ABSTRACT
If the Chinese may be believed, filial piety has been from all antiquity the foundation of domestic and even of civic morality. The respect due to paternal authority is considered to be the greatest of duties, a primary duty from which all social obligations are derived. If the prince deserves to be obeyed it is because the people recognize a father in him. The authority of a government, of whatever kind, seems to be always patriarchal in essence, for duties toward the State are imagined only as an extension of family duties. The loyal subject results from the pious son. When the father instructed the son in piety (hiao) he taught him loyalty (chong). The father is then the first magistrate, and according to the classical theory the magistrature which he exercises is not held by delegation : it belongs to him by a right which is founded on nature.
