the family in chinese thought

[clay dube]

Please read the primary sources included in the reader and

-- identify the values they seem to hold high and seek to transmit

-- describe the practices they inspire and justify

-- speculate on how these values and practices affected the hopes, fears, and expectations of individuals

[clay dube]

While actual family structure and practice varied over time and place, the "traditional" Confucian family, throughout East Asia, was generally a two or three generation one. Because of the internal and external pressures to divide family property, few families achieved the ideal of five generations living under one roof.

It was stratified according to
- generation
- gender
- age

Only one of the five Confucian relationships has an element of equality about it:
ruler - subject
father - son
husband -wife
elder brother - younger brother
friend - friend

Family rituals, including practices exhalting/recognizing ancestors reinforced this structure (i.e., supporting the authority of the eldest male member of the senior generation).

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