The The Study of the Concept of Filial Piety in Confucianism through the Four Books

Abstract

Chinese culture attaches great importance to filial piety, considering filial piety as the foundation of all goodness. Confucianism is the core of Chinese culture, values filial piety and presents the moral through many prominent scriptures. Especially in the collection of the Four Books or Chaturapakorn Scriptures, which is a collection of the essence of Confucianism, distinctly shows its significance to Chinese culture, all in philosophy, literature, and education in China up to the present day. This research aims to study the concept of filial piety in Confucianism that appeared in the collection of the Four Books. The research methodology is to collect and review the data from the collection of the scriptures, proceed with data sequencing and organize the data according to the research conceptual framework. After that, select information and thinking systems, which inserted in the content of the four scriptures to analyze, explain and connect all the ideas. The study discovered that the concept of filial piety in the Four Books has a consistent connection, indicating that Confucianism thinks of filial piety (孝) as a virtue that children should have for their parents, considered as a compensation for their love (愛), and when people are grateful to their parents as the basis, they will eventually expand the filial piety to loyalty (忠), respect (敬), and compassion (悌) towards others in society. It can be said the filial piety is the first step of all virtues. Filial piety is the fundamental of all morals and the way of virtue.