问答题
{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}
{{U}}The idea of reverence for parents is closely connected to what is sometimes
called "ancestor worship," although this is not an accurate term. A better term
might be reverence for ancestors.{{/U}} Reverence for parents does not stop after
they are dead. They continue to be revered as ancestors. According to Li,
offerings of food and drink ("sacrifices") should be made to them, and various
ceremonies honoring them should be performed. The Chinese
believed that the well-being of the living and the dead were connected. The
family group, or clan, included both the living and the dead. {{U}}
{{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}Deceased members of the clan were to be
treated right by the living members by means of appropriate ceremonies and
offerings. Then the ancestors would see to it that things went well for the
living members of the clan.{{/U}} Appropriate burial of ancestors
was linked to their well-being. Among other things, this meant that a good place
or site should be found in which to bury them. Experts on feng-shui(wind and
water)were hired to advise families about the right site for burial. Stories are
told about an ancestor's body being moved from one site to another in the hope
of improving the good fortune of the family or clan. {{U}}
{{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}An understanding of Xiao can help one to
appreciate some of the incidents that occur in Chinese literature. In China's
greatest classical novel. The Dream of the Red Chamber, there are a number of
such incidents.{{/U}} In one, the hero of the novel, a young boy called Bao
Yu, gets in trouble with his father. His father has the servants hold him and
tells them: "Beat him to death." While Bao Yu is being beaten, word spreads
through the family mansion of what is happening and reaches the boy's
grandmother, the father's mother. The grandmother arrives at the room where her
grandson is being beaten and orders her son to stop. Just as Xiao gives the
father the right to beat his son, so it obliges him to stop when his mother
tells him to. Throughout much of its history, Japan has been
greatly influenced by Chinese philosophy and literature. Many of the ways of
traditional China, such as Xiao, were absorbed at an early date. {{U}}
{{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}The seventeenth-century Japanese
philosopher, Nakae Toju, says that if filial piety is torn from someone's heart,
they become like a plant without roots.{{/U}} He goes on to say that although it
would seem that an orphan has no obligations to filial piety, this is not so.
{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}To care for one's moral nature is
a filial obligation whether our parents are living or dead. According to this
thinking, becoming the best kind of human being we can be is the highest
reverence we can give our parents.{{/U}}