What stupid filial piety cultures were there in ancient times?

Filial piety is a major part of traditional culture, and its connotation varies greatly due to everyone's social status and identity.

For example, the filial piety of princes and doctors is mainly based on the word "loyalty". In the world, they should be loyal to the emperor and care about the people. And "loyalty" is more, and filial piety to parents seems to be second. Filial piety of scholars requires not only loyalty to the monarch and filial piety to parents, but also honesty and trustworthiness to friends, that is, besides loyalty and filial piety, the word "righteousness" should be emphasized, which is in line with moral compliance, and those that are not in line with morality should be argued and stopped. From the father's orders, how can you be filial! "

Because of these rules and regulations, ancient men adhered to filial piety and were inevitably wronged and needed to sacrifice a certain spirit. Loyalty to the king and obedience to parents are necessary prerequisites. If you violate this premise, someone must stand up and take responsibility and make sacrifices. So who to sacrifice? Of course, I won't sacrifice myself. As a result, the other half of my family became a scapegoat.

It turns out that in ancient times, the wife's position in marriage and family was extremely low. Once the husband has to make unprincipled sacrifices under the pressure of filial piety culture, in order to maintain the loyalty and obedience of filial piety culture, in addition to kneeling in front of parents and saying "the son is unfilial", the wife will inevitably become a victim.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Bao Xuan, the father of Li Si captain Bao Zheng, was killed by Wang Mang. Bao Yong studied Shangshu and adopted his mother. One day, his wife scolded the dog in front of her stepmother. Bao Yong thought his wife was unstable. It is impolite and filial to shout in front of her mother-in-law, so he divorced her.

It's amazing that Bao Yong divorced his wife because the dog was annoying, so it's common to send it out loudly. To put it bluntly, Bao Yong's move is an extreme example of filial piety culture, and he will go down in history by sacrificing his wife's honor for his filial piety, because before long, he married another wife, younger and more beautiful than his original wife.

When Emperor Xuan Di proclaimed himself emperor, there was a doctor named Wang Ji and Ziyang, and his neighbors called him Wang Yang. When he was young, he once rented a house and lived in Chang 'an. There is a big jujube tree in his east, and its branches and leaves are falling to his house. Ji Wang's wife picked some dates for her husband to eat. When Ji Wang discovered that this jujube came from a jujube tree in the east, he divorced his wife in a rage. When the east neighbor heard about this, he couldn't bear it, so he took an axe and came to cut down a big jujube tree. Neighbors came out to persuade, Wang Ji had to recall his wife, and the east neighbor threw away the axe and didn't cut down the jujube tree. Since then, the neighbors have also compiled a song, which reads: "The owner has a tree, and Wang Yang's wife will go; When the dates are finished, go and find a woman to return them. "

Analysis of Ji Wang's behavior, a little make a mountain out of a molehill, picked a few dates. As for divorcing his first wife, it's no big deal that even the neighborhood can't see the past. Ji Wang just thinks that his wife has taken advantage of others, which violates the principle of "righteousness" other than loyalty and filial piety, that is, defiles his own morality (obedience, injustice and unfilial).

In this story, the value of a wife is far less than that of a jujube tree and a few jujubes. Divorcing his wife first is to maintain the so-called filial piety cultural order, and then recalling his wife is Ji Wang's helplessness. He can't interfere with human feelings and conscience outside the order.

Sometimes, in order to maintain filial piety, ancient men did not hesitate to exchange their wives for money, and their wives became commodities. For example, in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Xu Xiaoke "recited the Five Classics and learned a lot of history books" and became Dr. imperial academy. With the ravages of war and famine, this man of official background and profound knowledge came up with an idea: to sell his wife in exchange for food to show filial piety to his mother. Xu Xiaoke's wife Zang Shi, the daughter of General Zang Dun, was not only born in a noble family, but also recognized as a beauty at that time, and is still ravaged by the theory of "ruling the country with filial piety". Zang vowed to die with Xu Xiaoke, but in the end Xu Xiaoke's determination to sell her to General Kong Jingxing was not broken.

What makes people extremely puzzled is that Zang does not think that it is wrong for her husband to betray himself. So after she was sold to Kong Jingxing, she often stole some food to send to her husband in order not to be disturbed. Later, Xu Xiaoke became a monk and made alms to support his mother. Later, General Kong Jingxing died in battle, and Zang's ex-husband was found in the street. Xu Xiaoke is secular, and the husband and wife are together for the second time. Because of this, Xu Xiaoke won the eternal reputation of filial piety, and later served as an official. The greatest morality of the ancients was filial piety. In the name of filial piety, everything seems insignificant.

The power of filial piety culture to destroy marriage is really amazing. Yes, "a person's journey is greater than filial piety", but if filial piety culture is unfair, it is too much. Zang, the great beauty after the noble family, was obviously completely brainwashed by the filial piety culture and despised unconsciously.

Coincidentally, "Biography of Women in the Later Han Dynasty" also recorded a story, saying that a Guanghan man, Jiang, married Ponzi. Jiang is especially filial to his mother, and Ponzi is also devoted to his mother-in-law. She goes to the river six or seven miles away from home every day to fetch water for her mother-in-law, because her mother-in-law likes to drink water from the river. Once, Ponzi couldn't get home in time because of the sudden strong wind, and her mother-in-law was thirsty and wanted to drink water. Chiang blamed Ponzi for this and divorced her. Ponzi had nowhere to go, so he stayed with his neighbors and knitted day and night. Buy delicious food with the money from selling cloth and let the neighbors give it to Chiang's mother. Don't let her say it's a gift. Over time, Jiang Mu felt suspicious and asked about it. After learning this story, she was ashamed and moved, so she called Ponzi back home and let the separated couple get back together.

China respected filial piety since ancient times. However, the role of wife has no place in filial piety culture. In addition to being a fertility machine, it has always been the object of contempt to prevent her husband from falling into the situation of "not marrying, not being born, not worshipping ancestors and unfilial". Even E Huang and Nv Ying, two daughters of the ancient Emperor Yao, are just the wedding dresses of filial piety culture. Because Shun was filial to his parents since childhood, he moved Yao. In recognition of his filial piety, he married both his daughters.