ABSTRACT
For more than 2000 years, Confucian teachings have served as cultural guideposts governing Chinese patterns of socialization and education. Traced to its origins in the Han Dynasty, Confucian ethics have promoted the internalization of values that have facilitated relationships and socialization practices influencing individuals, groups, and institutions. Not only have essential aspects of identity formation and development been dependent upon Confucian understandings of interpersonal relationships, but filial piety has served as a guiding principle governing Chinese socialization patterns. According to Confucian teachings, relationships are hierarchical and social order is ensured through each person’s compliance of role-specific expectations, responsibilities, and rules of conduct; a person does not exist independently but through his or her relationships to others. For example, filial piety has justified authority of parents over children and by extension, those senior over junior in generation and rank (e.g., wu lun, the Five Cardinal Relations between sovereign and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend).
