Stimulated by honors conferred by the government during the Tang and Song periods, filial piety, by the beginning of the Ming, was being taken to extremes. In 1394 Ming Taizu (Zhu Yuanzhang) responded by banning honors for extreme filial demonstrations. Along with this prohibition, however, his decree confirmed the legitimacy of such actions, demonstrating a strategy of safeguarding the fundamental interests of the throne by any means possible. The flexibility of the decree was given full play by Taizu's successors, who all drew on filial piety as a ruling technique. Even when not issuing official honors for extreme filiality, Ming emperors regularly might award letters to encourage it. The way in which Ming officials coped with the contradictory policy underlies the proclivity of Ming commoners for filial behavior that stretched the boundaries of what was accepted.

中文翻译：

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在褒与禁之间：明朝如何应对极端孝顺

在唐宋时期政府授予的荣誉的刺激下，孝道在明初已被推向极端。1394年，明太祖（朱元璋）以禁止极端孝道的荣誉作为回应。然而，除了这一禁令，他的法令还确认了此类行为的合法性，展示了以任何可能的方式维护王位根本利益的策略。太祖的后继者们充分发挥了法令的灵活性，他们都以孝为治国之术。即使不为极度孝顺而授予官方荣誉，明朝皇帝也会定期授予信函以鼓励这种行为。