arents are the natural starting point for one’s love and value of meaningful relationships. Among all kinds of human relationships, human primordial tie – the parent-child blood relationship is unchangeable and undeniable. It holds the strongest human affection, emotion, concerns, and mystery of life. To respect the fact of the unchangeable primordial tie is to respect nature. According to Confucianism, to take good care of this tie and continuously nurture it is to water the root of one’s life tree.
The instinctual and spontaneous filial affection and filial attitudes/behaviors belong to the nature of filial piety (or natural filial piety), while the external teachings, ethics, rules, social norms, behavioral prescriptions, religious beliefs and so forth belong to the culture of filial piety (or cultural filial piety). Various ethnic groups and societies share similarities and differences in their exercise of the cultural manifestations of filial piety. Generally speaking, filial piety related cultures in the world are quite religious, while the culture of filial piety in Chinese tradition is non-religious but holistic.
2.3.2 Son Preference
Sons of families were considered as the main figure in traditional Chinese family system. For the mothers, if the husbands were dead, they would listen to what their sons told them. Sons have the second significant status just lower then their fathers. Though such traditions are still significant in China, it was lower than most 英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】other Asian countries (Arnold & Kuo, 1984). Wong and Ng (1985) agree with the ideas of Arnold and Kuo. Further more, Chinese in China showed a more balanced view on gender preference.
2.3.3 Kinship Network
There is a merger of the east and west values on human network nature. Confucianism has revealed an important aspect of human nature: the human network nature that means each individual is a distinct node, or junction of relatedness, within a web-like network of different relationships (Lai, 1995). Because no one can be isolated or separated from human networks, the self is conceived as a center of relationships rather than an isolated individual. Beginning with our common ancestors in the distant past, family relationships expand with each new generation, connecting all human beings in a network that involves all aspects of human life. Confucianism views the unchangeable parent-child blood tie as “cosmic order”, and each node in this order bears the responsibilities of his or her role. From the perspective of human biological nature, extended to an anthropocosmic scope, Confucian humanity as embodied love originates with the bonds of common parentage and extends infinitely in space and time to embrace humanity as a whole (Tu, 1997). Because of this view, Confucianism emphasizes role responsibility and the importance of respecting and following the natural cosmic order. Confucians believe that to deny one’s relationships is to deny one’s own nature. Thus, the kins
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