Definition

Adjective: - Filial piety and fraternal duty: A traditional Confucian virtue describing the quality of being dutiful and respectful towards one's parents (hiếu) and being loving, harmonious, and submissive towards one's elder siblings (đễ). It represents the fundamental ethic of family relationships.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Con cái phải giữ đạo hiếu đễ. (Children must uphold the way of filial piety and fraternal duty.)
  • Gia đình ấy nổi tiếng về lòng hiếu đễ. (That family is famous for its filial and fraternal devotion.)
  • Truyền thống hiếu đễ là nền tảng của xã hội. (The tradition of filial piety and fraternal duty is the foundation of society.)

Advanced Usage

• Often used in a formal, literary, or philosophical context to describe the cornerstone of familial and social morality in East Asian cultures influenced by Confucianism.
• While "hiếu" specifically refers to the child-to-parent relationship, and "đễ" to the younger-to-elder sibling relationship, the compound "hiếu đễ" is used holistically to describe a person's overall virtuous character within the family hierarchy.

Variants and Related Words

• Hiếu thảo (adj): Filial piety; dutiful to parents. This is a more common modern term focusing specifically on the child-parent relationship.
  • Cô ấy là một người con hiếu thảo. (She is a filial child.)
• Đễ (adj): Rarely used alone in modern Vietnamese, it means being respectful and obedient to elder siblings.

Synonyms

• Filial and fraternal: Showing proper duty to parents and siblings.
• Dutiful: Conscientiously fulfilling obligations to family.

Related Concepts

• Đạo hiếu: The way of filial piety.
• Lục đức: The Six Virtues, a classical Confucian set of virtues which includes "hiếu" (filial piety) and "đễ" (fraternal duty) as separate components.
• Tam cương ngũ thường: The Three Bonds and Five Constants, key Confucian doctrines where family roles and virtues are central.

adj

1. rutiful to one's parents and submissive to one's edder brother