Korea Journal of Buddhist StudiesISSN:1598-0642(Print)불교학연구회

Buddhism started in India as a religion advocating the life of departing household life and family. However, contrary when it was came to China, it was changed to emphasize the virtue of filial piety. This kind of view seems to be generally accepted. So we may think that there are very few contents of saying about filial piety in Indian Buddhism. Nevertheless, Gregory Schopen has tried to conform whether this view is true or not, and has examined the early Indian Buddhist inscriptions of donations. As the result of his study, he finds out the fact that early Buddhism in India also has some descriptions of filial piety. The main content of the descriptions is about the reasons why people undertake acts of religious giving is that they want to make the living or dead parents of donner get benefits. This was a very important practice of their religious life in India. This was also very important to monks. But we think that the materials used by Schopen are not enough for dealing with the whole figure of filial piety in Indian Buddhist. Then in order to make a further study, we have searched the discussions and stories on the filial piety in Tripitaka. About the materials of discussions, there are Sishi er zang jing(四十二章經), Fanwang jing(梵網經), Liufang li jing(六方禮經), Guan wuliang shoufo jing(觀無量壽佛經), Shanshengzi jing(善生子經), Zengyi ahan jing(增一阿含經), Fumu en nanbao jing(父母恩難報經), Xiaozi jing(孝子經), Dacheng bensheng xindi guan jing(大乘本生心地觀經) and Maitrakanyaka. Especially Maitrakanyaka written in sanscrit contains a long passage indicating a clear concept of filial piety in Indian Buddhist. About the materials of stories, there are stories of Suddhodana, Mâyâ, Mahâprajâpatî, Maitrakanyaka, Sujâta, Syâma, Maudgalyâyana, Sâriputra, Uttara, Ksitigarbha. In them, Suddhodana, Mâyâ, Mahâprajâpatî are the Sâkyamuni's parent stories; Maitrakanyaka, Sujâta, Syâma are the Jâtaka stories; Maudgalyâyana, Sâriputra, Uttara, Ksitigarbha are the Sâkyamuni's disciple stories. Through the analysis of these sources, we can find out that the filial piety was one of very important morals in Indian Buddhism, and that `the filial piety-culture' was variously developed as well. The true filial piety consists in leading parents to the religion, liberty, moral, tolerance and knowledge-perfection. Reaching to this standard, according to buddhist, it may be called to accomplish the Grand Filial Piety.