The Book of Odes and Chinese Traditional Virtues

The first collection of poetry in Chinese history – The Book of Odes (Shi-Jing, 詩經) contains descriptions of Chinese traditional virtues – loyalty, filial piety, humanity, righteous, and courtesy (忠、孝、仁、義、禮).

Since Zhou Dynasty (1046BC- 256BC), Confucius had already adopted contents in The Book of Odes in teaching, as its content provided good models for educating people, in doing so it could promote good culture and virtues in the society. Therefore, in the Preface of the Books of Odes annotated by Mao Chang (〈毛詩序〉), it was noted that, “Ancient kings adopted this book to promote relationships in a couple, foster filial piety, improve education, transform the culture of the society, therefore it could be adopted for the well-being of our people, as well as for administering the kingdom”. (先王以是經夫婦，成孝敬，美教化、移風俗，故用之鄉人焉，用之邦國焉。)

“The Genial Wind” (〈凱風〉) and “The Lofty Ling” (〈蓼莪〉) are two examples in the Book of Odes that touch on the topic of filial piety.

In “The Genial Wind”, the poet adopted the metaphor of genial wind from the south to describe mother’s love. Wind is as ubiquitous as mothers’ all-rounded and comprehensive love to their children. Therefore, the poet wrote, “The genial wind from the south, blows on the heart of that jujube tree. Till that heart looks tender and beautiful. What toil and pain did our mothers endure!” (凱風自南，吹彼棘心。棘心夭夭，母氏劬勞)

The poet adopted the metaphor of jujube tree (棘) to describe children. Jujube tree is a plant that is difficult to be cultivated. It resembles mothers’ endeavour to nurture their children, which is often difficult and even leads to illnesses due to fatigue.

In the poem, the poet particularly mentioned seven unfilial sons who could not make their mother feel contended. In this sense, they are worthless compared to spring water and yellow birds in the sky. “There is a cool spring below the city of Jun”, “The beautiful yellow birds give forth their pleasant notes”. The cool spring in Jun county (浚) could moisturize our mouth thus nourish our spirit; the yellow birds with beautiful fur sing in pleasant notes. In a contrary, those unfilial people are not even a patch on the lifeless spring water and animals like the yellow birds.

Another example is “The Lofty Ling”, which is about a filial son wanting to take care of his parents but having no way to fulfill his wish because his parents passed away, missing the chance to take care of them forever.

The poet took the metaphor of the pitcher (缾子) to describe parents and the jar (罍) to describe the children. When the pitcher is empty, the jar should be filled up, otherwise the jar is to blame as it is not doing its job. “When the pitcher is exhausted, it is the same of the jar”. (缾之罄矣，維罍之恥). The poet then used “me” for seven times to illustrate how parents take care of their children, “O my father, who begat me! O my mother, who nourished me! Ye indulged me, ye fed me, ye held me up, ye supported me, ye looked after me, ye never left me, out and in ye bore me in your arms. If I would return your kindness, it is like great Heaven, illimitable.” (父兮生我，母兮鞠我。拊我畜我，長我育我，顧我復我，出入腹我。欲報之德，昊天罔極).

The all-rounded care, nurture and protection are all towards their children and no one else.