The patriarchal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty had a far-reaching impact on Chinese history, and what role did it play at that time?

Effects at the time: ①Cohesion of clans, preventing internal strife, strengthening the power of the king, and closely integrating the "state" and "family". It ensured the stability of the king's power and the privileges of the nobles; ② It was mutually exclusive with the feudal system and established a hierarchical political structure

Impact on the present society:

Today, the patriarchal system has already been extinguished, but the influence of patriarchal thinking in traditional Chinese culture still exists.

Positively, it focuses on family building, advocates respect for the elderly and love for the young, and makes it easy to form a strong national cohesion.

The negative effects are the emphasis on the family, the over-emphasis on human relations, and the artificial division between the near and the far, which restricts the individual's sense of autonomy and equal rights. This is somewhat contrary to the modern sense of equality and the rule of law.

One of the key elements of the patriarchal system was the strict distinction between the first and the concubine, and the system of succession by the first-born son. The purpose of this system was to stabilize the internal order of the aristocracy and to resolve conflicts among the nobles. This system relied on the natural relationship of blood relatives to define the hierarchical status of the nobles, thus preventing the competition for power and property among the nobles. Under the patriarchal system, the lineage is passed down from the first-born son of the first ancestor to the first-born son of the first-born son, and the lineage is inherited by the first-born son from generation to generation. This system is called the dazong, and the first-born son is called the dzongzi, or the head of the dzongzi, and is respected by the clan***. The first-born son has the right to offer sacrifices to his ancestors. If the first-born son is unable to do so, only the second-born son can offer sacrifices on his behalf. The opposite of the big clan is the small clan. In general, the son of the Zhou Emperor was the eldest son, and the sons of the commoners were appointed as vassals, the Zhou Emperor was the eldest son, and the vassals were the youngest. The vassal also succeeded by his first-born son, and the sons of his concubines were appointed to be the daimyo, which were the lesser daimyo, while the vassal was the greater daimyo. The great lords also succeeded by their first-born sons, and the sons of their concubines were called sergeants, i.e., the minor lords. In the patriarchal system, the vassals and the great doctors had the dual status of the great and the small zongs.

The patriarchal system of the Western Zhou led directly to the feudal system, which divided the country into large and small vassal states, which in turn gave rise to the cognizance of many ministers and dukes. The cognacs were then divided into a large number of small and medium-sized fields. Since the names of the vassal states, cognates (eups, guan), and lutian (xiang, ting) were directly transformed into "clans" (以国为氏), (邑为氏), (邑为氏), (guan为氏), (乡为氏), and (亭为氏), the number of Chinese surnames blossomed and increased dramatically.

This is the fundamental impact of the patriarchal system on Chinese family names.

"Patriarchal law" is a kind of clan law, also known as clan rules, which adjusts the internal relations of the family by blood relations and maintains the dominance and hereditary privileges of the head of the family and the head of the clan. It originated from the traditional custom of patriarchal system at the end of the clan society. At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Duke of Zhou "made rituals and songs", systematized the original clan law, and formulated a complete set of patriarchal system. The core of the patriarchal system is the system of succession, that is, the eldest son born to the wife is the legal heir to the throne. The system of hereditary succession to the throne was already established during the Xia Dynasty, but there was a difference between the "husband's death and son's succession" and "brother's death and brother's succession". It was only at the end of the Shang Dynasty that the system of succession to the throne was fully established. At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the first-born succession system was established, which was "to establish the first-born in order to be long but not to be wise, and to establish the son in order to be noble but not to be long", and thus the patriarchal system was further perfected. The patriarchal system of the Western Zhou was closely related to the feudal system. The Son of Heaven was passed down from generation to generation according to the system of succession of the first-born, and was the "big clan" of the Son of Heaven, while the other sons of the concubine and the second-born, who could not inherit the throne, were also the royal family, and were divided into vassals, and they were the "small" ones subordinate to the "big clan". These vassals were also passed on from generation to generation according to the principle of succession of the first-born, while the non-first-born sons were appointed as ministers by the vassals. The vassals were also the "great lords" of the chief ministers, and so on. Below the dafu, there was the shi, which was the lowest level of the aristocracy, and was no longer divided into divisions. Under these circumstances, a patriarchal system was formed with the Son of Heaven as the foundation of the whole country. The purpose of the patriarchal system was to keep the political privileges, titles and property rights of the slave-owning aristocracy from being dispersed or weakened, and at the same time to help maintain the internal order of the ruling class and to strengthen the rule over the slaves and commoners. The patriarchal system had a great influence on the later generations.