The Confucian Relationship of Parent and Child - Essay Example

Running head: Confucius Confucius s Confucius The Confucian text presents two contrasting images of mothers. The character of a mother as depicted in the first part of the text i.e ‘mother of Mencius’ presents a highly respectable and honorable personality. This mother is very wise and protective when it comes to his son. She bears pains to bring her up, she keeps changing her residence inorder to find her son the best possible environment, she teaches him, supports him throughout his life, becomes his counselor, his friend, his mentor and realizes all his needs.

She gets her son married to a decent girl and also maintains good relations with her. All in all, she is a well-rounded figure with a remarkably soft and polite personality. The following part of the text i.e. ‘The wife of Feng Yen’ however depicts the sketch of a highly unorganized and inflexible lady. All the reasons why her husband hats her and now wants to divorce her are mentioned in the text. To summarise, we can say that both the characters sketched in the two parts of the text are poles apart and its hard to find any similarity between them.

In my opinion, the mutual bond of love and caring between a mother and a child is very important for the better development and grooming of the child. As the famous saying goes “Give me good mothers and I’ll give you good nations”. One thing about the world that would never change is the love in the heart of a mother for his children. This relation is still viable in the world of today. The main responsibilities of a mother as highlighted in the Confucion text include; finding the best nurturing surroundings and atmosphere for her child.

This includes the kind of friends he/she interacts with, the school he/she attends, how he/she studies and how much does he/she applies that knowledge to his/her daily life. However, If one’s mother is disoriented like the mother sketched in the second part of the text, it is impossible for her child to become a good human being. Ignorance on the mother’s part leads to a disaster eventually. It not only destroys her life but also the life of her family members. Her children are not likely to value filial relationships.

This is the case in Western households, where both the parents and children are ignorant of each other and indulged into activities such as drinking and gambling. Whereas, the Eastern households value these relationships and share strong bonds within families. The third part of the text demonstrates an excellent example of filial piety. Although this example is very old and such examples are rarely found in the ruthless world of today. This example shows that feelings of mutual love and brotherhood should not be restricted to only immediate blood relatives only but should extend to everyone.

In this case, the Duke of Chou, plays the role of a highly philanthropic person, working for the benefit of his dynasty. However, these definitions of filial piety and respect for one’s parents are rusting in the world of today. Due to globalization and immense exposure of our younger generations, they have sent the true traditional and solid family values and foundations into oblivion. These values make foundations of better, strong and un-corrupt societies and are needed immensely in the world of today.

Such societies flourish on love and humanity. They respect each other. This understanding of family values is now restricted to only very few households in a few collectivistic cultures. The world is gradually shifting towards more individualistic lifestyles where family and parental values are deemed unimportant.