Although "filial piety" is only two words, the world's understanding of it is quite different. Many people think that "filial piety" is to take care of parents' interests unconditionally, but in fact, the fundamental purpose of filial piety is to "support the elderly", that is, "the benevolent loves others." Advocating filial piety is not to imitate the behavior of the ancients, but to learn from their filial piety. Although many well-known stories about filial piety-such as "Guo Ju buried his son"-have actually deviated from the connotation of filial piety and "benevolence" and misled countless future generations; However, there are still many people in history who can really show the "benevolence" of generate from "filial piety", such as the Liu family in the early Tang Dynasty.
Liu's deeds should start with Liu Dewei.
The Liu family lived in Pengcheng, Xuzhou, and by the time of Liu Dewei's generation, it was the end of Sui Dynasty. At first, he worked under Pei Renji, a general of Sui Dynasty. Later, Pei Renji took refuge in Shi Mi, who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and became an official of the Tang Dynasty. As an official, he is "known for his incorruptibility" and is deeply loved, so "the people set up a monument for him". During the Zhenguan period, Liu Dewei was promoted to Dali Temple to take charge of prison affairs. On one occasion, Emperor Taizong asked him why the number of prisoners held in various places has soared recently. He immediately said: "In the past, the law stipulated:' The officials who mistakenly arrested innocent prisoners were given third-class commutation; Those who release criminals from prison by mistake will be reduced by five grades. "but the new law stipulates:' those who mistakenly catch benevolent people will not be punished, and those who mistakenly release them will be given a heavier punishment'. Therefore, bureaucrats are arresting people, not seeking merit but seeking nothing. " Then he quoted Shangshu as saying, "It is better to lose than to kill." Emperor Taizong was deeply impressed, so countless innocent prisoners were liberated. "Old Tang Book" praised this: "The essentials of playing and arguing by virtue and prestige and practicing the name of punishment are long and beautiful!"
A Confucius said: "A gentleman's business is based on his foundation. Filial piety is also the foundation of benevolence! " Liu Dewei's "learning is not as good as losing" embodies "the benevolent loves others", and the root of his "benevolence" actually coincides with the words of a son, that is, "the way of filial piety".
Before Liu Dewei came to the fore, he was famous for his filial piety, and he often used his meager income to help his relatives. After being promoted to the position of minister of punishments, he, as always, "accepted goods, mostly to support clan relatives." Paying attention to filial piety made the Liu family a "family friend", which also deeply influenced his son Liu.
Liu lost his mother when he was a child, and was deeply influenced by his father Liu Dewei on the road of growth, which made him not only choose to join the army like his father, but also inherit and even surpass "filial piety".
During the Zhenguan period, Liu will be promoted to be a man; In Yonghui, he is already a master of the doctrine and a guardian of Ran Yan. In the third year of Yonghui (652), Liu Dewei died at the age of 7/kloc-0, and Wei Liu was worried about his departure. Generally speaking, when officials are worried, they often go home by car or horse with coffins, but out of great grief, Liu chose to "trip with the car" and "bleed all the way", which caused pedestrians to "sigh". Even at this point, Liu still has not completely got rid of the pain of losing his father. Many years later, whenever he meets his father's old employees, he will always "sob and cry" because he misses his father. Influenced by Liu's filial piety since childhood, Liu didn't feel anything special about barefoot funeral. At this time, he would not have thought that this move would be repeated by his son in the future, and the degree was more serious.
After Liu Dewei became an aristocrat, his son Liu became more and more respectful to his stepmother, and more "friendly" to his half-brother Liu Yanjing. Not only did he "send his salary to his mother's office to pay for the extension of the set", but he even asked the court to transfer his title from his father's shadow to his younger brother. The court said he was moved, but he refused because he thought the rules had been broken. Liu and his son are two generations of senior officials, and the population in the imperial court is much larger than before. Such a big family is often unavoidable, and members are also at daggers drawn. Liu, on the other hand, set an example, making the Liu family "more than 200 relatives, no difference in family, no words", which became a unique and harmonious scene in the early Tang Dynasty.
Life is impermanent and things are changeable. God never favors a person because of his noble character, and sometimes he even likes to play tricks on the whole world. Unfortunately, Liu was teased. What is even more amazing is that God seems to have a soft spot for the Liu family. After Liu's trial ceremony, his descendants were even robbed, which added a lot of sadness to Liu's story.
In the first year of Yifeng (676), Tubo was near Koubian. The following year, Wei Liu, commander in chief of the whole army, led a punitive army composed of more than ten generals and 180,000 soldiers, including Liu, to the northwest to defend the enemy. Liu performed heroically in Silla and Baekje battlefields and made great contributions. He thought he could make great achievements in the northwest, but he didn't expect to make great achievements in half a year. This is not entirely his fault, because the memorials he sent from the front were always rejected by Li, secretary of the Central Secretariat, which led him to fight hand in hand. Out of revenge, Liu, who knew that Li didn't understand the military, suggested with malicious intent: "If you don't respect the Xuan, you can't guard the Western Heaven"; The emperor thinks that the recommendation of famous soldiers has its own reasons. Although Li repeatedly explained that he didn't understand soldiers, the emperor only felt that he was modest and pushed him to a handsome position. This move killed many people, including Liu.
In September of the third year of Yifeng (678), Tang Jun met the Tubo Army in Qinghai, and the vanguard troops led by Liu took the lead in fighting. The former army was in full swing, but Li, who held the main force, did not lead the army to support him or surround the enemy behind him. He didn't know how to deal with it at all, and silently played the role of onlookers. Seeing that the troops unable to feed themselves were gradually swallowed up by the Tubo army, Li seemed to realize something and shouted, "Run!" " Get out of the battlefield and never look back. The soldiers who lost their coach also lost their morale because of his amazing move, so they had to flee together, and Tang Jun was defeated.
Along with the Battle Report, he was sent back to Chang 'an, and there was news that Liu was captured. When Juchao fell into panic because of defeat, Liu's eldest sons, Liu Yishu and Liu Yicong, and his half brother, Liu Yanjing, and other officials tied themselves into the DPRK and invited themselves into Tubo to redeem people. Everyone with a discerning eye knows that entering Tibet at this time can be described as a narrow escape, but the Liu family actually faced difficulties and could not bear to refuse, and finally chose to let it go west.
Liu Yili went through all kinds of hardships to come to Tubo, and Liu Jianli had already died of his injuries. "Old Tang Book" said sadly: "Courtesy and filial piety, governance can be a model for the world, and death is a disaster, alas!" Outsiders still do, let alone Liu Yi from nature. Originally he was looking forward to the reunion of father and son. At that time, he was sad and unbearable. He knelt in front of the body and "cried day and night" until he "ruined the gift" and his eyes bled. Seeing this scene, "Tubo mourns his ambition and returns his father."
With the coffin, Liu Yi hit the road. Perhaps it was his father's behavior that deeply touched him when he was young. At this time, the long memory in his mind became an uncontrollable instinct, so he also decided to send the coffin to his hometown in Pengcheng, and this time the starting point was Tubo. Along the way, Liu Yi has gone from stormy to long hair, but the pace of returning to the East has never stopped. A pair of barefoot, across the Gobi, across the border, across the mountain pass, across the wilderness, across Wan Li, back to Pengcheng. This behavior of "crying at the sight of everyone" was rewarded by the government and the public, so the court posthumously awarded Wei Liu, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and posthumous title "mourned".
At that time, people appreciated the moral character of the Liu family and gave them a title: Shi. As an outstanding successor of Liu Jiafeng, Liu Yicong also achieved "benevolent love". For example, New Tang Book? According to geographical records, he made great efforts to transform the perennial rivers in various counties into irrigation water, and the people around him no longer suffered from floods and felt their contributions, so the people spontaneously set up a shrine for him. The shrine did not bring him good luck, and the Liu family, who was teased by God, still failed to escape the tragedy.
In the first year of Yongchang (689), Liu Yi, then a long history of Pengzhou, was framed for participating in the rebellion. Wu Zetian ordered him beheaded and put his ten-year-old son Liu Shengliu in Lingnan. Before the execution, countless officials of the people came to see me off, took off their clothes and said, "Pray for ghosts and gods to bless the long history." According to statistics, these clothes add up to more than100000 yuan, which shows how popular Liu Yi is. The history book commented: "Yiyi is a dutiful son, and there is no comparison, but when he is wronged, he will suffer at home."
Some people think that the Liu family is putting on a show when they see that they are rewarded by the court for their filial piety. Some people saw the "Liu family's filial piety" end in a bleak way and began to doubt whether it was meaningful to pursue filial piety. In fact, these views have fallen into a misunderstanding, that is, to pursue filial piety as a means to obtain benefits, which is already a kind of utilitarianism.
We advocate filial piety, not for the pursuit of utility, but to awaken the goodness in our hearts with the help of "filial piety", so that the public can learn the correct way of self-reliance from "respecting parents and loving brothers", and finally push it to others, so that the whole society can live in harmony and become a real harmonious world, which is exactly what is urgently needed by today's increasingly utilitarian society. Is this goal too vague and idealistic? In fact, everyone has such a harmonious society in their hearts. In reality, if we can't reach that level, we must move towards it. Even if we can't reach it, our hearts still yearn for it. People who follow their inner goodness like He Cong ended in tragedy, but they didn't weaken their brilliance at all. On the contrary, tragedy makes them even more dazzling.
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