East Flies The Peacock : Conflict Between Happiness And Social Norms

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Southeast Flies the Peacock: Conflict between Happiness and Social Norms
In traditional Chinese society Confucian beliefs were viewed as social "norms" that governed the social acceptability of a person 's conduct. A key component of Confucianism is the "Doctrine of the Mean", which is a set of principles that a person must abide by in order to be considered virtuous. The first principle states that a young woman should not express her love and should be quiet both physically and mentally. The second principle states that a person should not be excessive in expressing their emotions, and that one should be especially mindful of expressing too much happiness or sadness. The "Doctrine of the Mean" starkly contrasts the new "Doctrine of the Heart" which states that a person must be free to express themselves, as it is their emotions and feelings that make a person unique. In Yuan Changying 's Southeast Flies the Peacock the conflict created within a family is illustrated when the traditional "Doctrine of the Mean" is not upheld due to a younger generations desire for freedom to express their emotions.
The first instance of conflict occurs when Mother Jiao finds a sash embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks that Zhong 's fiancée Lan hid in the robes. Mother Jiao is quite critical of the embroidery stating: "Her embroidery isn 't bad, but her theme isn 't very tasteful." (Yuan 222) Mother Jiao does not care for Lan 's embroidery because mandarin ducks are love birds that are paired for life, by her future daughter-in-law embroidering the ducks she is indirectly expressing her love thus breaking the first principle of the "Doctrine of the Mean". The embroidery theme causes Mother Jiao to suspect her future daughter-in-law ...

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...re always based on your own personal views of that particular situation. If a mother believes that her children, particularly her daughter-in-law are not acting properly towards her and respecting her as she and society expects them to, then that will cause a mother to feel like she has been wronged and betrayed by them.
Throughout Southeast Flies the Peacocks we have observed how traditional Chinese beliefs revolve around human relationships. Despite Mother Jiao 's good intentions for her son she ends up making him feel isolated and unhappy. While Zhong and Lan would have been viewed as egotistical unfilial children just by wanting to be together simply because they did not focus on familial or societal duties. In the end we see that following your feelings or expressing your emotions would most likely leave you unable to fulfill your duties as a filial child.

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