Filial piety

Filial piety
Scene from the Song Dynasty Illustrations of the Classic of Filial Piety (detail), depicting a son kneeling before his parents.
Chinese name
Chinese	孝
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin xiào Wade–Giles hsiao4 Hakka Romanization haau4 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization haau3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ hàu
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	hiếu
Korean name
Hangul	효
Hanja	孝
Transcriptions Revised Romanization hyo McCune–Reischauer hyo
Japanese name
Kanji	孝
Kana	こう
Transcriptions Romanization Kō

In Confucian philosophy, filial piety (Chinese: 孝, xiào) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian classic Xiao Jing or Classic of Xiào, thought to be written around the Qin-Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of xiào / "filial piety". The book, a conversation between Confucius and his student Zeng Shen (曾參, also known as Zengzi 曾子), is about how to set up a good society using the principle of xiào (filial piety). The term can also be applied to general obedience, and is used in religious titles in Christian Churches, like "filial priest" or "filial vicar" for a cleric whose church is subordinate to a larger parish. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics.

In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to perform the duties of one's job well so as to obtain the material means to support parents as well as carry out sacrifices to the ancestors; not be rebellious; show love, respect and support; display courtesy; ensure male heirs, uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; display sorrow for their sickness and death; and carry out sacrifices after their death.

Filial piety is considered a key virtue in Chinese culture, and it is the main concern of a large number of stories. One of the most famous collections of such stories is The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars (Ershi-si xiao ). These stories depict how children exercised their filial piety in the past. While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, filial piety has been common to almost all of them; historian Hugh D.R. Baker calls respect for the family the only element common to almost all Chinese believers.

Filial piety is illustrated by the Chinese character xiao (孝). The character is a combination of the character lao (old) above the character zi (son), that is, an elder being carried by a son. In Korean Confucianism, the character is pronounced hyo (효). In Vietnamese, the character is written in Quoc Ngu as hiếu. In Japanese, the term is generally used in spoken and written language as 親孝行, "oyakoukou," adding characters for "parent" and "conduct" to make the word more specific.