Since the pre-Ch'in epoch, it is widely believed that the preservation of body integrity is essential in the practice of filial piety. However, after the T'ang dynasty, there arose a contradictory phenomenon: the utilization of one's flesh as medication for parents. The self-injured medication, as a cultural phenomenon, is practiced in various forms, such as the cutting of flesh form the thigh, arm, chest, heart or liver. They are informed by medical texts, medical advice, hearsay, and family tradition. Orthodox Confucianism prohibited self-injure because the practice may hurt the parents' felling. Cutting one's flesh is definitely contradict to this teaching. In this matter, whether the end justifies the means is controversial subject among Confucians since the T'ang Dynasty. During the T'ang and Sung Dynasties, most people viewed it as a tolerable behavior. At the end of Ming Dynasty, the majority began to appreciate the purpose of parent-saving, no longer viewing it as misbehavior. The reason of this attitude-shift is possible related to the justification from the educated class, for since the Ming Dynasty there is a trend of self-injure the members of educated families. The official attitude toward this kind of extreme behavior is not always the same. It is prized during the T'ang and Sung Dynasties, but not so during the Five Dynasties, Yuan, Ming and Ch'ing. Regardless of the imperial policy, local authorities often saw it differently. A great number of local officials prize it to show that they care. This attitude seems to result from the demand for justification of the public, and the increase of the practice among the educated.