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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Chapter XI.: Filial Piety in Relation to the Five Punishments. - The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism. Part I The Shu King, the Religious Portions of the Shih King, the Hsiao King

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Chapter XI.: Filial Piety in Relation to the Five Punishments. - Misc (Confucian School), The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism. Part I The Shu King, the Religious Portions of the Shih King, the Hsiao King [1879]

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The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism. Part I The Shu King, the Religious Portions of the Shih King, the Hsiao King, trans. James Legge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879).

Part of: The Sacred Books of the East, 50 vols.

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Chapter XI.

Filial Piety in Relation to the Five Punishments.

The Master said, ‘There are three thousand offences against which the five punishments are directed2 , and there is not one of them greater than being unfilial.

‘When constraint is put upon a ruler, that is the disowning of his superiority; when the authority of the sages is disallowed, that is the disowning of (all) law; when filial piety is put aside, that is the disowning of the principle of affection. These (three things) pave the way to anarchy.’

[2 ] See the Shû, p. 43, and especially pp. 255, 256.