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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care For Aged Parents III. Conclusion: Xiao as a Virtue for Today As we know, the family was a basic social, economic and cultural unit of the society in China. It played a fundamental role in regulating and stabilizing Chinese social and political life in the past, and it continues to play an important role today. Family is ideally the first school of virtue, and parents are often the first teachers of their children.

The values we learn from our family life, according to Confucians, will also make possible a good society. That is to say, we first learn how to deal with other people in society from watching our parents deal with each other, with our grandparents, and with us.(16) Therefore, it is very hard to imagine that a person who is devoid of caring, or unwilling to care for, her own family members can be a good citizen who will care for other people in the society.

This is why in the Confucian tradition*"xiao"* (filial piety) was understood as the "root" of humanity and morality.(17) It should be noted here that*"xiao"* was often used to justify and support the totalitarian and oppressive structure of the traditional patrilinear family and society. It is no doubt a fact that xiao played a very conservative political role in the past.

However, when scholars point out that there was a historical connection between the kinship of the patrilinear family and the kingship of the totalitarian state (e.g., Schwartz, 1985, pp. 67-75, Roetz , 1993), they often neglect the fact that the care/love relation within a family is more natural and more primordial, and that the care/love relation between parents and children may not necessarily include patrilinear power and oppression.

In today's society, for example, old age is not always associated with totalitarian political power. In many cases, especially in the case of health care for the elderly, old people are often disadvantaged and powerless.

Considering this fact, a Confucian would argue that advocating xiao as taking respectful care of parents and adopting it as a moral duty of adult children will not only increase the happiness and security of our aged parents in their later years, but will also make members in our society care more for each other, especially for those who are disadvantaged. Taking care of the aged generation has always been a social problem for civilized societies.