孝、敬｜fILIAL, rESPECT

孝、敬｜fILIAL, rESPECT

子曾曰：「夫孝，德之本也，教之所由生也。」
誰教乎？是親是老，是師是長。
惜如今，人緩失敬忘尊。
孝無敬，非德也。
Confucius*₁ once said: “fILIAL pIETY is the rOOT of mORALITY, eDUCATION eXISTS because of it.”*₂
Who eDUCATE? They are pARENTS, sENIORS, tEACHERS and eLDERS.
uNFORTUNATELY, nowadays people slowly lOSE and fORGET the rESPECT for those who eDUCATE.
fILIAL pIETY without rESPECT is nOT a vIRTUE.

《論語》的第二書《為政》——第七章：
“The Analects”*₃, Book 2 – Chapter 7 (original written in Classical Chinese):

子游問孝。
子曰：「今之孝者，是謂能養。至於犬馬，皆能有養；不敬，何以別乎？」
Ziyou*₄ asked about fILIAL pIETY.
Confucius said: “What today’s fILIAL people really mEAN is they can fEED (their parents or relatives) only. As for dOGS and hORSES, all can be fed. wITHOUT rESPECT, what is the dIFFERENCE?”

..,

nOTES:

*₁: Confucius (551–479 BC) was an educator, philosopher and official of Lu State in the late Eastern Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1043-256 BC) during Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), he was the founder of Confucianism and developed his Confucian theory of the five virtue elements: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust.

*₂: The original sentence is from the first Chapter – “The defination and explanation of the purpose” of “The Classic of Filial Piety”, it was a purported dialogue between Confusius and Zengzi (also known as Zengshen, 505-435 BC) who was an influential philosopher and a disciple of Confucius during the late Spring and Autumn Period and was one of the main representatives of Confucianism. Besides, it is said that Zengzi was the author of “The Classic of Filial Piety”.

*₃: “The Analects” or “Analects of Confucius” – collected sayings and thoughts of great philosopher Confucius; it is one of the important canonical Confucian literature. Traditionally people believe that “The Analects” was written by disciples or followers of Confucius during the late Warring States period (475-221 BC) and its final revision was completed during the Emperor Cheng period (33-7 BC) in late Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-9).

*₄: Yan Yan (506-443 BC), also known as Ziyou, Yanyou or Yanzi, was the only Southerner of 72 disciples of Confucius and considered by Confucius as one of the ten most distinguished disciples.