“养”与“弃”:民众孝亲伦理观念试析——以耿村民间故事文本为对象

To Support or to Abandon: An Analysis of People's Ethics on Filial Piety

“养”与“弃”是民众孝亲伦理观的核心问题,它是由农村的生产实际造成的对血缘关系的依赖而产生的伦理问题。本文通过民间故事文本,分析民众孝亲观念中蕴含的“孝与非孝”的伦理矛盾及其复杂的表现形态。“行孝”所面临的威胁有两种:一种是外在的,即极度贫困的生存条件和极为沉重的经济负担。一种是内在的,即子女成家以后情感重心的转移。在终极境况下,民众以互惠的劝孝方式来消解被弃养的风险。这种伦理诉求与儒家的孝道伦理在观念和实践上都有相当大的差距。

To support or to abandon one＇s parents＂ is the core question of people＇s ethics on filial piety. It is the dependence on the blood relationship that leads to this problem in the process of production in the countryside. By probing the texts of folk tales, this paper analyzes the ethical conflicts between the filial piety and the filial impiety and the forms of manifestations in the notions of people＇s ethics on filial piety. To show filial piety is confronted with two threats： one is external, namely extremely impoverished survival condition along with extremely heavy financial burdens; the other is internal, namely the transfer of children＇s emotional focus after getting married. In the ultimate situation, people urge the filial piety by appealing to mutual benefit to dispel the risk of being abandoned. This kind of ethical appeals is rather different from the Confucianism＇s filial piety ethics.