Analects 2:7

What did you do for Ancient Chinese Philosophy today?

Today, I pondered upon Analect 2:7 which is part of the next discussion.

What idea did you encounter that turned out meaningful?

Tzu-yu asked about filial piety.  Confucius said, “Filial piety nowadays means to be able to support one’s parents.  But we support even dogs and horses.  If there is no feeling of reverence, wherein lies the difference?”

In the given text, Confucius' main point is that the filial piety means supporting the parents. This support is a means of serving them. The devoutedness of the son in serving his parents is not like how he serves his pets which is done because he needs them but he serves his parents because they are the ones who raised him and by supporting them, it means that he respects them as his parents. The support that the son is to give to his parents must be because he wants to serve them and not because he needs something. The service that he will be giving is a form of thanking them and a form of recognition to the deeds they have done.

One of the ideas that Confucius was teaching is that man must live in accordance to the moral principles. One of these is that one must serve his parents. Confucius believes that following and living the moral principles is a way in which one will become a perfect person rightful in rendering service to the society.

This is one of the simple analogy in which Confucius used to try to explain how ones devoutedness to the society must be. That a person wanted to serve the society because he wanted to and not because he was asked and forced to do. The service must also be out of respect because he saw and knew that the society was superior to him. Filial piety then means to support or serve the ones superior to a person.