Fraternal duty is obedience to, and love and respect for one’s elder brother. To observe this, the younger brother must follow an elder brother’s guidance and orders. Fraternal duty should be rooted in the heartfelt love and respect for an elder brother. Confucians often speak of “fraternal duty” and “filial piety” together, believing that tog…
The term refers to taking action after having reflected several times (The number three is often used in ancient literature to mean several or many times). This is a kind of attitude handling things too cautiously. An appropriate measure of reflection is a prerequisite for proper speech and action, but if one becomes too cautious, then hesitation a…
Xing (形) refers to the form of an object, and ming (名) refers to its name. The ancient Chinese believed that objects have forms, and that each formed object has its own specific nature which distinguishes it from other objects, whereas its name specifies the object. An order comprised of names establishes the relationships between the objects as w…