Xiaojing
孝經 (Classic of Filial Piety)
Filial piety toward one's parents is not merely a family virtue but the root from which all other virtue and all legitimate political order grow, so a state that wants loyal subjects should above all cultivate and reward filial devotion in the home.
- filial piety as the root of all virtue and order
- graded but structurally identical duty across social rank
- filial devotion as the basis of political loyalty
- used for two millennia as a child's first classical text
A short text, one of the shortest of the Confucian classics, cast as a dialogue in which Confucius instructs his disciple Zengzi on filial piety (xiao) as the foundation of virtue at every level of society, from the common farmer through the feudal lord to the emperor himself, each obligated to a graded but structurally identical duty of reverent care and self-restraint. Almost certainly compiled well after Confucius's death, drawing together earlier Confucian sayings on the family into a single organized statement, it argues that filial devotion translates directly into political loyalty, giving the Han and later imperial states a classical justification for promoting filial piety as an instrument of social order. It was memorized by schoolchildren for two thousand years as a first introduction to the classics.
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