Abstract
Before the formal Chinese compilation of the Twenty-four filial pieties appeared in the Yuan era, there were lots of stories concerning family moral code spreading around the Central Kingdom and along the Gansu Corridor. Most of them entered Xixia through the channels of literary record or oral narration. Some of them were translated into Tangut more than once and became the most popular materials used in moral education for youth and in birthday congratulation for aged people. Sometimes the Tangut versions are quite different from the corresponding Chinese originals in their storylines or even in topics. Such fact shows that Tanguts tried their best to make Chinese culture integrate into their own and lots of their Tangut versions were recomposed through oral literature than historical records. Tanguts did not have the real concept of Twenty-four filial pieties, but their versions concerning filial piety show the transitory stage shortly before the Yuan era.
Highlights
The concept of filial piety is regarded as the most important moral code throughout Chinese history
Because most of the folk stories were spread only in some informal oral narrations, their plots are often different from the biographies in orthodox Chinese classics
Presumed that the key figure of this story is Sima Zhi recorded in Cefu yuangui40, but it seems that the Chinese original is different from the Tangut entry, so the identification by (Nie, Huang 2001) as Jiang Ge in volume 69 of Houhan shu should be accepted41. This story proves to be the commonly known as Jiang Ge fumu 江革负母 (Jiang Ge carrying his mother on his back) in Ershisi xiao
Summary
The concept of filial piety is regarded as the most important moral code throughout Chinese history. The story comes from Volume 114 of Houhan shu, where the Chinese original includes three storylines, but in Xinji cixiao zhuan there are only two of them selected, i.e., an abandoned wife kept serving her mother-in-law and a spring gushed out for children’s filial piety. Another topic, how Jiang Shi and his wife concealed the information of their son’s death, is omitted in the Tangut story. 36 Chinese original: 廣漢姜詩妻者, 同郡龐盛之女也. 詩事母至孝, 妻奉順尤篤. 母好飲江水, 水去舍 六七里, 妻嘗泝流而汲. 後値風, 不時得還, 母渴, 詩責而遣之. 妻乃寄止鄰舍, 晝夜紡績, 市珍羞, 使鄰母 以意自遺其姑. 如是者久之, 姑怪問鄰母, 鄰母具對. 姑感慚呼還, 恩養愈謹. 其子後因遠汲溺死, 妻恐姑 哀傷, 不敢言, 而託以行學不在. 姑嗜魚鱠, 又不能獨食, 夫婦常力作供鱠, 呼鄰母共之. 舍側忽有涌泉, 味如江水, 每旦輒出雙鯉魚, 常以供二母之膳. (後漢書·姜詩妻傳)
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