Kuang Zhang and Conventional Filial Piety

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English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

Gongduzi asked, “Everyone in the state calls Kuang Zhang unfilial. Yet you associate with him and treat him with courtesy. May I ask why?”

Original Chinese text

English translation

Mencius replied, “Popular opinion names five forms of being unfilial: neglecting one’s limbs through idleness and failing to support one’s parents is the first; gambling and drinking while neglecting their support is the second; loving wealth and indulging one’s wife and children while neglecting them is the third; giving free rein to the desires of the eyes and ears and thereby disgracing one’s parents is the fourth; and delighting in violence and fighting so as to endanger one’s parents is the fifth.”

Original Chinese text

English translation

“Does Zhang have any one of these faults? Zhang and his father each demanded goodness of the other, but they could not come to agreement. Urging one another toward goodness is appropriate among friends; when father and son do it to each other, it gravely damages their affection.”

Original Chinese text

English translation

“Would Zhang not wish to have the bonds of husband and wife, parent and child? Because he had offended his father, he could not be near him. He sent his wife away and kept his son apart; throughout his life, he would not accept their support.”

Original Chinese text

English translation

“He believed that unless he acted this way he could not atone for his offense; that belief itself was his greatest fault. That is the case with Zhang.”

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