HSIAO

Pinyin Xiao (Chinese: filial piety), Japanese Ko in Confucianism, the attitude of obedience, devotion, and care toward one's parents and elder family members that is the basis of individual moral conduct and social harmony. Hsiao consists in putting the needs of parents and family elders over self, spouse, and children, deferring to parents' judgment, and observing toward them the prescribed behavioral proprieties (li). Hsiao was rooted in China's feudal social structure, in which land was held by large clans whose internal life was structured hierarchically and patriarchally. Confucius raised hsiao to a moral precept by citing it as the basis of jen (humanity), the cultivated love of other people that was the Confucian moral ideal. He also delineated the importance of hsiao for both family harmony and sociopolitical stability and facilitated its practice by reemphasizing the rites and behaviours associated with it. The concept, rendered ko, was adopted in Japan during the 17th century, when Confucianism became the official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate.