A couple of millenniums ago Confucius consecrated filial duty by making it the basis of the Chinese moral code.

His hand was the finishing touch of fossilification.
For since the sage set his seal upon the system no one has so much as dreamt of changing it.

The idea of confuting Confucius would be an act of impiety such as no Chinaman could possibly commit.

Not that the inadmissibility of argument is due really to the authority of the philosopher, but that it lies ingrained in the character of the people.
Indeed the genius of the one may be said to have consisted in divining the genius of the other.

Confucius formulated the prevailing practice, and in so doing helped to make it perpetual.