Tang Soo Do · Five codes
Obedience to parents
Definition
Honor your father and mother. Obedience here is respect and care, not compliance with harm or with what is wrong.
The lesson
An adult man is not a child in the house. The code still binds him. He does not speak of his parents with contempt. He does not disappear when they are old, difficult, or no longer useful to his image. He listens before he corrects.
If a parent asks what righteousness forbids, he refuses the request and keeps the honor. Obedience that follows a parent into wrongdoing has already broken the code. Care that remains after the refusal is the harder obedience.
Do one concrete honor for a parent or for the person who raised you. If a duty and a demand conflict, keep the duty and say so plainly.
Performative respect in public and neglect at home, or obedience used to avoid becoming a man.