Chinese family

The Chinese kinship system (simplified Chinese: 亲属系统; traditional Chinese: 親屬系統; pinyin: qīn shǔ xì tǒng) is classified as a "Sudanese" or "descriptive" system for the definition of family. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Sudanese system is one of the six major kinship systems together with Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Crow, and Omaha.

The Sudanese/Chinese kinship system is the most complicated of all kinship systems. It maintains a separate designation for almost every one of Ego's kin based on their generation, their lineage, their relative age, and their gender.

In the Chinese kinship system:

Chinese kinship is agnatic, emphasising patrilineality.

Kinship terms appeared in the earliest Chinese lexicon, Erya. Chapter Four 釋親 is dedicated to an explanation of kinship and marriage. Another lexicon from 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 (五倫), three of which are related to the family:

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