Introduction
It is most possibly correct to say that since the inception of humanity, there has not yet been an established stable human culture whereby any other institution has been ranked higher and deemed more important by its participants than the family unit. China being one of the civilizations that hold the family system as important is not unique nor the only one falling under this category. This paper will however attempt to introduce, define, expound and provide the principles behind the coordination of the family system in china. The paper will use a past tense in describing the family system even though these traditional concepts are still practiced in present china. The past tense in this paper is used as a way of laying emphasis on traditional China as well as avoiding the influence of urbanization and foreign influences on the family system, (Theodore w.1996).
The family in traditional china was defined as a patrilineal, prescriptively virilocal patriarchal, kinship group that shared one common domestic budget in a normatively extensive form. This definition of a family was quite different from a clan, lineage, or a descent line though they were all present in china. The terms defining a family in the light of the Chinese tradition are defined here below, (Ebrey, Patricia B 1993).
Patrilineal; This term means that descent in the family system was considered about the man or the father and not the woman or the mother. At birth, a child became a descendant of both parents that is the mother and the father; the child in china would adopt the father’s lineage. The China woman on getting married cut of ties entirely from her maternal home and now became fully affiliated to the husband’s family.
Patriarchal was a term used to refer to the hierarchical organization of the family. The most powerful person in any family was the most senior male family member. Emphasis was laid on males far much more than females. There was never any one time that any two members in a common family would be the same in terms of authority. For instance, the elder generations were senior to the younger ones, while men were senior to women. Consequently, any family unit would undoubtedly be under the authority of an older man or a man from the most superior generation to all the other men. However, even with that kind of hierarchy, different families were organized differently and the hierarchy norm would be just salient in some families.
Prescriptively Virilocal; this terminology means that it was always a very strong preferred and highly expected that newlyweds should endeavor to live with the family to the groom. The young men on marrying were supposed to take their new wives to the family homestead and settle there, (Zurcher, E. 1995).
Kinship Group: All the persons who were from a common kinship had to be related genealogically. This was by either being married to the family or having common ancestral roots. They were tied up to the group in that no boundaries existed between them. At all times, they collectively used family resources or share activities that they would otherwise not share with strangers.
Sharing of a one common household budget
All the property, processions, expenses, and income of all the people who were members of the same family, had to be pooled to a common point, and decisions on such processions would be subject to discussion by the members of the family in the patriarchal structure discussed above. Normatively extensive in form; It simply implied that a family consisted of a one descent line of husbands and their wives.
Ancestor Veneration
The term ancestor in ancient China is generally used to refer to any of the following persons.
- Relatives from past generations, who are either from the mother’s or the father’s side.
- The bodies of both the known and unknown relatives that are departed and part of the past generations
- Relatives who are departed even though they are from past births.
This refers to ancestral worship. The practice of worshiping the ancestors is common and predominant in the rural parts of China. In these parts, the death of an elderly person is never forgotten. The surviving family members always remembered them during ceremonies and such festivals. Food, during the ceremonies and festivals, was offered to the ancestors before the family members could eat. Prayers then follow after giving the offering and the children within the particular family are requested to make known their wishes, (Traylor, Kenneth L. 1988).
Admiration and respect were accorded to the ancestors of the traditional Chinese families. To a man, the ancestor referred to his dead male ancestors alongside their respective wives while to the woman the term ancestors referred to only two of her male ancestors with their respective wives. The only exception was a couple that belonged to a senior generation. In such a case, this bit would as well be extended to all the male ancestors of the husband as well as their wives. This veneration was also known by the term ancestor worship or better yet Ancestorism, (Ch’en, Kenneth.1983).
This form of respect and worship of the dead was a religious ritual. It was grounded on the popular belief that the deceased members of the family continued to live and exist way after their death. It was also a belief that the dead ancestors were still interested in the affairs of this world which they had long left behind their graves. They had the power and ability to affect and influence the lives of the living family members. The main objective of ancestral worship was to make sure that the ancestors continued living well and that they had a positive influence over the living people. It was also done to obtain assistance and special favors from the ancestors, (Baker, Hugh 1979).
Besides the religious factor in ancestral worship, there was a social aspect of it. The worship was purposively done to cultivate the most treasured kinship values in the living family members. These were important values like the continuity of the family lineage, continuity of the family lineage, and filial piety. Ancestral worship is not a universal form of worship or even a practice commonly practiced in other parts of the world. It is commonly practiced in societies that have over a long time have had a high degree of technological, social, and political complexity. The practice remains ingrained in some societies and it forms a very important element of the several religious practices in the world today.
The societies that practice ancestral veneration do not consider it similar to worshiping other foreign gods. Rather they feel that it’s a form of consistently providing for the ancestors since there is life after death. It is different from worshiping other gods since it does not involve asking for favors from the ancestors, (Ebrey, Patricia 1993).
Patrilineal Structure
The family system in china was Patrilineal. This statement implies that the structure of a family is not static but rather has a structure. This structure is represented in the process of a family’s growth and constant division through natural events like deaths.
Divorce, birth, marriage, and adoption: Under this form of a structure there is never a typical kind of a family but rather a sort of series of the various stages of a family that emanate from the cycle that forms the family structure. This kind of cyclical series is never repeated in two sets of families or even in consecutive generations. This is mainly because of the cyclical events that take place and lead to the divisions in the family structure (Bary, W. 1994).
The process of the family system was directed by several principles which existed within the limitations of the biological framework or reproduction in human beings. The result of a combination of various values was a variation in the developmental cycle of the human family. The cycle of a nuclear family resulted from an early timing in the cycle. A nuclear family could either be monogamous or even polygamous. One single-family group could only be composed of the father, mother, and children. When it grew bigger than or smaller than that, then it ceased to form a family group. In the late timing of this cycle and the estate of the family integral, then according to the Chinese traditions, only one daughter or one son together with the parents could make up a single-family group. This now became a stem family.which could either be polygamous or monogamous. (Twitchett, Denis and Michael, 1986).
If in such a case the estate of the family was partible, all the people involved were allowed to share in both the membership of the family and inheritance. Such a family could also go ahead and develop into a typical joint family. The joint one was composed of the parental generation, great grandchildren’s generations, grandchildren’s generation, and even the married couples in the children’s generation. This type of system in the Chinese family setup was called a monogamous, patrilineal joint system of family. A joint family in most of the instances could never have grown and developed to form a community. This was mainly because the family splits eventually. The joint family that was recorded as the longest in china had nine legendary generations.
Filial Piety
Familiarity can be defined as the dominance of the child-parent relationship in the inseparable personal, religious as well as a social realm in one’s life span. This definition in china was at the same time taken with great and deeper meaning. Familiarity was so much more than simply and merely giving of just material care and support to one’s father and mother. The practice and Chinese tradition also involved self-cultivation and deliberation for appropriate respectful and reverent dispositions towards the parents that had to come right from a person’s inner conviction.
Filial piety refers to the act of caring for one’s parents through their lifetime up to their advanced years of age and even beyond the grave. The children who are descendants of a given parent in china were supposed to show respect and not be rebellious to their parents. In addition, they were meant to support, show love, display courtesy, uphold fraternity among brothers, ensure male heirs, conceal their parent’s mistakes, wisely advise one’s parents, show sorrow for the parent’s sickness and eventual death add finally perform sacrifices once the parents died, (Eberhard, Wolfram, 1995).
In China, final piety was always regarded as the first virtue culturally. It forms the largest number of stories told about ancient china today. Though China has always had diversified religious beliefs, final piety was a belief common to all religions. More precisely, this honor to one’s parents was not a sheer blind loyalty demonstrated towards the parents. It is most important to note that the norms attached to this devotion in traditional china had to be norms of righteousness and benevolence. Filial piety is also known by the term final piety was a practical belief and practice that was at all times and ideally applied in a person’s dealings particularly for the younger people when dealing with elder persons. (Dawson, Raymond, 1978).
Due to the importance and seriousness of this Chinese tradition, that filial piety was a general norm that was passed over from one generation to the next. This very significant cultural belief in the family system among the Chinese was not observed generally to all the parents. It was reserved for one’s own family. Filial piety was only practiced between a parent and the family including the grandparents and not to outside families.
References
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Ch’en, Kenneth. (1983): The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism. Princeton.
Dawson, Raymond, (1978): The Chinese Experience, New York.
Eberhard, Wolfram, (1995): History of China, University of California Press.
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Theodore w. (1996): The heritage of china. New York, the Free Press.
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