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THE TWENTY FOUR EXAMPLES OF FILIAL PIETY

Confucianism focuses a great deal on human ethics, wherein Filial Piety forms the basis of human virtue. Those who are impious are not virtuous and cannot serve society. 
The Cao Dai Religion with the aim of transforming the world in accordance with Confucianism always highly advocates Loyalty, Piety, Humanity and Gratitude. Piety is the first and foremost virtue. We must be pious to our worldly parents first, and also to our Divine Parents, that is, the Supreme Being and the Mother Buddha.
At the front of the Temple of Gratitude in the Holy See, the Sacerdotal Council had twenty-four-exemplar paintings molded to remind the Cao Dai disciples of the supreme importance of piety. 

The author of the tales is Guō Jūjìng, a Yuán dynasty (1260-1368) man, who lived in Dàtián Xiàn, north of Déhuà, in Fújiàn province. He was apparently widely known for his filial piety, and took the occasion of the death of his father, and his compulsory retirement from public life for a period of mourning, to publish the tales we read here. His collection records the feats of filial children - from the age of the primordial Emperor Shùn down to his own era.

English translation by David K. Jordan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.

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