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The Chinese kinship system (p=qīnshǔ xìtǒng) 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 patriarchy, patrilocal residence, and patrilineality. 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 moralityXunzi versus Zhuangzi, Two Approaches to Death in Classical Chinese Thought, Charles Fraser, University of Hong Kong, p2 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 (yi, 義) and propriety (li, 禮). 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 (xiao, 孝). Family members expect to be addressed by the correct term that indicated their relationship to the person communicating with them. (2025). 9780674116733, Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674116733 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:
The 19th century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, without field-work or detailed descriptions, classified Chinese kinship as a Sudanese kinship or "descriptive" system.
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 (), Transcript of essay on Chinese kinship. Dated 1561. - NB. link broken, Internet Archive copy instead three of which are related to the family:
In the Three Character Classic, the nine are listed in the following stanza:
| Great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, father and self, self and son, son and grandson, | |
| 自子孫 至玄曾 乃九族 人之倫 | from son and grandson, on to great-grandson and great-great-grandson. These are the nine agnates, constituting the kinships of man. |
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 (such as if an English speaker mentions their aunt or uncle without specifying which relationship their aunt or uncle is to their family)
Despite the complexity of the kinship address system (see terminology section below), 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.
Among the 47 added in 1740 under Qianlong Emperor, Statute 2 ( Charts/Tables of Mourning Attire, (喪服諸圖)) and Statute 3 ( Code of Attire, (服制)) 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" (誅九族) 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 dynasty when Emperor Qin Shi Huang (reigned 247 BC–221 BC) declared "Those who criticize the present with that of the past, Zu" (以古非今者族). Zu (族) referred to the "extermination of three kindreds" (三族): father, son and grandson. The extermination was to ensure the elimination of challenges to the throne and political enemies. Emperor Wen of Sui (reigned 581–604) abolished the practice but it was reintroduced by the succeeding Emperor Yang (reigned 604–617). 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 (Ming dynasty, reigned 1402–1424), the prominent historian Fang Xiaoru (方孝孺) committed an offense worthy of the "extermination of nine kindreds" for refusing to write the inauguration 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！" ("Never mind nine agnates, go ahead with ten!"). Thus he was granted his wish with an infamous case, perhaps the only one, of "extermination of ten kindreds" (誅十族) 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 (冚家鏟) for "death to the entire family" remains a powerful profanity in the Cantonese language.
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 (Part IV) 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."http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/Fnews/FnewsContent.asp?msgid=740&msgType=en&keyword=marriage 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 Antragsdelikt 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.
As of 2006, the in Hong Kong and Macau ranked among the lowest two in the world. Hong Kong, ranked the lowest in the world, was the only territory with less than one child born per woman on the average. Both Mainland China and Taiwan were ranked well below the world average. Similarly, the in Hong Kong and Macau ranked among the lowest three in the world. Both Mainland China and Taiwan were ranked below the median.
A product of rising divorce rates in Chinese societies is the breakdown of the traditionally close-knit kinship relation. On the other hand, remarriage could provide more than two sets of paternal or maternal relatives.
The "older" interpretation ("古文說") defined the nine grades of relations strictly in the paternal line. That is, nine generations from great-great-grandfather down to great-great-grandchildren. This interpretation was officially recognized after Tang dynasty and Song dynasty dynasties. By Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty dynasties, laws have defined the patrilineality of the nine kindreds. This interpretation was cited in Part III Chapter 2 of Lewis Henry Morgan's 1877 book Ancient Societies.
The "contemporary" interpretation ("今文說") defines the nine grades of relations to be four generations from the paternal line, three from the maternal line, and two from the wife's. Historically, this definition has been used during award, punishment and family annihilation.
Yet another interpretation suggests that "nine" is actually an arbitrary number as nine is considered a large number in Chinese culture. As such, it means anyone and everyone related is to be executed in the context of family annihilation.
In a concubinage situation, a concubine was only required to mourn for her husband, his wife, his parents, and all his children including her own, whereas a wife was required to mourn for almost all of her husband's near relatives. In addition, there was no requirement to mourn the death of a concubine except by the man's children.
Since the end of feudal China, the rituals of the five degrees of mourning have largely given way to simpler and less elaborate observance.
Conventionally, clans adopted the five degrees of mourning according to unwritten definitions that determines the difference between close and distant relatives. As such, marriage between relatives that were covered within the five degrees of mourning was considered taboo and immoral. These definitions, unlike the mourning ritual, are still applicable in determining whether a marriage is acceptable, albeit fewer people are familiar with the mourning rituals themselves.
According to these definitions, many relatives considered "distant" in Western cultures are considered close in Chinese culture.
The five degrees of mourning attire in decreasing order of severity are:
Where they differ, the Simplified Chinese character is presented first, followed by the Traditional Chinese character in parentheses.
| 1 (3 years) |
| 1 (3 years) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 4 5 if married |
| 4 5 if married |
| 2* (1 year) 2 (1 year) if in-law parents are not deceased |
| 1 (3 years) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 |
| 2 |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 2 (1 year) 3 -if married |
| 0 |
| 2 (1 year) 3 -if married |
| 0 |
| 3 |
| 3 |
| 5 |
| 3 4 -if married |
| 3 4 -if married |
| 5 |
| 5 |
| 5 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 0 |
| 4 |
| 0 |
| 5 |
| 5 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 3 |
| 2 (1 year) 3 -if married |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 2 (1 year) -heir-apparent 3 -all others |
| 2 (1 year) |
| 5 |
| 0 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 2 (1 year) -wife of heir-apparent 3 -all others) |
| 0 |
| 2 (1 year) -wife of heir-apparent 5 -all others |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 5 |
| 5 |
| 1 (3 years) |
| 1 (3 years) |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 3 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| co-wife |
| concubine |
| paternal: 4 maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 4 maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 4; 5 if married maternal: 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| paternal: 2 (5 months) maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 5 maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 5 maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 5; 0 if married maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 2 (3 months) maternal: 0 |
| paternal: 2 (3 months) maternal: 0 |
| ? |
| ? |
| ? |
| ? |
| 2 (1 year) maternal: 0 |
| 5 maternal:0 |
| 2 (1 year); 3 if married maternal: 0 |
| 0 |
| male: 5; female:0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| male: 5; female:0 |
| 5; maternal: 0 |
| 5; maternal: 0 |
| 0 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4; 5 if married |
| 4; 5 if married |
| 5 |
| 5 |
| 5; 0 if married |
| 5; 0 if married |
The saying of "three fathers and eight mothers" (三父八母 ; Sān fù bā mǔ) refers to:
As a result of polygamy there would be half-siblings:
General:
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