Consecration of family devotion : the fervor of filial piety in the late Ming and early Qing China

Abstract

This dissertation is a contextual study of the nation-wide fervor in ritualistic performances and religious cultivations of filial piety in the late Ming and early Qing China, spanning throughout the essential cultural-religious lives of commoners, Confucian-gentry, newly established popular religious sects and also Buddhist eminent monks. By touching one of the most important themes in Chinese traditional culture which has been seriously understudied, I argue that familial devotion went far beyond the common perception of serving one’s parents and fulfilling social responsibilities, instead, the unprecedented fervor of filial piety was fueled by the shared belief of its transcendental efficacy and karmic retribution in the late imperial times. Realization of filial piety became not only the benchmark of secular morality but also an unmediated path towards self-fulfillment and the fundamental unification between individuals and the Absolute. Within the dynamic currents of intellectual and religious reforms, the absolute duty of familial devotion became an understructure shared by all Chinese that by no means it was restricted to the Confucian tradition or secular metaphysics of a particular teaching. To the contrary, the religious frameworks of filial piety were largely built by the combing effort of lively individuals within different cultural-religious groups based on the universalized conviction of a moral and responsive cosmos.