Filial piety

Filial piety

Filial piety is a set virtual found in the Confucian principles. Filial piety is a set of ethics that stress on showing respect for the elderly, parents, and ancestors. Filial piety principles are about how we can make a good society through being kind to the elders. In the filial piety principles, Confucian enjoins the young ones in the community to care for their parents and also to engage in ethical conduct not just to one’s parent but also outside the home to bring the right name both to parents and the ancestors. The values encouraged in the filial piety for the young ones include; to be well mannered and polite, to show support, love, and respect for the elderly, serve one’s parent and upholding of fraternity among brothers and to display courtesy and to dissuade one’s parent from moral unrighteousness. Further, the ethical principles of Confucianism encourage the young ones to show sorrow at the death of the elderly, bury them, and also carry out sacrifices after their death. Filial children should also continue and promote the public name of their family.

Also, filial piety includes the role of the parents towards the young ones; the parents are supposed to provide for the children and teach them the traditions as well, find a spouse for the son and leave a good inheritance for the children. In the filial piety Confucianism principles, five forms of relationships are emphasized. The relationships include ones of; Father to a son, ruler and a minister, husband and wife elderly and young and a friend to a friend. The filial piety principles had an objective of a society where there would be peace, harmony, and zero tolerance to chaos.

In this essay, I am going to relate filial piety to the movie Hero. Hero is Tarantino production, where the starring actors are Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Chen Dao Ming, and Donnie Yen. The film was released in the year 2002 and was nominated for Golden Globe and Oscar awards. At the start of the movie, we find Nameless visit to the capital city to meet the king of Qin; The king had survived death attempts by assassins in various instances; the killers were Fly snow, Broken Sword, and the Long sky. Now Nameless has approached the king to tell him of how at the time, he had already had the three assassins, and he showed the king their swords. In this scenario where nameless is approaching the king, we see him showing the filial of presentational respect to the king by being polite and applying the right decorum while presenting his claims for the king.

Because of the various attempts on the life of the king before, we find that the king had put in place a security measure, where he allowed no visitor to approach him within one hundred paces. With the security measure in effect, everyone who approached the king had shown the filial piety of spatial respect; by having to observe some space distance with the king.

Also, by claiming to kill the assassins who had made an attempt on the life of the king, Nameless was showing the filial piety of care and respect towards the king, he was showing the showing the getting to ensure the security of the king; though it may have been a dishonest gesture. Further, we find a great relationship trust between nameless and the three assassins, we see the relationship in that one of them volunteered their lives so that nameless could have proximity with the king. The three friends showed a filial of gift respect Nameless. This was the gift of favor and an an opportunity for Nameless. Also, we see the filial of love in the relations between Snow and Sword, when Snow decided to attack Sword for dissuading Nameless to stop the mission of killing the king. Sword chose not to protect himself so he could show the great love he had for Snow, as a result, Sword ended up being killed.

Additionally, in the relationship between the king and Nameless, we see the expression of the Filial of piety in the fact that after his death, Nameless was shown public respect. For abandoning his mission to kill the king, Nameless was shown public admiration by all in the country. Also, Nameless was shown celebrative respect for choosing to sacrifice his mission for the more significant good of the country; Nameless decided not to kill the king for him the king for the king’s dream to unify China

In conclusion, in the movie Hero, we find a couple of scenes that are in line with Confucianism values of Filial piety. Firstly we see the filial piety of spatial respect in the relationship between the king and his visitors. The scene occurs when the visitor’s king is required not to be less than a hundred paces from the king; also the filial piety value of love happens in the relationship between the Sword and Snow. Lastly, we find the Filial piety of public respect in the burial of Nameless.