En and Yi Are Hard to Sever after All:Traditional China's"dà yì miè qīn":Centering on the Case"Shi Que Killed His Son"and Its Commentaries
In traditional China,there are numerous instances"placing righteousness above family loyalty"(dà yì miè qīn),"Shi Que killed his son"recorded in Zuo Zhuan is the first case they followed.Emperors and prime ministers as well as the literati and Scholar-bureaucrats in all dynasties,left commentaries on this case with great disparity between praise and criticism.The justification of such behavior depends on the ethical and hierarchical relationship between the person who carries out the act of ruining and his kin or intimate who is ruined,and also depends on the content of righteousness(dà yì)which the behavior aims to achieve.As the absolutism of monarchy strengthened and tended towards dictatorship,the principle of righteousness between emperor and ministers almost gains a monopoly."Damaging immediate relatives""undermining loyalists""killing sons and grandsons"and"harming brothers"for the sake of"dà yì miè qīn",however,still could not be completely justified.
traditional cultureethical and hierarchical relationshiprighteousness between the monarch and his ministers
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