As a Chinese proverb goes: among the hundreds of benevolent1 acts, filial2 piety3 is the most important. It means that filiety4 to the parents is dominant among many virtues. If a person is not even dutiful to his parents, it is difficult to imagine that he is likely to love his country and people.

As the ancients said: "to love other people's parents and children as my own." We should not only be dutiful to our own parents, but to other elder people and love the youngsters.

Zi Lu was born in Lu Country at the end of Chunqiu period. He was very famous for his ability in handling government affairs as well as his bravery among Confucius5 's students. But he was very poor when he was young, living on coarse6 foods year in year out.

Once, his old parents wanted to eat some rice. But there was none left at home. What to do? Zi Lu thought that his parents' needs could be met by climb over several mountain ranges7 to borrow some from his relatives.

So, young Zi Lu climbed several mountain ranges and walked miles to take back a small sack8 of rice. When seeing his parents having their bowls of delicious rice, Zi Lu had forgotten his tiredness. He was praised by his neighbors as a brave and filial boy.

中國有句古語：“百善孝為先”。意思是說，孝敬父母是各種美德中占第一位的。一個人如果都不知道孝敬父母，就很難想象他會熱愛祖國和人民。

古人說：“老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼”。我們不僅要孝敬自己的父母，還應該尊敬別的老人，愛護年幼的孩子。

子路，春秋末魯國人。他在孔子的弟子中既以通政事著稱，又以勇敢聞名。但子路小的時候家里很窮，長年靠吃粗糧野菜度日。

有一次，年老的父母想吃米飯，可是家里一點米也沒有，怎么辦?子路想到要是翻過幾道山到親戚家借點米，不就可以滿足父母的這點要求了嗎?

于是，小小的子路翻山越嶺走了十幾里路，從親戚家背回了一小袋米，看到父母吃上了香噴噴的米飯，子路忘記了疲勞。鄰居們都夸子路是一個勇敢而孝順的好孩子。

注釋

①benevolent adj．慈善的

②filial adj．子女的，孝順的

③piety n．虔誠，孝行

④filiety n．孝順

⑤Confucius n．孔子(公元前551～前479年，

中國春秋末期思想家、政治家、教育家，儒

家的創(chuàng)始者)孔門弟子

⑥coarse adj．粗糙的，粗鄙的

⑦range n．山脈，行列，范圍，射程

⑧sack n．大袋，大袋之量，麻布袋