The Eight Virtues

Scholars attribute the Eight Virtues to a line in the Sage Emperor Guan’s Book of Enlightenment: “It is through Filial Piety, Sibling Harmony, Dedication, Trustworthiness, Propriety, Sacrifi ce, Honour, and Sense of Shame that we become fully human.” Practicing the Virtues is integral to Confucian training. Other teachings from Chinese culture provide similar guidance on conducting ourselves. Taoism talks about the Five Beauties [of the human character]: Kindness; Proper Conduct; Propriety; Wisdom, Trustworthiness. Buddhism sets out the Five Precepts: “do not take life, do not steal or rob; do not commit adultery; do not tell lies; do not drink alcohol.” They all serve a similar purpose, which is to help us tame the heart and overcome our mundane nature, and all are pathways toward enlightenment.


Filial Piety

Reverence and loving care of our parents – teachers – elders

What is filial piety? There are many aspects of filial piety. The most import ant of them is to honor your father and mother and attend to their needs. By “honor” it is meant that you should maintain good conduct and never do things which will shame your parents or make them unhappy. You should be hard working in family affairs. You should be frugal in spending and not waste family resources. Siblings should live in harmony. In your interactions with other people you should be honest and sincere. Do not be deceitful. In all your actions be humble, be courteous and considerate of others, be proprietous and refrain from shameful thoughts and actions. If you achieve all these, then you have devoted yourself to practising filial piety. You should also attend to your parents’ well-being. There are three basic needs you must provide for your parents. First, you should provide for their food and clothing. Second, when they are ill, you must take responsibility for nursing them back to health. Third, when they die, you must provide them with proper burial and care for their graves. As a son or daughter, whether you are rich or poor, whatever profession you are engaged in, whether you are married or not, whether you have children or not, if you can perform these three deeds with sincerity and dedication, your parents will be happy while they are alive and rest in peace when they are deceased. Your parents cared for you without selfish interests. Your mother carried you in her womb for ten lunar months and nursed you for three years. Your parents constantly tended to your needs while you were growing up. You should show your gratitude to them by fulfilling the virtue of filial piety. Filial piety has many aspects. As long as each is performed with all your heart, this virtue is fulfilled. Whatever you do for your parents, do it with goodwill and sincerity.


Sibling Harmony

To live at peace as brothers and sisters – Respectful of others

What is sibling harmony? There are two aspects of sibling harmony. The first concerns our relationship with persons not in our families. In interacting with elders, you should be respectful. Do not be arrogant. This is what is meant by “harmony” among all people. Second, harmony concerns our relationships with our siblings within our families. Regardless of whether siblings are living together, whether siblings share the same mother or father, the elder should love the younger, and the younger should respect the elder. In your duties to your parents, you should not be concerned with dividing responsibilities among siblings. You should not be thinking of claiming your parents’ wealth and property. If the elder sibling is wrong in his/her actions, the younger should humbly advise the elder. If the younger sibling is wrong, the elder should teach him/her with patience. In this way brothers and sisters will be harmonious with each other. Listening to gossip, dwelling in petty grievances, selfishly accumulating more than your rightful share of family resources, blaming your parents for favoritism when you are in the wrong, all lead to disharmony among siblings. When there are problems, siblings must come together to discuss and resolve the problems without bad feelings. Going outside the family, associating with wrong doers and treating them as brothers and sisters, ignoring your own family are all misinterpretations of sibling harmony. These actions can only lead to a bad end for yourself and for others.


Dedication

Loyalty – Faithfulness – Commitment

What is dedication? The Chinese word for this virtue literally means “centre your heart”. Everybody knows that a government official who is not corrupt, who is devoted to his/her duties, is a loyal and dedicated official. Dedication is a virtue not only applicable to government officials. It is a virtue that each person must have. Whatever profession you are in, be it agriculture, commerce, industry etc., you should make the strongest effort to be dedicated and honest in all your relationships. This is dedication. In public and private affairs, whether it takes great hardship and effort, whether you are acting openly or covertly, you must be honest, hardworking, and dedicated in your concern for others. If the merchant is dishonest in business, if a labourer is lazy and sloppy, if the farmer is not hard working, if the scholar does not pursue knowledge and displays contempt and petty arguments through his/her pen, if government officials are corrupt and abusive of their power, this is not dedication. People who are not dedicated will meet with defeat. They will be forgotten. Other people will refuse to help them when they are in need. They will have no place in this world.


Trustworthiness

Sincerity – Honesty – Keeping one’s promises

What is trustworthiness? This virtue encompasses honesty, trust, and sincerity. Your speech and your actions should be honest. Do not exaggerate, do not be deceitful. If you make promises to others, you should be true to your word. Follow the teachings of the sages. Trust their examples and learn from them. If you have any suspicions of their honourable actions, you are untrusting. No matter what your reputation, if you habitually lie, saying one thing and doing another, you will acquire a reputation for being unworthy of trust. If your dishonest, insincere, and untrustworthy actions are known, no one will trust you or help you in your public or private affairs. Without support from others you will not be able to accomplish anything. Without trustworthiness you will come to ruin. Whether rich or poor, scholar or farmer, laborer or merchant, a reputation for trustworthiness is as valuable as pure jade or gold. Indeed no one should live without it.


Propriety

Courtesy – Politeness – Decorum – Manners

What is propriety? Propriety is a virtue which covers many kinds of actions. The entire Book of Rites, a Confucianist classic, is devoted to the discussion of propriety, and yet it is said that the discussion has not covered all aspects of the virtue. The full meaning of the virtue cannot be covered here. The most important aspects of the virtue can only be briefly highlighted. Propriety encompasses good conduct, good manners, and courtesy. In paying respects to heaven and earth, parents and teachers, host or guest, be careful about your conduct and your manners. You should be courteous and good-mannered. Stand when you should stand. Sit when you should sit. Speak when it is your turn. Behave properly. Do not be flippant, disrespectful, or bad-tempered. This is what is meant by propriety. At banquets and gatherings, men and women should conduct themselves respectfully. Uncles, aunts, brothers, brothers-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law should not raise their voices, tease each other, flirt with each other, or forget the behaviours appropriate to their position in the family. This is propriety. If you are disrespectful to your elders, if you pick quarrels and fights, play smart, delight in bickering over trifles with others, you have lost all sense of propriety. Not only will people speak badly of you, even your parents will be blamed for your bad conduct.


Sacrifice

Courage to do what is right – Purity of heart and purpose – Selflessness

What is sacrifice? Sacrifice involves examining your conscience and doing your duties without hesitation, without waiting for others to perform your deeds for you, without expectation of rewards, and without consideration of hardship and effort. When you work selflessly for your country, help to relieve suffering in the world, give your share of family resources to help your siblings and relatives, this is sacrifice. When you uphold your virtues, help orphans and widows, give to the poor, this is also sacrifice. However, if you steal, rob, gamble, engage in unscrupulous actions, lead young people into bad habits, cheat in your business dealings, and do things only for money or other personal gains, you have abandoned the virtue of sacrifice. The practice of sacrifice also involves giving up personal gains to uphold the virtues of dedication, trustworthiness, and honour. We need to sacrifice self-interest, and even our lives, to fulfill promises we have made to others and to ensure that our actions are honourable and honest. Sacrifice also means helping others regardless of what they have done for you. This means that you must first show appreciation of good deeds rendered to you by others. If you do not appreciate help given to you and return a good deed with an evil one, you have forgotten what it means to return good for good. If you cannot even return a good deed with a good one, then how can you perform actions selflessly without any expectation of rewards? If you are unwilling to sacrifice you will not come to a good end.


Honour

Integrity – Incorruptible – Taking only what you deserve, having earned it

What is honour? The foundation of honour is frugality and having a bright, open heart. If something does not belong to you, you should not desire it or take it. Even if something rightfully belongs to you, you should first find out whether taking it will cause harm to others. Take something only if it does not cause harm and pain to others. Whatever you do, act according to your conscience. If you can be discriminating in claiming and taking only what you can take, then you will be frugal with anything you own and show concern for others needs. Know the limits of your own resources. If you plan to spend more than what you can afford, then you will be tempted to resort to dishonourable actions to achieve your goals. Greed and dishonour go together. Be content with what you have and do not desire riches gained from dishonourable actions. The ancient sages lived simple lives and possessed all the wisdom of the world. If you do not misuse sex and drugs, and if you do not gamble, then your heart and body will be clean, and you will be an honourable person. Look at the corrupt government officials, the greedy rich people who exploit the poor and associate with murderers and thieves, the people who will do all kinds of dishonourable actions to get rich. Instead of engaging in an honourable living, they will break up families, bankrupt business in order to gain some profit or a moment’s pleasure. They want to have everything, but the things they obtain through dishonourable actions will be lost in the same way. They do not know that their dishonourable actions will only come to a bad ending.


Sense of Shame

Conscientious – Cognizant of shameful action and avoiding it

What is having a sense of shame? Knowledge of shame is understanding the consequences of non-virtuous actions. This virtue is to be understood with reference to the other seven virtues. Knowing shame is knowing what actions are non-virtuous and not doing them. Shameful actions include neglecting filial piety, bringing shame to your parents; disharmony among siblings, leading others to take advantage of you; lack of dedication or dishonesty, leading others to hate you; failure to keep your word, leading to a loss of trustworthiness. Are these not shameful actions? Disrespecting propriety; being miserly and ungenerous; having selfish interests; dishonourably taking money, leading others to insult you to your face and to laugh at you behind your back; are these not shameful actions? If you act shamelessly in your lifetime, you will not only ruin your well-being but also that of your descendants. As to association with murderers and other wrongdoers, abusive use of drugs and sex, careless management of family resources, not attending to the needs of your family, these are again shameful actions. The consequence of shameful actions is total disgrace. There is no evil that you would not do. If you want to maintain personal dignity, how can you do without a sense of shame?