본문 바로가기
  • Home

Filial Piety of Buddhism demonstrated in Chinese Buddhism ideas

  • Journal of Korean Hyo Studies
  • 2019, (29), pp.1-19
  • DOI : 10.34228/khyosa.2019.29.1
  • Publisher : The Korean Hyo Studies Association
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : April 26, 2019
  • Accepted : June 14, 2019
  • Published : June 30, 2019

Kang, Ki-Seon 1

1동국대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper has explored into the filial piety of Buddhism demonstrated in Chinese Buddhism ideas from the perspective of the Chinese Buddhist scriptures as to filial piety and their contents and the action plan of filial piety in modern days. One of the major difficulties in the process of settling Buddhism transferred from India in China was its conflict with ‘filial piety’. The Chinese found the ritual of taking the tonsure and changing clothes to enter the Buddhist priesthood shameful as it was considered going against filial piety. As a countermeasure, the Chinese Buddhism compiled and published a variety of Buddhist scriptures in Chinese language. These efforts helped the Buddhism gradually settled in the minds of Chinese people, which led to translating a lot of filial piety Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The key aspect of filial piety taught by these Buddhist scriptures primarily starts with the pure love and affection between parents and children, and helping parents return to Sambo (Buddha, the law of Buddha and a Buddhist monk) and regain the nature of Buddha while being exempted from the pain of birth and death eternally is found to be the greatest filial piety. The scope of filial piety is not limited to one's lifetime but is extended beyond the limit of life and death to helping parents even through the upmost way of Heaven. In addition, the filial piety taught by the Buddhist scriptures is a characterized by a horizontal, reciprocal, and equal filial piety with parents’ benevolentness and children’s respect going hand in hand and the duty of practicing filial piety among all creatures in an equal manner based on the Buddhist Philosophy. This requires a precondition that a democratic and mutually equal relationship is established between parents and children. Therefore, the filial piety in Buddhism is an equal, universal, and lateral teaching for all, and the ultimate value sought by the filial piety of Buddhism is to help all creatures restore the nature of Buddha while escaping from 84,000 pains and sufferings through the pursuit of virtue and goodness.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.