The Classic of Filial Piety.
Eighteen short chapters framed as Confucius instructing Zengzi, scaling filial duty from the commoner up to the emperor and claiming it as the root from which all virtue and all teaching grow. It was among the first texts put in front of a child, and it is the source of the line about not daring to injure the body your parents gave you.
The Xiaojing, Classic of Filial Piety, is a short Han text of eighteen chapters framed as a conversation in which Confucius instructs Zengzi. Its argument is that filial piety is the root of all virtue and the source from which teaching grows, and it scales the duty across the social order, specifying what filial piety consists of for the Son of Heaven, the feudal lords, the ministers, the officers and the common people — each with a different content, the emperor's being to govern well and the commoner's to work the land and support his parents. It is the source of the frequently quoted opening claim that the body, hair and skin are received from one's parents and one does not dare to injure them, which is the beginning of filial piety. Because it is short and elementary it was among the very first texts given to children, alongside the primers, and it was one of the most widely copied and illustrated books in East Asia, with imperially commissioned calligraphic and painted versions surviving from the Song onward.
The body, the hair and the skin are received from one's father and mother, and one does not dare to injure them. This is the beginning of filial piety.
Classic of Filial Piety, chapter 1 (rendered)One of the first sentences a child was given, and the reason Chinese men historically did not cut their hair.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideasSign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.