Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in Liáozhāi Zhìyì in Terms of Filial Piety

Liáozhāi Zhìyì is one of the representative compilations in the genre of zhìguài ‘strange writing’ during the Qing (1644-1912) era, and it conveys filial piety through narration and authorial commentary. This research scrutinizes narratives regarding the preponderant construal of filial piety, so as to explore the harmonious contemporaneous of religious thinking and behavior in Qing China. This research conducts interpretative and hermeneutic research on four narratives in Liáozhāi Zhìyì, namely, X í Fāngpíng, Lè Zhòng, Sìshí Qiān, and Qiánbǔ Wū, and also refers to classic treatises regarding filial piety. Given the fact that narratives in Liáozhāi Zhìyì themed by or appertaining to filial piety entail elements of three religions simultaneously. This study propounds that it illuminates amalgamation of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, i.e. sānjiàohéyī, in seventeenth-century China.

The pinnacle of zhìguài compilations in the Qing dynasty is unanimously regarded to be an epoch-making masterpiece 聊斋志异 Liáozhāi Zhìyì 'Strange Tales/Stories from a Chinese Studio' or 'Strange Tales from the Liáozhāi Studio', the themes, plot lines, and narrative styles of which are also profoundly inspired by Sōushénjì (Yuan 1999, Yuan and Xu 2000: 177, Teo 2006, Nienhauser 2010 Cook 2014) as well as 传奇 chuánqí 'marvel tales' or 'transmissions of the strange' of the Tang (618-907) era (Bush 2001: 152, Zhao 2005: 31-32, Nienhauser 2010. Liáozhāi Zhìyì (henceforth Liáozhāi) is a posthumously Públished chef-d'oeuvre of 蒲松龄 Pú Sōnglíng (1640-1715), a prolific intellectual of iconic fame in Classical Chinese literature (Yuan 1984, Chang and Chang 1998: 1, 42, 2004: 130, Teo 2006, Cook 2014, Hughes et al 2016. Although Liáozhāi is composed in the vernacular style of the seventeenth century and expounds anomalies and prodigies, it exhibits similitude in terms of narrative rhetoric with the monumental 史记 Shǐ jì 'Records of the Grand Historian' composed by a court scribe and  (Li 1985, Yu 1987) and appends third-person authorial comments to a total number of 149 tales, introduced by an expression 异史氏曰 Yìshǐ Shì yuē 'the Historian of the Strange says' (Zhao 1984), which is on a par with the style of Shǐjì (Li 2004: 319, He 2011. The authorial commentary assumes a preponderant role in Liáozhāi, in that it constitutes a frame elaborating the narrative core and themes, and epitomizes Pú's insights into characters, storylines, and counsel for readers (Zhang 1989, Zheng 2001, Barr 2007).

Method
In this paper, I investigate the epoch-making zhìguài classic Liáozhāi.
By scrutinizing narratives appertaining to the preponderant construal of filial piety, I postulate that Liáozhāi embodies the amalgamation of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in pre-modern China.
In Liáozhāi, there are approximately fifty anecdotes implicitly or explicitly alluding to filial piety, the significance of which is illustrated by an array of benefits: being a filial son can be awarded affluence, officialship, longevity, immortality, as well as offspring and their blessing (Yang 2011). In this paper, I conduct interpretative and hermeneutic research on four narratives in Liáozhāi, namely, 席方平 Xí Fāngpíng, 乐仲 Lè Zhòng, 四十千 Sìshí Qiān, and 钱卜巫 Qiánbǔ Wū, and I also refer to classic treatises regarding filial piety. Moreover, with its literary prominence, artistic value, and narrative skills, Liáozhāi and its author Pú have received a prodigious amount of interpretative, hermeneutic, and biographical scrutiny, reflected by the prosperous transnational critical industry dubbed as 蒲学 Pú-xué or 聊 斋学 Liáozhāi-xué that literally means 'Pú/Liáozhāi-ology' (Barr 1984, Li 2005, Wang 2006, Fan and Liu 2019, Zou 2019. In this paper, I also draw on 'Pú/Liáozhāi-ology' literature.

Literature Review
In Confucianism, filial piety (孝 xiào) is construed as a pivotal virtue (see Ivanhoe 2000: 2, 2007, Chan and Tan 2004, Nuyen 2004, among many others), one of the underlying and overarching precepts of the moral system and the anthropological source of ethically evaluative sentiment (Yao 1995, Hwang 1999, Ikels 2004: 187-191, Larm 2012, Van Norden 2019. Filial piety, along with fraternal responsibility in the family and loyalty (忠 zhōng) to the country, function as derived virtues and underpin 仁 rén 'benevolence; humanity' which is one of the 五常 wǔ cháng 'five constants/relationships' (Cheng and Cheng 1989: 105, Wilkinson 1996, Huang 2013, Chen 2018, Tan 2018) and the fundamental credo in the entire Confucian school of ethical thought (Ames 1991, Neville 2011, Slingerland 2011, Chen 2013, Wong 2020. Buddhist ethos also entails filial piety, which is reflected by scriptures that depict Buddhists conducting heroic acts to benefit their parents (Ch'en 1968, Teiser 1988, as well as imperatives to repay parents' kindness (Ch'en 1973, Sung 2003, Kunio 2004. Additionally, Buddhist filial devotion is marked by its overarching construal of reincarnation: since deceased ancestors could exist in various forms by reincarnation, Buddhists, who practice universal compassion covering animals, hell beings, and denizens of diverse post-mortem realms, can thus thoroughly accommodate reincarnated ancestors (Wilson 2013(Wilson , 2014. Moreover, filial piety is a pivotal aspect of Buddhist ethical teachings (Strong 1983, Xing 2005. According to medieval Buddhist propaganda, one is obliged to take the fate of one's parents in the afterlife into consideration, so the most filial conduct is to become a monk or nun, or at least make a plenitude of donations to monastic institutions (Cole 1998: 62, 235, Despeux andKohn 2003: 145-146): inscriptional and textual evidence illuminates that both monastics and laity make donations to benefit their living and deceased parents (Schopen 1984).
Filial piety plays a preponderant role in Daoist ideology: as prescribed by a medieval Daoist classic 太平经 Tàipíng Jīng 'Scripture on Great Peace', 天下之事, 孝为上第一 tiānxià zhī shì, xiào wéi shàngdìyī 'among the activities of this world, filial piety is supreme and of first rank' (Wang 1960: 592, Hendrischke 2007: 363, Liao 2013, Eskildsen 2015. Filial impiety, however, triggers karma that renders Daoist followers subject to hell, abominable rebirth, and inability to attain immortality (Kohn 2004). The establishment of Daoist filial piety is inspired by and hence inextricably intertwined with Confucian filial piety (Zheng and Zhan 2011), in that it further enriches and expounds its Confucian counterpart, as exemplified by a statement that 人亦天地 之子也 rén yì tiāndì zhīzǐ yě 'men are children of heaven and earth', proclaimed by Taiping Jing (Wang 1960: 406, Hendrischke 2007: 228, Liao 2013. Humans are also perceived to have an especially close relationship with their ancestors, so the acts of ancestors directly impinge upon the fate of descendants, referred to as inherited evil that is constituted of various concepts of ancestral wrath, personal retribution, and collective punishments (Chen 1986, Brokaw 1991: 28, Hendrischke 1991, Kohn 2004. As a national faith of China, the construct of 三教合一 sānjiàohéyī 'the unity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism' initially occurred before the Tang dynasty (Brook 1993, Gong andGong 2010), based on the integration among and condominium of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism that is of foreign origin Whitehead 2011, Shahar 2013). Since it first attained popularity during the late Ming (1368-1644) era (Duara 2008), this late imperial gentry syncretism has been underpinning a scheme in which Confucianism is regarded as the mainstay, while Daoism and Sinicised Buddhism serve as branches (Han 2011, Shan 2012c, Sun 2012. Despite divergent canons, liturgies, and venues (Huang 1998, Adler 2002, such harmonization of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism is referred to as syncretism: as propounded by a proverb from a 1605 novel 封神演義 Fēngshén Yǎnyì 'Investiture of the Gods' that is of massive and grandiose conception (Kao 2002, Lu 2011, '[t]he three teachings-the gold and cinnabar of Daoism, the relics of Buddhist figures, as well as the Confucian virtues of humanity and righteousness-are basically one tradition' (Plopper 1926: 16, Teiser 1996: 3).  (Hirota 2000, Leeming 2002, Keown 2004) is included, yet in the posterior context, salient Confucian virtues of zhōng and xiào, which serve as two interwoven components of rén, are also mentioned (Example (1)).
Confucian promulgation of ancestral worship is ascribed to conventional institutions, in that offering sacrifices to ancestors leads to reverence for elder and senior members in familial and societal hierarchies (Hall and Ames 1996: 64-65, Nichols 2011, Shan 2012a, so Confucian scholar-rulers endeavor to harness subordinates for kinship solidarity, community stability and social harmony (Cohen 1992, Chen 2018).

Moreover, ancestral worship constructs indebtedness and
interdependence and reinforces a reciprocal relation-faith pattern between ancestors and worshipers (Yang 1976: 357-358, Shun 2002 'Le Zhong was a posthumous child. Being a devoted Buddhist, Zhong's mother had been a vegetarian refraining from drinking. Zhong grew up to be an alcoholic and gastronome who disdained his mother's practice, so he often induced her to try gourmet food. Such acts were always rebuffed sternly. Later, his mother was in extremism and eager for meat. Zhong could not find any meat immediately, so he cut some flesh off his left thigh to feed his mother. When his mother slightly recovered, she was so contrite to violate the abstinence that she starved herself to death. The mournful Zhong cut his right thigh deep to the bone with a sharp knife; he was rescued and cured by his family and recovered gradually. Zhong grieved over his mother's abstinence and stubbornness, so he burned the Buddhist statue and worshipped her instead. He often wept in front of her memorial tablet after drunkenness.' (Liáozhāi. Lè Zhòng. Trans. Mine) As can be seen from Example (2), apart from orthodox Confucian norms prescribing widow chastity (Mann 2002, Theiss 2002, the anecdote depicts Buddhist practices including vegetarianism and propitiation; moreover, in the rest of the narrative, Buddhist elements such as sexual abstinence and lotus are also expounded. More significantly, the portrayal of cutting off one's flesh in (2)  argues that to attain 'great virtue', one is not expected to stringently comply with trivial ritual details regarding hurting one's body (Kunio 2004).
Additionally, the protagonist's reverence for his mother in Lè Zhòng embodies Daoist (aka Taoist) filial piety that places an emphasis on mothers. To be more specific, in stark contrast to Confucian patriarchal ideals epitomized by 三从四德 sān cóng sì dé 'Three Obediences and Four Virtues' (Gao 2003, Rosenlee 2006: 90-92, Lee 2009), Daoist teachings recognize the feminine role in the ethical system and deploy a metaphorical representation to link female reproduction to the oneness of the universe and the essence of Dao (Despeux and Kohn 2003: 1-2, Zheng and Zhan 2011, Cook 2015.
A narrative 四十千 Sìshí Qiān 'Forty Thousand' conveys a karmatic belief through a Buddhist monk that children are to collect the debt from parents incurred during their previous incarnation (Example 3). In the story, an affluent man has a dream about owing another man forty thousand, and upon he wakes up, his wife delivers a boy, so he allocates forty thousand as the maintenance to raise this newborn. Three years later, there is only seven hundred left, so he informs the boy of his incoming decease. The boy immediately breathes his last, and the remaining money exactly covers his funeral cost. Furthermore, as can be seen from Example (3) 'The family that accumulates goodness is sure to have superabundant happiness. The family that accumulates evil is sure to have superabundant misery.' (Yì Jīng. Trans. Legge 1969: 20) A distinctive property of Daoist doctrine lies in its quest for longevity and even eternal life (Akahori 1989, Despeux and Kohn 2003: 1, Shan 2012a; consequently, Daoist filial piety is featured by children's obligation to obtain physical immortality for their parents (Zheng andZhan 2011, Liao 2013) as well as their commitment to prolong the life expectancy of their parents (Hendrischke 2007: 303, 363, Zhou 2012. In 席方平 Xí Fāngpíng depicting Confucian filial piety, the protagonist's filial deed is rewarded by an additional thirty-six years of life for his father (6), which typically indicates the Daoist belief.
'Given your son's filial piety and your kindness, thirty-six years'additional life will be bestowed upon you.' (Liáozhāi. Xí Fāngpíng. Trans. Mine) Furthermore, the protagonist in Xí Fāngpíng also serves as the epitome of Daoist filial commitment and devotion. Filial children in a Daoist sense are obliged to cultivate themselves and thrive (Zheng and Zhan 2011, Liao 2013, Wu 2014). According to a Daoist classic treatise 文昌 孝经 Wénchāng Xiàojīng composed in the Song (960-1279) dynasty (Xiao 1997, Wu 2014, Zhang 2015, filial piety is encapsulated by one's competence in assuming responsibilities, which functions as a prerequisite for empathy with parents, as in Example (7) personal lives would first rectify their minds. Those who wished to rectify their minds would first make their will sincere' (Ng 2009: 4, Shan 2012b, Liu and Cao 2014, Wu 2017; as stated in 中庸 Zhōngyōng 'Doctrine of the Mean', 'one who knows how to cultivates his person knows how to govern men; and one who knows how to govern men knows how to govern the states and families of the world' (de Bary and Bloom 1999: 337, Pohl 1999: 85, Zhang 2014, Tan 2017).

Conclusion
As can be seen from narratives exemplified by Lè Zhòng and Xí