Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Fulfilling filial piety: Being in a state of having completely satisfied or fulfilled one's duties and obligations of respect, care, and devotion towards one's parents. It describes the successful accomplishment of a child's filial responsibilities.
   • Gaining parental favor / pleasing one's parents: Achieving a state where one has earned the approval, happiness, or satisfaction of one's parents through one's actions and behavior.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Làm con, ai cũng mong muốn mình đắc hiếu. (As children, everyone wishes to be considered filially pious.)
  • Ông ấy cả đời chăm sóc cha mẹ chu đáo, thật sự là một người con đắc hiếu. (He took meticulous care of his parents all his life, truly a filial child who fulfilled his duties.)
  • Chỉ khi cha mẹ vui lòng, con cái mới cảm thấy mình đắc hiếu. (Only when parents are content do children feel they have gained their favor.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is formal and carries significant cultural and Confucian weight. It is often used in evaluative or commendatory contexts, sometimes in retrospect (e.g., eulogizing someone's life). It implies a completed, successful state of filial devotion rather than the ongoing act.

Variants and Related Words

• Hiếu thảo (adj): filial, dutiful to parents. This is the more common general term for filial piety as a character trait.

  • Cô ấy là một đứa con rất hiếu thảo. (She is a very filial child.)

• Chữ Hiếu (n): the concept/ideogram of filial piety.

  • Chữ Hiếu là nền tảng đạo đức quan trọng. (Filial piety is an important moral foundation.)

Synonyms

• Filial: pertaining to or due from a son or daughter.
• Dutiful: fulfilling one's duties, especially to parents.
• Devoted: very loving or loyal.

Related Concepts

• Đạo hiếu: the way of filial piety; the doctrine or path of being filial.
• Bất hiếu (adj): unfilial; the opposite state of failing in one's duties to parents.