The statues illustrating parental kindness are laid out beneath a line of seven Buddhas (Shakyamuni plus six other Buddhas of the past). This relief (and the complementary filial piety relief, #18) incorporate a homiletic Confucian message about family values, under nominal Buddhist auspices. This answered Chinese Confucian critics who had censured Buddhism as indifferent, if not actually hostile, to the claims of family.