Reciprocal Filial Piety
The first superfactor underlying the dual framework of filial piety is reciprocity. According to empirical analyses (Yang, Yeh, & Huang, 1989; Yeh, 1997), reciprocal filial piety consists of two subfactors: Respecting and Loving Parents, and Supporting and Memorializing Parents. The first subfactor implies respecting and attending to one’s parents out of gratitude for their effort in raising and caring for you. Respecting and Loving Parents is shown emotionally and spiritually. The second subfactor indicates supporting and caring for ones parents when they are aged in order to repay their effort in raising and caring for you, and memorializing them when they are dead for the same reason. In this factor, Support and Memorializing of parents is shown physically and financially.
Because this aspect of filial piety indicates that people should comply with filial piety partly for reasons of reciprocity and partly out of natural intimate affection, I propose that the dimension of reciprocal filial piety mirrors filial piety during the pre-Chin era. It is based on two important Confucian values: the principle of reciprocity and the principle of favoring the intimate.
Numerous studies have indicated the importance of the principle of reciprocity in the construction of filial piety (Sung, 1990, pp. 610-611; 1995, pp. 240-241). In Confucianism, the principle of reciprocity as applied to filial piety implies that the first and most important gift that children receive from their parents is life itself. The origin of a person’s life is that person’s ancestors. According to Chinese thought, children should repay their parents and ancestors with reverence and by honoring their memory. Children owe their parents all the nurturance, comfort, and aid that they are capable of providing. Throughout the lives of the parents and until their deaths, children should offer their parents complete deference and support.
The second Confucian principle that reciprocal filial piety is based on is the principle of favoring the intimate. This principle means that people usually feel more intimate toward those who are closest in their interaction networks. It can be viewed as the motivation behind supporting, accompanying, comforting, and caring for parents, which is most likely based on affective involvement and recognizing parental needs. Research has shown that family cohesion is an important antecedent to filial attitude (Cheung, Lee, & Chan, 1994), and that individuals from a disrupted family are less likely to feel filial obligation and to help their parents (Cicirelli, 1983b). Family cohesion promotes filial attitudes because it fosters the development of children’s empathy toward their parents. It is based on the notion that children's filial piety is in response to their parents needs. This empathic response is only fostered in a cohesive family environment (Hoffman, 1984). In other words, perceived intimacy promotes helping (Dunkel-Schetter & Bennett, 1990).
In the tradition of Confucianism, the cardinal rule between parents and children is that parents must love their children out of benevolence, and that children must respect and support their parents out of filiality. The basic feelings of filial piety are love for humanity rooted in the goodness of human nature. These feelings should be encouraged in family life. Family orientation or familism is understood to be an ideology closely connected to filial piety (Choi, 1970; Kim, Cho, Choi, & Yu, 1986). From an early age every person learns to think of family first, and the maintenance of family solidarity, harmony, and prosperity reinforces the familial orientation of filial piety.
Authoritarian Filial Piety
The second superfactor of the dual framework of filial piety is authoritarianism. According to empirical analyses (Yang, Yeh, & Huang, 1989; Yeh, 1997), authoritarian filial piety may also be broken down into two subfactors: Oppress Oneself and Glorify One’s Parents.
Oppressing Oneself implies sacrificing one's own wishes and complying with and deferring to one's parents' wishes because of their seniority. Glorifying One's Parents implies continuing the succession of the family lineage and maintaining the parents' reputation because of the force of role requirements. Since authoritarian filial piety is characterized by submission to hierarchical authority and the oppression of self-autonomy, this superfactor is likely to mirror filial piety from the Han to the Ch'ing periods and is based on the Confucian principle of respecting the superior.
The principle of respecting the superior means that people should always defer to their superiors in their relational network, no matter how these superiors treat them. According to the Oppressing Oneself subfactor, there are at least three types of sacrifices in filial behavior: physical, financial, and social (Sung, 1990). In the Confucian configuration of ethical arrangements within a family juniors should submit themselves to seniors to ensure family solidarity and harmony. Thus, the concept that children should repress their own needs in order to fulfill parental desires is a distinguishable characteristic of authoritarian filial piety.
According to normative socialization theory, people are socialized to act according to social norms (Simmons', 1991). Performing filial duties toward parents is obligatory for Chinese individuals to maintain psychological homeostasis (K. K. Hwang, 1999). Ho (1987, 1994, 1996) argues that authoritarian moralism, which is molded by the moral imperative of filial piety, is a central characteristic of the Chinese pattern of socialization. Authoritarian moralism embodies a significant feature of Chinese society: the hierarchical structure of authority ranking in the family. It is also believed that filial piety justifies absolute parental authority over children, and, by extension, the authority of anyone senior in generational rank to those who are junior in generational rank (Ho, 1994). The superiority of the father's role is especially emphasized (Hamilton, 1990), and may be the reason obedience to parents is more strongly supported by Chinese than by Europeans (Ng, Loong, Liu, & Weatherall, 2000).
The ultimate goal of filial piety has much to do with continuing the life and culture of the family. The authoritarian approach of filial piety was established by social and family organizations in the form of laws, public opinions, family rules, and education to make sure interaction between family members is smooth and harmonious. With a structure of unbalanced power and resources between parents and children as a foundation for family relations, the norm that people should respect and treat their parents kindly is accepted and internalized by the Chinese. This norm can be viewed as a strategy of social control, yet it is also what D. H. Chen (1915) and Wu (1917) opposed most because submissive relationships damage individuality and independence.
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