A Metacommentary on the Current Debate on the Problematique of Filial Piety

摘要

Why filial piety NOW? Indeed, why now rather than earlier or later? Why has there beenna sudden outburst of scholarly energy and zeal for it? All I can say is that there must bengood reason. Here I will not venture to speculate. Let us leave conjectural answers to thendeep psychology and sociology of philosophy, that is, the snowballing dynamics ofnmotivational factors in the specific social context.nI am delighted and honored to have been invited to join the continuing and animatingnconversation of Confucianism and the problematique of filial piety in the way I understandnthem. I would not pretend to add anything significant to the well-groomed and detailednarguments of LIU Qinping and GUO Qiyong (see Liu 2007 and Guo 2007). It may soundnodd and even contradictory to say that both Liu and Guo are equally convincing with theirnprofuse textual citations to back up their claims (albeit lacking at time specificities). Everynstory or issue has at least two sides—yin and yang sides, as it were, which arencomplementary. How many references of corruption (favoritism and nepotism) do we findnin the entire corpus of Confucius’ and Mencius’ writings? The rejuvenation of Confuciannand post-Confucian ethics is not stillborn in their debate. Yet it must be said that the debatenbetween Liu and Guo has the undercurrent of a post-Maoist re-appreciation and re-nappropriation of Confucianism.