董永=Dong Yong; 孝道思想=filial piety; 賣身葬父=sold himself into servitude to pay for his father's funeral; 董永變文=The Narrative of Dong Yong; 尋母=in quest of mother
Dong Yong is a representative of filial son in Chinese traditional folk stories and the origin of his story dates back to the earliest in the portrait of Wuliang Shrine in the Eastern Han Dynasty, followed by the ”Dutiful son Biography” written by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty, ”Ganoderma” written by Cao Zhi in the Three Kingdoms Period, and ”Soushenji” by Gan Bao in the Jin Dynasty. Until the time of the Tang Dynasty, there were ”The Narrative of Dong Yong” in Dunhuang manuscripts, ”Dutiful son Biography”, ”Soushenji” by Gou Dao-Xing, and ”FayuanZhulin” by Dao Shi. Dong Yong's story is based on ”Soushenji” and adds new chapters to the Dunhuang manuscripts that is rich in contents. Among them, 《Dong Zhong in quest of his mother》is the one with most distinctive feature. In the Song Dynasty, many editions were collected, and the storybook ”Dong Yong's passing on the immortal” was bred. In the Ming Dynasty, Gu Jue-yu's ”Brocade” combines the "play" with "emotion" to bring new vitality to the story of Dong Yong. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the traces and causes of changes in the stories of Dong Yong in the past dynasties, as well as to use the thought of filial piety as a clue to reflect the evolutionary process of Dong Yong's story from "basic type" to "development" and finally to "mature". The author's discourses are divided into five chapters: the first chapter is introduction that includes the research motivation and purpose, the review of previous researches, the scope and methods of research. The second chapter is based on the text of Dong Yong in each period to sort out the proper arrangement of the story. The third chapter discusses the filial piety of Dong Yong story during the period of Han Wei and Six Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, Dong Yong's “sold himself into servitude to pay for his father's funeral” was influenced by the concept of “ luxurious burials” from the value of the Confucian ethical code, while the reaction to the filial piety of nature came in the Wei Jin Dynasty, emphasizing that filial piety was a natural expression of human nature. Since Dong Yong's "highest virtue", "the filial piety has moved the heaven" and therefore got the assistance from fairy maiden, this echoes the Confucian's interactions between heaven and mankind and Buddhist's "what goes around comes around." The fourth chapter discusses of the filial piety of Dong Yong story during the period of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the Song and Ming Dynasties. The filial piety during the Sui and Tang dynasties was deeply influenced by Buddhism which can be seen from the frequently used Buddhist scriptures in Dunhuang manuscripts regarding Dong Yong. Buddhism advocated filial piety by promoting the grace of parenting and the works related to filial piety to get the merit of advising filial piety. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, the focus was on the family and ethical perspectives conveyed by the story of Dong Yong. The plot of “in quest of mother” was based on “filial thoughts that are inherently and without considering self”, demonstrating the importance that the Song people attach to a successful parent-child relationship. In the Ming Dynasty, under the influence of Yangmingism, the tradit
