The Story the Buddhist Priest

Learning Cell 1 Question

The story the Buddhist priest told about the woman who married the first son of a very traditional house exposes the reader to many aspects of early Chinese philosophy that Westerners are not very familiar with. Every culture has different ways of life but the family dynamic depicted in this story is very unique with the daughter-in-law living with her husband’s family and facing criticism from her mother-in-law. Through this essay, the reader will see that different principles of early Chinese thought cultivated the daughter-in-law into effortlessly acting in accordance to her social obligation. This will be further shown by the concepts of the ancestral family prevalent in early Chinese history as well as how the philosophies stated in Confucius and Daoist customs allowed her to become honest, free, and natural.

Firstly, the norms and beliefs instilled by the ancestral family all had an impact in the transition the reader sees in the daughter-in-law. In the Chinese way of thought, family goes back to the very first ancestor who is represented by a virtue. Each family has one and every generation’s responsibility is to keep the virtue and pass it down through the lineage (Blake, January 15, 2016). Furthermore, in terms of relationships, the father-son allegiance was the most important, however, “the authority of the mother was second only to that of the father” (Creel 302). In this case, the mother-in-law has authority over the daughter-in-law because they all live under the same roof but we would consider this sort of alliance as a ruler-subject relationship. When reading the story, one could think that the reason the mother-in-law is so demanding with the daughter-in-law and criticizes, corrects, and admonishes her every move is because she is simply conducting her duty. Respecting the ancestors is of utter importance in Chinese tradition and the mother-in-law is making sure the daughter-in-law learns the virtue and passes it on to her children. Additionally, one of the most important aspects of the ancestral family is filial piety, which is the duty of the children to take care of the parents. In the text The Family, it states, “filial piety is the chief of Chinese virtues. It is at once the social, the political, and the religious duty of every individual” (Creel 303) “failure in filial duty was universally condemned by public opinion and might even be punished by law” (Creel 304). This means that the husband cannot protect or defend his wife because filial piety towards his mother triumphs the relationship he has with his wife. The daughter-in-law thus realizes that she needed to cultivate herself in order to improve her situation. Therefore, the daughter-in-law seeks counsel in the Buddhist priest and the reader can see that the change in her mindset can be explained by Confucius and Daoist principles.

Indeed, the changes we see in the daughter-in-law

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