In Chinese kinship, why does uncle have the greatest status and the most respect?

First: the concept of relatives is different from the concept of relatives

In traditional Chinese society, relatives is a two-noun, pro refers to the clan, the relatives say outside the clan, relatives have the difference between inside and outside the clan relatives refers to their own family relatives with the same surname, according to the relationship between the near and far are: uncle, uncle, brother, from the brother, then from the brother, and so on. The first is that the first cousin is a brother, that is to say, a brother of the same grandfather, and the son of the uncle is a brother to himself.

Extra-ethnic relatives are relatives related to the mother by blood, and in terms of proximity, they are: uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on. Cousins are brothers of the same maternal grandmother, and the sons of uncles' and aunts' families are cousins to ourselves.

In traditional Chinese society, the royal family, the big family especially focus on the kinship between the same clan, because both the inheritance of property, or family power are running in the clan, never run to the relatives, which also brings a negative problem, precisely because the relatives of the clan are involved in the inheritance of property and the family power struggles, so their relationship is often not very cordial. For example, in ancient China, the emperor was not afraid of relatives interfering in politics, and was most afraid of the clan interfering in politics. Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty could reuse his uncle Tian mole, but he could never tolerate his uncle, Liu Wu, the king of Liang Xiao, to take control of the dynasty, and Liu Wu, once he took control of the dynasty, was likely to usurp the throne, and Tian mole's power was so great that it would not be his turn to be the emperor, and if he wanted to be the emperor, it would be a change of the dynasty.

Well, the same problem existed among small families in ancient China, where nephews were on better terms with their uncles and aunts, while nephews were not on good terms with their uncles and uncles, because of the problems of property inheritance and family power struggles between relatives of the same clan.

Second: the power of uncles

In the early days of human society, there were two kinds of kinship systems, one was the kinship system in which matrilineal relatives were inherited by descent, and the other was the kinship system in which patrilineal relatives were inherited by descent, and the social relations in matrilineal clan societies were practically inherited by matrilineal relatives, whereas the social relations in patrilineal The social relations of matrilineal clan society are actually inherited from patrilineal relatives as lineage.

Matrilineal clan societies, valuing the relationship between uncle and nephew, and sacrificing to the *** same matrilineal ancestor, that is to say, in matrilineal clan societies, uncle is equivalent to the father, and the high status of the uncle in ancient Chinese societies is actually a tradition left over from matrilineal clan societies.

The uncle in traditional Chinese society is the patriarchal representative of the mother's family, he is the mother's brother, and for the nephews are the closest relatives outside the clan, and the uncle enjoys special power over the nephew's family in the handling of some important affairs, for example, in some places, the nephews' marriage feast, the uncle needs to sit on the upper seat. Even if the uncle does not come to the scene, can not open the feast; involving the mother's important affairs, the uncle has a certain right to speak, which in fact is likely to be the matriarchal clan society left behind the tradition.

In summary, in traditional Chinese society, among the relatives within the clan, the status of uncle and uncles is the highest, and they have the right to speak on important matters within the family, while among the relatives outside the clan, the status of uncle is the highest, and he is the representative of power in the mother's family.