【星网专讯】To be a Chinese is glorious; to be a Chinese with knowledge of Chinese culture, history, and geography is worthy of pride. If all of us really realize the import and significance of our basic virtues: loyalty（忠）, filial piety（孝）, humanity（仁）, love（爱）, honesty（信）, justice（义）, harmony（和）, and peace（平） as well as propriety（礼）, righteousness（义）, incorruptibility（廉）, and honor（耻）, in addition to the greatness of our traditional culture and our forefathers’ inventive intelligence（我们祖先创造发明之智慧）, I believe, we will know how to be a Chinese.

According to Chinese tradition, filial piety（孝道） was the primary duty of all Chinese. Being a filial son（孝子）meant complete obedience to one’s parents during their lifetime and–as they grew older–taking the best possible care of them. After their death, the eldest son（长子） was required to perform ritual sacrifices at their gravesite or in the ancestral temple.

A son could also express his devotion to his parents by passing the Civil Service examinations, winning prestige for the whole family. Most important of all, a son had to make sure that the family line would be continued（家族的延续）. Dying without a son therefore was one of the worst offenses against the concept of filial piety（不孝之子，无后为大）.

If a marriage remained barren, it was a son’s duty to take a second wife or adopt a child in order to continue the family. Since Chinese women became part of their husband’s family through marriage, filial conduct for a woman meant faithfully serving her in-laws, in particular her mother-in-law, and giving birth to a son.

By fulfilling these duties, she also gained prestige for her own family. If the mother and daughter-in-law did not get along, filial piety demanded that a man should get rid of his wife in order to please his mother. He could always get another wife, but he would only have one mother.