Analysis Of The Twenty-Four Paragons Of Filial Piety

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Recommended: Traditional Chinese culture

There have been texts written about acts of filial piety. Some are from long ago and some are very recent. One of the older texts is by Guo Jujing, a scholar from the Yuan Dynasty, which was a dynasty from 1272 – 1368 AD. His book, The Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety, contains multiple stories and situations in which filial piety was present. In the very first story, there is a son named Shun, who lives in a family that does not get along with each other, but he still treats them with the greatest respect. The emperor, Emperor Yao, is told about all of Shun’s acts of filial piety and has nine of his own sons go help Shun with the work he has to do everyday. When the emperor had retired from ruling all of China, he gave the title of emperor to Shun because of his devotion to his family. Shun’s respect towards his disconnected family allowed him to become a great ruler, who influenced much of China. Guo wrote this story because Shun is a perfect example of the “benefits of a proper attitude of filial respect” (Guo). Even from hundreds of years ago, filial piety has played one of the most important roles in Chinese society. Since tradition has always been a very important concept, it is understandable why people still consider filial piety as something necessary to be withheld in modern day China.
Traditions can change, but since China has always been so rigidly structured, no one has been able to freely change anything. Common beliefs about disabled children have been passed down for decades and it is hard to change that image of someone who is not identical. Normal people provide and add to the challenges that disabled children face, such as discrimination, stereotypes, and common beliefs. The traditional belief is that all d...

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...t. Filial piety is also one subset of traditional Chinese life that will most likely remain a rule. It is a concept that shows respect, maybe even gratefulness, towards parents and elders who have been a part of a person’s entire life. As much as it shows that autistic children may not be as able to meet all the goals for filial piety, it should not discourage them from trying. It is the idea that every aspect of filial piety needs to be accomplished so that the parents will not feel as if their child has failed them and him or herself. It is this vision causes autistic children to live the hard lives they have. The rigidity and conformity within Chinese society and governmental structure is and still will be very difficult to change; even the greatest efforts will most likely not have a significant effect on the treatment of autistic children and their families.

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