Scholars have often treated the concept of xiao as an unchanging notion with a transparent meaning. In the West, the translation “filial piety” has reinforced this tendency. By endeavoring to ascertain the precise meaning of the term in pre-Qin texts, this paper shows that xiao had multiple meanings and was constantly being reinterpreted to suit new social and political circumstances. In the Western Zhou, it was inti¬mately related to the cult of the dead and its recipients extended well beyond one's parents or grandparents. The ru of the Warring States emphasized that it meant obedience and displaying respect, and made parents the sole recipients of xiao. By the late Warring States, ru recast xiao not only as obedience to one's parents, but also as obedience to one's lord. Filial sons were reinvented as loyal retainers to meet the needs of the newly emerging bureaucratic state.

No abstract

More than 200 heavily decorated jars with five mouths, which are commonly known as hunping and date from the second to the early fourth centuries, have been excavated from tombs in Jiangnan. Remarkably, each of these vessels is unique in appearance. One of their most notable features is that they are adorned with figures of many animals. Of these, the most numerous are birds. This paper endeavours to discover why artisans put so many birds on these vessels. Although many analysts believe the birds are the souls of the departed flying to the heavens, that does not explain why there are so many. This paper contends that the answer lies in local Jiangnan legends and beliefs, in which sparrows stole rice from Heaven and introduced its cultivation to humans. Birds thereby were seen as grain and fertility gods and thus emblems of good fortune for both the dead and the living.

In 626, immediately after Prince Li Shimin (Emperor Taizong of the Tang, r. 627-649) ambushed and killed his two brothers [one of whom was the crown prince] at the Xuanwu Gate, claiming that they were leading a revolt, his father the emperor summoned him. "He [Emperor Gaozu, r. 617-626] soothed him saying, 'In recent days we nearly experienced a misunderstanding akin to the throwing away of the shuttle.' 1 Shimin kneeled and puckered his lips to suck on his father's teat; he cried and grieved for a long time." 2 Through this act, Shimin expressed his grief that he and his father had lost the closeness they shared early in his life. A Chinese historian, Yan Aimin, has attempted to explain this passage by positing the existence within pre-Tang China of a phenomenon known as ruweng "nursing father" that emphasizes a father's nurturing aspect. He supports this conjecture by noting the existence of a custom later seen among southern aborigines known as chanweng "birthing father," in which a man takes the place of his postpartum wife in feeding the baby and lying with it. And the fact that in early China sagely kings were often said to have large breasts, or more than two. These physiological abnormalities were taken as signs of benevolence. 1. This is an allusion to the story of Zengzi's mother being told her son was a murderer. A man from another county who had the same name as Zengzi committed murder. While working at her loom, Zengzi's mother was informed twice that her son was a murderer. Knowing that her son could never do such a thing, she merely continued working unperturbed at her loom. However, when she was told a third time, her faith in her son began to waver; as a result, she threw her shuttle down and ran away. 2.

Teachers are often tempted to present early Confucianism as an abstract ethical philosophy whose wisdom stands outside of time and space.