And for most of the past millennium, Chinese criminal law provided that unfililal conduct-such as hitting or cursing a parent-could be accepted as just cause in the cases of parents who murdered their offspring. Those old-time filial paragons and legal codes are wildly at odds with today's notions of children's rights, and basic human rights as a whole.
元明清的刑律也規定：子孫有毆罵不孝的行為，被父母殺死，可以免罪。古時候的孝親楷模與律法，放到今天的社會來看，不但完全違背兒童人權，連基本人權也談不上。