web pages.
Abstract
This chapter investigates the twin concepts of filial in English and xiao in Chinese. After noting their early, independent development, with one tied to ancestor worship and the other closely tied to Christianity, it teases out both commonalities and differences which, on the surface, seem quite similar, as both emphasise their ‘natural’ basis in father-son relations. After an initial period of contact where the two terms are conceptualised as basically synonymous, differences emerge in the English discourse surrounding the translation of the term xiao, leading eventually to two terms, filial duty and filial piety, being the most commonly used binomes, and then finally in the twentieth-century consensus devolving upon the term ‘filial piety’ in English as no longer a native English concept, but rather a translation of the Chinese concept xiao, which by the modern period is conceptualised as significantly different from natural feelings of a child towards parents, and believed to be holding China back from entering modernity. This new understanding of xiao in English then impinges on the concept in China, where it is thoroughly debunked by many leading intellectuals and by the Chinese Communist Party, only to be resuscitated in the post-Mao era in the services of the state, partly through the intervention of overseas Chinese communities. The chapter combines digital humanities approaches to large databases of material along with close reading of passages from key texts in both Chinese and English from early Chinese classical texts through contemporary web pages.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables vi
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Filial piety 27
- 2 Fengshui 74
- 3 Face 130
- 4 Guanxi 178
- Conclusion 204
- Bibliography 214
- Index 245
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables vi
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Filial piety 27
- 2 Fengshui 74
- 3 Face 130
- 4 Guanxi 178
- Conclusion 204
- Bibliography 214
- Index 245
