Mǎng Î asked what filial piety was. The Master said, “It is not being disobedient.”
Soon after, as Fan Ch’ih was driving him, the Master told him, saying, “Mǎng-sun asked me what filial piety was, and I answered him—‘not being disobedient.’ ”
Fan Ch’ih said, “What did you mean?” The Master replied, “That parents, when alive, be served according to propriety; that, when dead, they should be buried according to propriety; and that they should be sacrificed to according to propriety.”