Students of anthropology are fond of drawing a distinction between “guilt” cultures and “shame” cultures. In the former, you feel bad when you have violated an objective moral standard, while in the latter you are ashamed when you fail to measure up to some norm of family or society. An oversimplified distinction would be that shame results from “failure” while guilt comes from “sin.” Western society is – or used to be – an example of a “guilt” culture, and China is a prime exhibit for the “shame” cultures.

Many Chinese consider filial piety to be the crown jewel of their civilization. The core of Confucius’ teaching, some aspects of filial piety reach back into the dawn of Chinese civilization, centuries before Confucius himself.