Classic of Filial Piety

Classic of Filial Piety

Niu Shuyu's frontispiece of The Classic of Filial Piety (1826)
Author	(trad.) Confucius
Published	c. 4th century BC

Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing)
"Xiaojing" in seal script (top), Traditional (middle), and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	孝經
Simplified Chinese	孝经
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiào jīng Wade–Giles Hsiao^4 ching^1 IPA [ɕi̯âu̯ tɕíŋ] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Haau3 ging1 Yale Romanization Haau gīng Southern Min Tâi-lô Hàu king Old Chinese Baxter-Sagart *qʰˤruʔs klˤeŋ

The Classic of Filial Piety (孝經; Old Chinese: *qʰˤruʔs klˤeŋ; pinyin: Xiào jīng)^[1] is a Confucian classic treatise giving advice on filial piety; that is, how to behave towards a senior (such as a father, an elder brother, or ruler).

Authorship

This document probably dates to the 4th century BC. It is not known who actually wrote the document. It is attributed to a conversation between Confucius and his disciple Zengzi. A 12th-century author named He Yin claimed: "The Classic of Filial Piety was not made by Zengzi himself. When he retired from his conversation (or conversations) with Kung-ne on the subject of Filial Piety, he repeated to the disciples of his own school what (the master) had said, and they classified the sayings, and formed the treatise."

Selected translations

Many Japanese translations of the Xiaojing exist. The following are the primary Western language translations.

• Legge, James (1879). The Hsiâo king, in Sacred Books of the East, vol. III. Oxford University Press.
• (French) de Rosny, Leon (1889). Le Hiao-king. Paris: Maisonneuve et Ch. Leclerc. Republished (1893) as Le morale de Confucius: le livre sacré de la piété filiale. Paris: J. Maisonneuve.
• Chen, Ivan (1908). The Book of Filial Piety. London: J. Murray; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.
• (German) Wilhelm, Richard (1940). Hiau Ging: das Buch der Ehrfurcht. Peking: Verlag der Pekinger Pappelinsel.
• Makra, Mary Lelia (1961). The Hsiao ching, Sih, Paul K. T., ed. New York: St. John's University Press.
• Ames, Roger T.; Rosemont, Henry, Jr. (2009). The Chinese Classic of Family Reverence: A Philosophical Translation of the Xiaojing. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

See also

• Family as a model for the state
• Role ethics
• Ma Rong (79-166) and the Classic of Loyalty.

References

Footnotes

1. Wiktionary: Appendix:Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction

Works cited

• Barnhart, Richard (1993). Li Kung-lin's Classic of Filial Piety. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870996797.
• Boltz, William (1993). "Hsiao ching 孝經". In Loewe, Michael. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley. pp. 141–52. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
• Chen, Ivan (1908). The Book of Filial Duty. London: John Murray.
• Rosemont, Jr., Henry; Roger T. Ames (2009). The Chinese Classic of Family Reverence: a Philosophical Translation of the Xiaojing. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. ISBN 978-0824833480.

External links

• http://www.chinapage.com/confucius/xiaojing-be.html
• Xiao Jing (Full text in Chinese with English translation)
• Xiao Jing (Full text in Chinese with Explanatory Commentary)