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Essay on Comparing the American and Chinese Cultures
Traditional Chinese culture is built upon a value system crystallized in Confucianism. Confucianism itself has shown its "elasticity" through interpretations over the past two thousand years. All schools of Confucianism agree, however, that this traditional value system is revealed through elaborate definitions, regulations, and moral and ethical principles regarding individuals' roles and relationships. These principles are not just ideas; they are materialized in social practices, including rituals, rites, ceremonies, and cultural artifacts.
At the heart of the Confucian system lays a linear hierarchy governing family structure, political structure, and the supernatural world. This hierarchy was, as we have noted, characterized by various dominance-obedience relationships: men dominating women, old dominating young, and the emperor dominating everyone else. This hierarchy was delineated by clearly defined roles, responsibilities, rituals, and customs governing interactions among the occupants of designated positions at various levels.
This elaborated construction rests upon the foundation of the Confucian conception of kinship relationships. Filial piety, a principle that most literally governs the father-son relationship, constitutes a cardinal value of Confucianism. It entails unquestioned obedience of the son to the authority of his father during--and after--his father's lifetime. Contrary to the popular conception of unidirectional control, this dyadic relationship implies active contributions by both parties. That is, the relationship is built on each party's internalizing his role, including his rights and obligations, and voluntarily fulfilling it. This aspect of the father-son relationship is represented by the traditional phrase "benevolent father and filial son," a reciprocal system.
The basic dominance-obedience relationship characterized in filial piety is generalized to that of emperor-subjects (jun-chen), treating the person's relationship with authorities as a natural extension of his relationship with his father in terms of dominance and obedience. A government official, by occupying his position and fulfilling his role, acquires obligations to obey his superior--and to obey, ultimately, the emperor-with complete devotion and self-sacrifice......
