Author ｜
Yi-heng Lin
Abstract ｜
By analyzing the context and the relationship between the characters in the Chinese swordsman novels translated from Japanese and published on Taiwanese newspapers, this paper focuses on how loyalty and filial piety was used as the main principle to deal with monarch/courtier and father/son relationships. It further examines the establishment of the concept of loyalty and filial piety, as well as the transition of “loyalty is greater than filial piety” to “loyalty and filial piety as a whole” in these novels. It is indicated that, instead of the principle of “loyalty is greater than filial piety,” the principle of “loyalty and filial piety as a whole” was the mainstream idea throughout the period of Japanese rule on Taiwan. Therefore, the context behind this phenomenon is also investigated in this research. Finally, this paper hopes to lay the foundation for the future research on the history of idea in Taiwan under Japanese rule.
keywords ｜
loyalty and filial piety, swordsman, monarch/courtier, father/son, the five cardinal relationships