明末陸人龍編撰的短篇小說集《型世言》第四回〈寸心遠格神明，片肝頓蘇祖母〉可說是以小說形式描述割股療親孝行較早的文本之一。本文首先討論傳統中國社會中的割股療親文化和與此有關的相當複雜的論述，並指出此論述中禮教、倫理考量和情感因素常有抵觸。陸人龍從史書、地方志、教化讀物、女兒書等的割股療親記載得到靈感，尤其受到宋濂的〈麗水陳孝女傳碑〉所影響。本文指出宋濂強調割股療親的宗教性以藉此證明孝女陳妙珍割肝療親行為的正確性。陸人龍更進一步地虛擬神話和宗教奇蹟，並且把妙珍神化。他借用宗教奇蹟來增加故事的傳奇性並支持割肝療親之孝行。這篇小說對一些人物感情的詳細描述強化了情感和宗教、禮教之互動，也有助於協調情感與禮教之間的可能衝突。

This article examines the complex discourse of the filial acts of gegu liaoqin [cutting off a slice of flesh from one's body to cure a family elder]. The analysis focuses upon two representative texts: Song Lian's (1310-1381) "Biography of the Filial Daughter Chen from Lishui Inscribed on a Stone Stele," and "A Child's Filial Heart Reaches the Deities from Afar; a Slice of her Liver Revives her Grandmother Instantly," the Fourth Story of Lu Renlong's collection of stories, Xingshi yan [Tales of the World's Exemplars; ca. 1631]. This story is one of the earliest to contain fictionalized depictions of gegu liaoqin. While both works narrate the same story of the filial girl Chen Miaozhen cutting off a slice of her own liver and offering it to her ailing grandmother in order to cure her, they represent the act and its context relatively differently due to the two individual authors' varied emphases and generic considerations. A detailed analytical comparison of these two texts reveals how the two different authors negotiate the potentially conflicting priorities of Confucian ethics, Buddhist religious doctrine, and patterns of human emotion by creating dynamic interactions among them.