Widows in the Kinship, Class, and Community Structures of Qing Dynasty China

Mann, Susan

doi:10.2307/2056665

Cited by 86 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Third, it is unknown whether the remaining parent of the bereaved children/adolescents had remarried after the death of the spouse, so that we cannot examine the effect of parental remarriage on the cognitive development of the bereaved offspring. However, given that remarriage was not common in traditional Chinese society and that widow remarriage was once banned in China (Mann, 1987), the lack of this information might not substantially affect the study estimates.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Parental Death and Cognitive Impairment in Late Life: A Cohort Study

2019

SAGE Open

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The burden of dementia in China is expected to increase dramatically. This study aimed to estimate the potential impact of early parental death on cognitive functioning in late life and whether education is a possible mechanism underlying this association. Data were derived from the 2002 and 2005 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. The final sample consisted of 10,953 Chinese older adults aged 80 to 105 years. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the impact of early parental death and education on the odds of severe cognitive impairment in older men and women. Results showed that experiencing the death of a mother at or before 16 years of age significantly increased the risk of severe cognitive impairment in older men (but not women), independent of demographic, socioeconomic, and physical health conditions. This association did not persist over a 3-year follow-up period and was not mediated by education. These findings provide further evidence that childhood trauma is associated with adverse adult health outcomes, in this case the death of a mother in early life and cognitive impairment in late life. Potential mechanisms that may link early parental death to worse cognitive functioning over the life course were discussed.

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Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Parental Death and Cognitive Impairment in Late Life: A Cohort Study

2019

SAGE Open

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“…The hierarchical structure of brothers is the weakest even though, since the Song Dynasty, some scholars of Neo-Confucianism have appealed to have it considerably strengthened. But as historians of China show, even in the elite circle where obeying Confucian regulations strictly was a requirement, ideals were seldom completely fulfilled in practice (Ebrey 1981;Mann 1987). By means of the documented fratricide cases of late Imperial China, Adrian Davis shows that the understanding of the concept of fraternity among common people was very diverse, the grounds for escalation varying from conflicts over economic interests to abuses of seniority (Davis 2000).…”

Section: Breaking Hierarchy Into Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brotherhood Considered – Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North China

Wu¹

2010

Sociologus

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The culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety. Brotherhood Considered -Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North ChinaBy X i u j i e W u SummaryThe culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety.

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“…Concubines readied for the luxury market would certainly have bound feet, as would their mistresses. The cult of widow chastity, however, was of no direct concern to concubines; chastity as a &dquo;widow&dquo; was rarely expected of a concubine, and the chastity cult was largely concerned with matters outside their sphere (inheritance of family property, family and personal honor; see Mann, 1984, andElvin, 1984). Yet one could also argue that by stressing the wife's permanent incorporation into her husband's home-allowing neither remarriage nor a return to her natal home in widowhood-wives were becoming closer to concubines, who severed almost all ties to their family of origin.…”

Section: Another Three Years Went By and Kaomentioning

confidence: 99%

Concubines in Sung China

Ebrey

1986

Journal of Family History

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This article argues that concubines (ch'ieh) in traditional China should not be thought of as wives, even secondary wives. Using Sung dynasty (960-1279) evidence, the ritual, legal, and social differences between wives and concubines are examined. Wives were acquired through a betrothal process that entailed exchange of gifts and ceremonies; concubines were purchased through a market in female labor much as maids were. A wife's relatives became kin of her husband and his family; a concubine's did not. A man could take as many concubines as he could afford; he could marry only one wife. The sons of a concubine had the same rights of inheritance as the sons of a wife, but they had to treat their father's wife as their legal mother, honoring their "birth mother" to a lesser degree. A concubine had to treat the wife as her mistress, and she might well be used by the wife as a personal maid. The wife could rear the concubine's children herself if she chose to and would be their legal guardian if the father died. In criminal law, concubines fell between wives and maids in matters such as injuries to family members. The conclusion of this essay considers the ways in which the status of concubines changed in later centuries.

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Widows in the Kinship, Class, and Community Structures of Qing Dynasty China

Cited by 86 publications

References 7 publications

Early Parental Death and Cognitive Impairment in Late Life: A Cohort Study

Early Parental Death and Cognitive Impairment in Late Life: A Cohort Study

Brotherhood Considered – Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North China

Concubines in Sung China

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