Xiao - Filial Piety
Devotion and respect toward one's parents, the root of all virtue.
Xiao (filial piety) is devotion to one's parents - caring for them, respecting them, and honoring their memory. It is the root of ren and the foundation of all moral development.
Filial piety and brotherly love are the root of ren.
Xiao is considered the foundation of Confucian ethics.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about family
Xiao is devotion to one's parents, and Confucian thinking treats it as the root of the other virtues rather than one duty among many. The claim is that a person who cannot manage this relationship will not manage the rest.