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Filial Piety In Lady Hyegyong

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Finnley Maier Hist 281 Essay 1: Lady Hyegyong According to Confucian principals, filial piety is an admired characteristic that means that one possesses a great respect for one’s parents and ancestors. Instead of asking in what parts of the memoir does filial piety come into play, I think that’s it not unreasonable to see that the whole memoir is about piety. Filial piety is the main root in this story and the driving force and in the lives of this royal Korean family. Piety doesn’t just apply to biological parents and blood relatives; it is almost revered more when it’s for in-laws. Though parents treat their children differently according to their genders, the constant characteristic that is sought after and admired in a child is filial piety regardless of parental treatment. In this paper I will discuss the difference in the way that male and female offspring are treated, but how despite these differences the one commonality, or shared virtue that is sought after is filial piety. Males in this memoir are praised for their scholarship, position but mostly their gender itself. The men in this story such as prince Sado and his father King Yongjo, are praised by Lady Hyegyong for their smarts and development. Lady Hyegyong discusses Sado’s quick …show more content…

In modern day, we have of course strayed far away from the rigidity and horror that is parental-child relations in this memoir, but I think that children are still expected to respect and care for their parents though now its to much less a degree than back then. The bond between a parent and child is one of no parallel and so it is present in every society and civilization since the beginning of time, which makes filial piety something that should be valued, studied and not made light of. Because as we see in this story, a lack of a good parent/child bond has catastrophic

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