Twenty-Four Stories of Filial Devotion（1）: Inspiring Tales of Family Loyalty

The 'Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars' is an enlightening work from the Yuan Dynasty that promotes traditional Confucian values of filial piety. It compiles the stories of 24 devoted sons and daughters celebrated by the feudal monarchy, expressed through essays, poetry, and illustrations, aiming to cultivate children's sense of filial duty.

While many of the selected stories are touching, some no longer align with modern reality. Tales like 'Tasting the Soup' and 'Carrying Rice for a Hundred Miles' are moving, while 'Caring for Parents with Humor' brings a smile. However, practices like 'Burying a Child for a Mother' or 'Selling Oneself to Bury a Father' are no longer acceptable.

Stories such as 'Crying Bamboo for New Shoots' or 'Carving Wood for Parents' might have sincere intentions, but today they can seem a bit ridiculous and should be set aside. Cultural transmission must evolve with the times, extracting the essence while understanding the underlying meanings. In our increasingly aging society, we should empathize, pass on wisdom, and strive to apply these lessons in our lives

1. Filial Piety Moves Heaven

Shun, the legendary ancient emperor, one of the Five Emperors, surnamed Yao, first name Chonghua, number Yu Clan, historically known as Yu Shun. Legend has it that his father, goze (ɡǔ sǒu), had a stepmother, who gave birth to his younger brother, Xiang, and tried to kill him many times. When Shun was asked to repair the roof of a barn, he set fire to the barn, and Shun escaped by jumping down with two bucket hats in his hands. When Shun was told to dig a well, goze and elephant filled the well with earth, and Shun escaped by digging a tunnel. Afterward, Shun held no grudges, but remained obedient to his father and loving to his brother, and his filial piety touched the Emperor of Heaven.

Shun cultivated in Li Mountain, elephants ploughed the land for him, and birds hoed the grass for him. Emperor Yao heard that Shun was very filial and had the ability to deal with political affairs, and married his two daughters, E Huang and N Ying, to him, and chose Shun to be his heir after many years of observation and testing. After he ascended to the throne of the Emperor, he visited his father, and remained respectful, and made elephants his vassals.

​2. Tasting the Soup for Parents

Liu Heng, Emperor Wen of Han, the third son of Gaozu, was born to Empress Dowager Bo.He became emperor eight years after Gaozu.He was renowned for his filial piety and never slacked in serving his mother, who had been ill for three years. He often did not see eye to eye and did not understand his clothes, and he tasted the medicine she took before letting her take it. He reigned for 24 years, emphasizing moral governance and etiquette, and paying attention to the development of agriculture, which led to the stabilization of the two Han societies, the prosperity of the population, and the recovery and development of the economy.His reign with Emperor Jing was known as the “Rule of Wen and Jing”.

3. Leaving Oranges for One's Parents

Lu Ji, a scientist from Huating, Wuxian in the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, visited Yuan Shu in Jiujiang with his father Lu Kang at the age of six. During the visit, Yuan Shu offered him oranges, and Lu Ji secretly tucked two of them into his robe. When he was about to leave, the oranges rolled onto the floor, prompting Yuan Shu to laugh, saying, "Young Lu, are you really going to sneak away with my oranges?" Lu Ji replied, "My mother loves oranges, and I wanted to bring some back for her to enjoy." Yuan Shu was amazed that such a young boy understood the importance of filial piety. As an adult, Lu Ji became well-versed in various subjects, including astronomy and mathematics. He annotated the "Heavenly Diagram," commented on the "I Ching," and wrote a commentary on the "Tai Xuan Jing."​

4. Burying the Child to Honor the Mother

Guo Ju was a native of Longxi in the Jin Dynasty. Originally, his family was well-off. After the death of his father, he divided the family property into two, to his two younger brothers, he took his mother alone to provide for his mother, extremely filial, after the family gradually poor, his wife gave birth to a boy, Guo Ju worried that raising this child will certainly affect the support for his mother, so he and his wife to discuss: “the son can be again, the mother can not be resurrected after the death of the mother, it would be better to bury his son, save some food to provide for their mothers. ”

When he dug the pit, in the ground two feet suddenly saw an altar of gold, written on the book “Heavenly Guo Ju, the official shall not take, the people shall not take”, the couple got the gold, go home to honor their mother, and to be able to raise the child.

5. Fanning the Pillow and Warming the Quilt

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Huang Xiang, a native of Lu during the Eastern Han Dynasty, lost his mother at the age of nine and showed extreme filial piety toward his father. In the scorching summer, he fanned his father's pillow and mat to keep him cool, and in the freezing winter, he warmed his father's quilt with his own body. As a youth, he was well-versed in the classics and displayed remarkable literary talent, leading to the saying in the capital, "In the world, there is no match for Jiang and Huang the Youth." During Emperor An's reign, he served as the governor of Wei County, which suffered from a flood. Huang Xiang gave everything he had to aid the disaster victims. He authored works such as "The Nine Palaces Rhyme" and "Ode to the Emperor's Crown."

​6. Picking Mulberries with Different Utensils

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Cai Shun, a man of Han Dynasty, lost his father when he was young, and was very filial to his mother.At the time of Wang Mang's chaos, and encountered famine, firewood and rice is expensive, only to pick up mulberry seeds to fill hunger.One day, he met the Red Eyebrows Army, and the soldiers asked, “Why did you put the red mulberry and the black mulberry in two baskets?”Cai Shun replied, “The black mulberry is for my mother to eat, and the red mulberry is for myself.” The Red Eyebrows took pity on his filial piety and gave him three buckets of rice and a cow to take back to his mother as a token of respect.

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