Sympathy and Severity: The Father-Son Relationship in Early Medieval China

Abstract

In recent years, scholars from Japan, Taiwan, and the United States have produced first rate scholarship that delineates the emotional, social, and symbolic importance of the mother-son tie in early and medieval China. Nevertheless, these studies often take for granted the contours of the father-son relationship and slight its emotional significance. By closely examining filial piety stories and their pictorial representations, this paper argues that during the early medieval era (A.D. 100-600) the father-son tie was of tremendous sentimental importance.In this paper I look at three types of stories that focus on fathers: ones in which sons provide reverent care, i.e. nurturing that exalts the recipient’s status; ones in which sons “return regurgitation;” that is they pay back the care they received as children; and ones in which “bad” fathers persecute their sons. Tales with the first two motifs indicate that sons felt strongly indebted to their fathers for the care they received from them as children. These stories also suggest that fathers were active nurturers of their young sons. Since “bad” fathers turn into good ones once they realize their sons have been slandered, these tales demonstrate that early medieval men assumed that the father-son relationship was naturally good: sons only became alienated from fathers because of conniving women. Consequently, even though mothers pulled at the heartstrings of their sons, fathers too laid a significant claim on sons’ affections. Although mothers nourished their sons’ emotional well-being, fathers gave their sons the means to establish themselves as men.