Abstract: For the ancient Chinese, father-son relationship is the most important ethical relationship within the family, and the relationship between monarch and officials is the most important at the national level. People not only adhere to the moral requirements of the kinship, but also to the political ethics governing the monarch-officials relationship. The spiritual connotation of the two relations has laid the foundation of the social structure, the family-state relation, as well as the political order of traditional China. This paper analyzes the description of the “jun shi da lian” ritual （Emperor's attendance of funeral ceremony） in The Mourning Rites of Scholar-Officials to demonstrate how these two different relationships, deeply rooted in Confucianism, are interwoven together, interacting and influencing with each other. The respect emphasized in the state mourning ritual and the sadness emphasized in the family mourning ritual show the inner spiritual and emotional path of the traditional family-state relationship in China, that is, only people with a good heart who are filial towards their parents at home would be loyal to the monarch at the national political level. Similarly, how monarch and officials carry out their relationship reflects the father-son relations at the family level. The paper offers a new explanation for understanding the Chinese inner emotional state, behavior ethics, and social character and how they are shaped by this relationship structure in two layers: the hierarchy between superiors and inferiors and the differential obligations among family members.

Key words: mourning rites, family and country, monarch and officials, father and son, ethics