Duties born of bonds
On the axis: Partiality · the bonds
Do my duties to my children or my friends arise from the bond itself, which obliges by its very existence, or are they my share of a concern owed equally to everyone, because each of us watches best over our own?
Justification
Humaneness does not descend from an abstract principle: it grows out of the affection lived in the family and then radiates in concentric circles. Xiao (filial piety) is accordingly presented as the very root of ren 仁 (humaneness), and this is what licenses a graded favour rather than equal regard for all. The case of the son who screens his father's fault, where the master sides with family solidarity against denunciation, is the deliberate test of the thesis: to sever love from its partial, affective source would dry up morality itself, against any impartialism that claims to love strangers and kin alike.
Uprightness lies in this: the father screens his son, and the son screens his father.Analects, XIII, 18
Analects, I, 2 (filial piety, the root of humaneness) · Analects, XIII, 18 (the father screens the son, the son screens the father)
Anchors: Confucius · Mozi · Sidgwick