Filial Piety in Asian Mythology - Research Paper Example

Filial Piety in Asian Mythology The Chinese culture holds a great deal of importance to several values including that of filial piety. They follow the Confucian philosophy, which in Chinese terms is Xiao. It is regarding the respect and loyalty that a child should have for his ancestors and especially his parents. The culture encourages the families to live together and, in turn, form communities which it cites to be the reason behind a nation’s success. They approve of a joint family rather than a nucleus one which is what is preferred by the Western society. They believe that living together would result in better, peaceful and thriving conditions. Not having an elder to guide the child leads to the problems that are so common in the current times such as broken families, divorced parents and violent crime. It is the parents who keep the child grounded and make sure he is following the right path. There are several Chinese myths that illustrate the lives of those who lead a good life as taught by their parents and in doing so; they commit great deeds that bring honor to their family’s name, and not following the traditions would result in problems. It is these examples that inspire the current generation to try and follow in the same footsteps. It follows that the children should take good care of their parents and their behavior towards their parents should be nice as well. Their relationship should be “of caring love and sincere concern” (Yuan and Wang 99). Even their conduct when facing the outside the world should be good because whatever the deed that the child commits outside his home falls back straight on his parents. If he performs a good job – maybe he helps someone out who is trouble – then he will make his parents proud, and vice versa. The child should use his time in a constructive manner so that he can earn enough money to fulfill his “obligation of supporting (his) parents”, and also be able to perform sacrifices for his ancestors (Yuan and Wang 99). The child should honor the parents’ wishes, not go against their wants, and make sure that he gets married and have male heirs so that the family name can be carried on. If the parents seem to be straying from the right path, it is the child’s responsibility to try to dissuade them from doing the wrong thing. When the parents fall sick or pass away, the child should show his sorrow over the event. Once they die, the child should be able to carry out certain sacrifices for them. The legend of “Nie Xiaoqian” is one of the stories from the book Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio that is written by Pu Songling. It was originally published in the year 1740 and was followed by the English translation in 1880. It is a collection of almost 500 small supernatural stories. Nie Xiaoqian is the name of the female ghost who is very good looking. She died at the young age of 18 years and was buried in an old temple. The demon who resides at the place forces Nie to do her part in murdering the victims as rituals for the demon. This carries on for a long time until a scholar called Ning Caichen unconsciously by way of his “easy generosity and self-possession” comes to her rescue repeatedly (Songling 91). Nie has to then prove her loyalty to the Caichen family and by doing so she and Ning, together, have a happy ending. There is another story called “The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell” from the book Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations. It contains a collection of 61 stories, all carefully edited by Yau-Woon Ma and Joseph S. M. Lau. This particular piece is translated by Eugene Eoyang. It is about one of Buddha’s disciple who was brought in the world by the name Lo-pu but later was called Mu-lein. It is about his journey as a monk and the search for his parents. On discovering that his mother was the resident of Hell, he faces many challenges to try to bring his mother to a better place and eventually succeeds. One day, Ning – who is the hero of this story – sets out to explore the temple in Jinhua where he decides to stay for a while after asking the scholar Yan’s permission. It is over here where the ghost of Nie lives and comes to try and bewitch Ning into losing his morals. However, Ning stays true to what his parents had taught him as a child and does not budge. He is a married man and refuses to be with the girl despite her obvious beauty for the sake of his character as well as hers. He says that he is “afraid of gossip” and that “one false step” would lead to “the end of (their) reputation” (Songling 92). He even rejects the gold offered by the girl stating that “ill-gotten gains (would) stain (his) bag” (Songling 93). No matter how many tricks Nie uses to lure him into forgetting about his principles, he remains steadfast and true. Despite there being no parental or even his wife’s supervision over him, he remains a loyal man knowing that one misstep over here would not only affect him but also his mother and wife. He loves and cares too much about his mother to do something that would be against her wishes. Similarly, Lo-pu is on the right track as well. He “was deeply committed to the Three Treasures and revered the Greater Vehicle [Mahayana]” and wanted to go on a journey to discover himself and all that the world had to offer (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 443). Because he was a nice man, he asked his mother to take all the goods that he possessed and divide and distribute them amongst the “wandering Buddhist monks as well as any other mendicants who came by” (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 444). He only wanted to focus on the spiritual and not the materialistic world. Again, this was a child who was doing all the good in the world to make his parents proud. In “Nie Xiaoqian”, Ning has to pass through some tests. In this story, the person who he has to save is the ghost of Nie. It is because of his persistence to have nothing to do with Nie that he does not lose his life unlike the other men who give up once the temptation is presented in front of them and, so, also give up their lives. On realizing that Ning would persevere and that he was “a man of virtue”, Nie tells him the story of her death and why she was behaving in the particular manner (Songling 93). The devil that lived in the temple where she was buried had taken over her spirit and made her commit the heinous crimes. She warns him to take care of himself by staying with Yan who had a sword which kept him safe from the dangers. She also requests him to “collect (her) bones and bury them in some quiet spot” so that she would have “a new lease of life” (Songling 94). The man follows her instructions and on surviving the night, exhumes the girl’s bones and travels back home where he buries the bones. The ghost, now freed, decides to serve Ning and his mother as thanks for all that he had done for her. It is a long and hard job but she succeeds in winning over the heart of the mother. Once Ning’s wife dies, the two get married with the mother’s approval which she gives once she is told that despite “taking a spirit to wife”; he would still have three children (Songling 98). Once again, Ning gets a chance to save his wife from the devil who comes over to seek revenge by means of the pouch which had once held Yan’s sword. The evil destroyed, everything goes to normal and Nie gives birth to a boy. Ning goes on to have two more children. Remaining true to himself, Ning manages to save a ghost from a lifetime of following the orders of the devil. He helps out the girl but does not break the vows he had made to his wife. He makes his mother happy by his actions – by freeing Nie, his mother gets someone who helps her out with the household chores. He also marries the girl with her permission and douses her fear of never having a grandson by presenting her with two of them to carry on the line. Mu-lein, on the other hand, does not have to save a damsel in distress but his mother. Once he had left, she had become “stingy and selfish, and the wealth which had been entrusted to her was secretly hidden away” (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 444). Not only did she not do what she was asked to do, she even lied about it by saying that she had “given alms and built up on (their) blessings” (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 444). Her falsehood leads to her being thrown in the Avichi Hell. Mu-lein’s grief for the loss is such that “he seemed to die, but in time revived” so he could carry on with his quest to bring his mother some peace (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 451). It takes Mu-lein a lot more work to rescue someone than Ning because even though his mother wanted to get out of Hell, she did not want to work for it. Nie had wanted to have a family and to achieve her dream; she had started by trying to gain the complete trust of Ning and his mother. She had worked hard for what she wanted and so she bore fruit for it. Mu-lein’s mother, however, is not the same. She does not repent and so whatever actions her son takes in hopes of saving her turn useless. He gets food and water for her in “his magical begging bowl” but both turn into fire before entering her body “because her greed and avarice knew no bounds” (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 445, 454). The mother, too, continues to manipulate her child to go to great lengths to get her out of Hell but there is no regret for her past sins. It is through the Festival of Avalamba that the mother metamorphoses into a dog. It is as an animal that she learns to be grateful for all that she has, and that realization and the devotion of her child is what results in her transforming back into a human. Even though it is Mu-lein’s mother who is in the wrong, he still blames himself for his lack of devotion for his mother reasoning that that was why his mother had turned to the wrong path. He goes to great lengths to ensure “that his mother’s sins (are) expiated” and that she no longer has to live in Hell (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 455). But he does fulfill his responsibility of nudging her to the right path by asking her “to perform good works” (The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell 455). It is due to her son that the mother earns a place in Heaven. Both the stories are perfect examples of how the deeds of the child can change the destiny of his parents. By remaining true to himself, Ning got himself a faithful companion who made him and his mother happy. Nie took the responsibility of the housework and managed to calm down the mother’s qualms by providing the male heir. However, Mu-lein’s actions had a much more important impact on the life of his mother. He mourned the death of his parents, faced all the challenges and sacrificed so much of his life only so that his mother would not have to stay in Hell even if she deserved it. It was because of her child that she was no longer living a terrible afterlife in Hell. Her actions had led her to the terrible place but it was her son’s actions that had changed her fate and ensured her a slice of Heaven. Bibliography Songling, Pu. "Nie Xiaoqian." Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. 1880. "The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell." Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations. Ed. Y. W. Ma and Joseph S. M. Lau. Trans. Eugene Eoyang. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978. Yuan, Xinrui and Qing Wang. "A Tentative Study on Differences and Integration of Sino-Western." Asian Social Science 7.8 (2011): 97 - 106. Read More