What are the characteristics of the clan system in China?

First, take the consanguinity of the same clan as the bond to maintain the clan. From the patriarchal clan system at the end of primitive society, with the emergence of individual families, the family is dominated by patriarchy, and the principle that women marry men and wives live in their husbands' families has been established. After entering the national civilization, due to the special geographical environment, this blood bond has not been loosened but strengthened. The patriarchal clan system based on consanguinity was directly used as the organizational form of state power in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Since the birth of the country, it has shouldered the task of maintaining the hierarchical order with blood relationship as the core. In feudal society, although a complete centralized bureaucratic political system was established from the central government to the local government, the blood ties were not weakened, and the ruling class advocated the patriarchal spirit. Patriarchal consanguinity becomes the bond between family and clan. The feudal patriarchal clan system is a grass-roots regional force formed on the basis of paternal blood. They built ancestral temples, established family rules and formed their own system. "If they were not my race, their hearts would be different." They "were born to love each other and died to mourn." They unite the whole family by blood. This principle based on consanguinity moralized and legalized feudal rulers and became a tool to maintain family integrity and stability.

Second, patriarchy and clan power are the core of clan power. Patriarchy is established with the establishment of paternal blood. It was constantly practiced and enriched in the slavery era, and completed in the feudal era because of the perfection of feudal etiquette. In the clan, patriarchy and clan power are higher than all members and become the core of the clan, with the highest power. The whole clan is subject to economic autocracy and ideological autocracy, such as the property rights, punishment rights, secondary rights, marriage rights and sacrifice rights of the patriarch. The principle of respecting the old and caring for the young, obedience of husband and wife, and humbleness is also derived from the patriarchal clan system.

Third, maintain clan rule with feudal etiquette and family rules. The traditional customs of patriarchal clan system and the ethical concept of clan system combined with Confucian orthodoxy to form the feudal clan etiquette system. Later, after the transformation and development of feudal rulers, a set of feudal etiquette system with "three cardinal guides and five permanents" as the core was formed. According to these feudal etiquette systems and the specific situation of families, feudal clan organizations formulated their own family laws and regulations. The feudal rulers also fully realized its legal effect, so feudal etiquette and family rules became powerful weapons to maintain clan rule and imprison people's thoughts and behaviors. It is worth noting that in the feudal society thousands of years after the Qin and Han Dynasties, the grass-roots government of the country was generally only set at the county level, and the social grass-roots below the township level were mostly autonomous or semi-autonomous.