Chinese kinship
The Chinese kinship system is among the most complicated of all the world's kinship systems. It maintains a specific designation for almost every member's kin based on their generation, lineage, relative age, and gender. The traditional system was agnatic, based on patriarchal power, patrilocal residence, and descent through the male line. Although there has been much change in China over the last century, especially after 1949, there has also been substantial continuity.
In the extended family, every child, from birth, participated in an organized system of kinship relations involving elder brothers, sisters, maternal elder brothers' wives, and various aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and in-laws. These relationships were precisely named and differentiated. The kinship system influences every aspect of Chinese custom and morality and even law - the rights and duties they entailed were even enshrined in the legal codes of the Ming and Qing dynasties, so that gross violation could invite legal sanction.
In traditional Chinese thought, these relationships carry extensive rights and duties whose fulfilment that constituted both righteousness and propriety. These rights and duties included love and care, certain kinds of respect on the basis of relation alone, mutual support - including financial, and mourning in the event of death. Fulfilment of these duties constituted the principal Chinese virtue - filial piety. Family members expect to be addressed by the correct term that indicated their relationship to the person communicating with them. Whenever wills clashed, it was expected, and even legally enforced, that the will of the superior family member would prevail over the will of a junior family member.
In the Chinese kinship system:
- Maternal and paternal lineages are distinguished. For example, a mother's brother and a father's brother have different terms.
- The relative age of a sibling is indicated by specific terms. For example, a father's younger brother has a different terminology than his older brother. Twins are ordered by whichever baby came out first if necessary.
- The gender of the relative is distinguished, as in English.
- The generation from ego is indicated, like in English.
The 19th century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, without field-work or detailed descriptions, classified Chinese kinship as a "Sudanese" or "descriptive" system.
Kinship and Chinese societies
Literature and history
Kinship terms appeared in the earliest Chinese lexicon, Erya. Chapter Four Shiqin is dedicated to an explanation of kinship and marriage. Another lexicon from the late Han dynasty, Shiming, has a detailed list of forms of address for all relatives.With the influence of Confucianism, the concepts of kinship and consanguinity are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. One of the Confucian teachings is filial piety, which it is extended to a series of five relationships known as the Five Cardinal Relationships, three of which are related to the family:
- ruler and subject
- father and son
- elder and younger brother
- husband and wife
- between friends
Culture
In Chinese culture where the extended family is still valued, kinship terms have survived well into current usage. Also, since it is taboo to refer to or address a more senior family relation by his or her given name, the kinship term is the only possible term of address. When there are many siblings as in many Post–World War II baby-boom families, the relation is distinguished and addressed according to age or rank, going as far as ordering twins by which baby came out first if that is necessary. For example, 大 is used in the address for 大姨 ; 二姨 for the second eldest sister of one's mother; 三姨 for the third eldest sister of one's mother, etc. In cases where someone is older than his more senior relation, such as an uncle, it is common to address the senior relation with a diminutive suffix.Because some of these terms have no equivalent in foreign languages, they are not easily translated and the descriptiveness is often lost in translation. However, terms such as "Second Uncle" are sometimes used. Translating kinship terms from other languages often presents the problem of ambiguity as there is no equivalent general term for when the relationship is unspecified
Despite the complexity of the kinship address system, it is common to simplify it for the sake of familiarity. Some formal kinship terms are not familiar to many people, cumbersome, or not preferred by the addressee. For example, a cousin once removed may at her discretion be referred to as simply a cousin if she is of a similar age to the speaker.
Law
The Great Qing Legal Code was the last set of Chinese laws where the complete kinship terms were shown. The Qing code not only confirmed the importance of defining kinship relations, but also defined the legal and moral conducts between family relations. Although there was no specific statute in the Qing code to define kinship terms, it specified the mourning attire and ritual appropriate according to the relation between the mourner and the deceased. Kinship relationships also played a crucial role in the administration of justice under the Qing. Penalties were more severe for crimes committed against senior relatives within the family hierarchy. Crimes committed against those outside of the extended family were punished less harshly. Crimes committed by senior family members against their inferiors were least likely to elicit harsh sentences.Among the 47 statutes added in 1740 under Qianlong Emperor, Statute 2 and Statute 3 dealt with mourning attire completed with charts. According to Qing law, one had to observe a period of mourning when a relative died. The closer and more senior the deceased family member, the longer the period of mourning is dictated by law. The mourning period range from three months to three years. During this period, the bereaved had to stay at home, excuse himself from public service, refrain from celebrations of all sorts, and practice abstinence, among other things.
The "extermination of nine kindreds" is considered one of the most severe punishments found in traditional Chinese law enforced until the end of Qing. The practice of exterminating the kins had been established since Qin when Emperor Qin Shi Huang declared "Those who criticize the present with that of the past, Zu". Zu referred to the "extermination of three kindreds" : father, son and grandson. The extermination was to ensure the elimination of challenges to the throne and political enemies. Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the practice but it was reintroduced by the succeeding Emperor Yang. Not only did he bring back the punishment, but he also extended it to the nine kindreds.
In the first year of the reign of the Yongle Emperor, the prominent historian Fāng Xìao-rú committed an offense worthy of the "extermination of nine kindreds" for refusing to write the inaugural address and for insulting the Emperor. He was recorded as saying in defiance to the would-be Emperor: "莫說九族，十族何妨！". Thus he was granted his wish with an infamous case, perhaps the only one, of "extermination of ten kindreds" in the history of China. In addition to the blood relations from his nine-agnates family hierarchy, his students and peers were added to be the tenth group. Altogether 873 people were said to have been executed.
To this day, a three-character term for "death to the entire family" remains a powerful profanity in the Cantonese language.
Clan
A Chinese clan is a patrilineal and patrilocal group of related Chinese people with a common surname sharing a common ancestor. In southern China, clan members could form a village known as an ancestral village. In Hong Kong, clan settlement is exemplified by walled villages. An ancestral village usually features a hall and shrine honoring ancestral clan members. A clan pedigree can be found recording male members of the clan. A married woman is considered part of her husband's clan.Marriage and divorce
Marriage is an important rite signifying the coming together of two clans and the beginning of a new family unit. Marriage has to be permanent and issue is expected. Weddings were central occasions in a family's life. Spouses were chosen carefully by the parents. Marital agreements, especially among the well-to-do, were stipulated with contracts between both families. This practice was continued for centuries and spread throughout the world, and goes on to this day. Divorce was nearly impossible. The choices made between the families held great importance, and weddings were held on certain days to ensure good fortune. This practice gained prominence during the Han dynasty.Polygamy
had been practiced in Chinese societies for thousands of years. Since the Han dynasty, Chinese men have been able to legally have only one wife. It was common for privileged Chinese men to have a wife and various concubines, however. For those who could afford a bride price and support a family of multiple concubines and children, polygyny provided a better chance of issuing heirs. The importance of this was apparent in the imperial court, which usually housed hundreds of concubines. Aside from concubinage, having multiple wives with equal status was also accepted prior to the ban on polygamy.In a concubinage situation, the wife, concubines and their children would live in the same household. Wives and concubines would often refer to each other as "sisters". As a concubine was not wedded in a marriage ceremony, she had fewer rights in the household. There was also no inter-clan relation between the man's clan and the concubine's own kin.
Polygamy was banned in China in 1930 when the Republic of China government promulgated Civil Code where Section 985 states "A person who has a spouse may not contract another marriage. A person shall not marry with two or more persons simultaneously." This is still in effect today in the territories under effective administration of the Republic of China including Taiwan and Kinmen and Matsu. However, as infringement of marriage cannot be prosecuted without a complaint by the wife, one can still unofficially practice polygamy by registering only one marriage. Such practice still happen occasionally among older and wealthy men. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Communists on the mainland, this banning was reaffirmed in the passage of the Marriage Code of 1950. In Hong Kong, new polygamous marriages were no longer legally allowed after 1971 with the passage of the Marriage Reform Ordinance. Due to this, incidents of extramarital affairs rose. Some men have even established a family with their mistresses and children kept secret from their wives. There is a phenomenon of cross-border polygyny usually involving Hong Kong men and their mistresses living in mainland China.