Many Japanese families involve "family" and "separation". What is family and what is separation?

Family: During the Warring States Period in Japan, the name of the ruling country claimed itself. Japan's home is a concept of business entity, which emphasizes the relationship between property and residence, and takes blood relationship as a reference for the distribution of property and power. Belief in Japanese gods is not limited to one's ancestral spirits. On the contrary, this god is often associated with the country. In Japanese society, there is no blood relationship between family and separation, separation depends on family life, and family provides land and land for it. The eldest son inheritance system prevails in samurai society, and the eldest son inherits not only property, but also the right to manage the family and sacrifice. This distribution is conducive to the concentration of property and resources, and it is easier to adapt to the needs of modern development. The development of Japanese family businesses also benefits from this traditional cultural factor to a great extent. 1. Japan's "home" Japanese scholars focus on the system of "home". Nozhuo, a famous social anthropologist, summed up the Japanese "home" as the following definition: home is a public institution that aims at the survival and development of the family and continues to complete it in the form of inseparable family business and family affairs. (Note: See [Japan] Nakano Zhuo: The Japanese の Family, Hong Wen Hall, 1985, p. 284. In addition, according to nakane chie's definition of home in "The Structure of Home-An Analysis of Social Anthropology", Okada believes that Japan's "home" is not a concept as common as "home" in all societies, but a system bred by Japanese society according to special historical and economic factors, especially in rural areas where the "home" system is developed and modern political conditions exist. In Japan, "home" is a residential and property unit composed of parents and their families (including retainers and servants). Once "home" is established, it will exist as an inseparable social unit in the regional society. "Home" is not so much formed by blood as by life or economic factors. "In social organizations, the element of residence plays a more important role, which is a * * * phenomenon that can only be seen in a society without a single blood organization. In a society with a single consanguineous organization, the qualification of a single consanguineous member is of primary significance to the composition of the group. " There are also many societies that regard housing or economic factors as an important function of "home". The Japanese society that developed the "family system" on the premise of adopting children is a good example. "'home' is a basic social group that defines the rights and obligations of blood relatives according to residence and property, including non-blood relatives." (Note: See [Japan] Okada Chien: "Homologous Families", in Village Structure, Future Society, 1973, p. 139 ~ 140. In short, Japan's "home" is the concept of a commercial entity. It can adopt adopted sons and people other than relatives, and sometimes it also accepts non-relatives (servants, etc.). People who are not related by blood are members of the "family", and the adopted son enjoys the right of separation and family inheritance. The concept and reality of "home" in traditional Japan are often confused with "home", but in fact, home and "home" are not the same thing. It is a common fact that members of a "family" form a family, but not all members of the "family" are related by blood, such as "family members", not only wives, cohabiting parents, brothers and sisters, but also employed people. In Japanese, "ぃぇ" means "かきど" (stove). In other societies with cultural traditions, there are many similar expressions. In China, "かきど" and "smoke" have been symbols of family since ancient times. A family living together is the same stove and eating in the same pot. Fire, food and living together form a family. Therefore, fire and "かきど" (stove) are often used as symbols of "family". Nevertheless, in the life and economic factors of "family", the blood factor is the priority, and there is also a relative priority in inheritance, but it is not the only one. The separation of Japanese can be seen from the works about China's separation. There are three main relationships in China's family: father-son relationship, brother relationship and husband-wife relationship. These three relationships have different characteristics in different points of family development. Before separation, the relationship between father and son was dominant, the relationship between brothers was cooperative, and the relationship between husband and wife was covered up by the relationship between father and son. After separation, if the father is alive, the relationship with the father-son relationship as the main axis still exists, but the joint relationship between brothers is replaced by the husband-wife relationship, which has become the center of the new branch family. Therefore, families in China have the flavor of partnership economy in property distribution. Because partnership and dissolution are a natural separation process, and this separation is naturally based on equality, the family as an entity is indeed divided, and the property of the family is also distributed among different brothers. This process is a veritable separation, which mainly refers to the separation of brothers. In terms of Japanese family inheritance, the concept of "separation" in Chinese simply does not exist. Although Japanese also has the Chinese character "Bie", it is completely different from China's "Bie". In Japan, the so-called "separation" has no verb meaning. It's just a noun. This term mainly refers to the branch family established by sons other than the eldest son, because the eldest son generally inherits the family, and the separation in Japan also contains non-blood elements, such as the separation established by adopted sons. The relationship between families and separation in the same village is not equal, but a master-slave relationship. In the stable agricultural production, a certain degree of land accumulation is the premise, and separation has no land inheritance right, thus forming a family with land and a family without land. As a separation, it is natural to live on land, and the land is often provided by one's own family, so the operation of separation needs to rely on one's own family. In modern society, the family established by sons other than the eldest son is often called separation, but it is completely different from the general separation because there is no subordinate relationship. It may be easier to understand if a picture is used to represent the separation between China and Japan. (Note: Figure 1, see [Japan] Nakagen Qian Hui et al.: "Tiancheng シンン12508 ム", published in "Japanese China", elementary school museum, p. 94. As shown in figure 1, Japanese families actually developed around an inheritance line, and their family types also developed on this basis, and immediate family members (the main family) became their main family types. In this way, the Japanese home has become a permanent group handed down from generation to generation, and that permanent home is a symbol, and the integrity of the home can be continued. However, the inheritance of the eldest son is not unique. If you can't have children, you can inherit it from your brother, son-in-law and adopted son who are not related by blood. When it comes to family property inheritance, it naturally comes to mind that Japanese is the eldest son inheritance system, and China is the equal division system for all sons. However, if we examine the families of warriors and civilians separately, we will find that they are different to some extent. The eldest son inheritance system is a matter of course in samurai families, but it may not be completely followed in civilian families. But one thing is certain, that is, the inheritance mode of samurai family also affects the inheritance of Shu Ren. After Meiji Restoration, the inheritance of samurai family entered Japanese civil society. Figure 1 Family and separation (A and B are brothers, △ stands for men, ○ stands for women, = stands for marriage).

The inheritance of modern samurai is not Lu Feng's inheritance, that is, "retainer" (the word "retainer" in the middle ages refers to the military commander-in-chief power of a family, and the Edo period refers to the owner of a family and the property belonging to a family, that is, Lu Feng), but is based on the redistribution of Lu Feng, accompanied by the concepts of surname inheritance and sacrifice inheritance. But Lu was awarded on the condition of serving the Lord, that is, serving is the family business of the samurai. So the concept of family inheritance is the concept of family inheritance. Although it didn't appear on the surface, it still existed fundamentally even in the edo period. It can be seen that the inheritance of the family governor's office has both honorary and economic significance. The word "inheritance" has a "private" nature in modern jurisprudence. But in the edo period, it had the nature of "public". After entering Meiji, he changed from samurai to gentry. In the succession of samurai (later gentry), the eldest son and adopted son are the main ones. In the traditional society of China, although all scholars are divided into the mainstream of inheritance, other forms of inheritance are not excluded. But the main line of inheritance is based on paternal blood, and sons-in-law and outsiders cannot inherit it. In the Japanese succession, an independent family was inherited, which has a surname and a family business (this family business is different from China's family business, mainly referring to the business that this family has been engaged in for generations, such as the tea ceremony). Even in the early years of Meiji, the concept of family business was still very popular. At that time, if the word "family supervisor inheritance" was viewed subjectively, it was surname inheritance; Objectively speaking, it is a family inheritance; Functionally, it is the inheritance of family business. Furthermore, it also contains the meaning of letting the sacrifices of ancestors be passed down forever. (Note: See [Japanese] Shiga Xiusan: Principles of Family Law in China, pp. 29-30. However, after entering the Meiji period, the inheritance of the family governor's office gradually became an important system for the common people's family inheritance. Many scholars, when studying China's family, think that China's family can't inherit "home" because of separation, and it mainly inherits family property. But in my opinion, because separation does destroy the integrity of the family, the family is in a state of division, but this so-called division is limited. The principle of inheritance and integration of separation and family identity are still inherited by people. The current provisions of Japan's civil law were formulated in 1947, but until the revision of the Civil Law, there was a fierce debate between the abolitionists and the maintainers of the "family system", which turned out to be a product of compromise, that is, the "family system" in social life was separated from the "family system" in law. However, the head of household system and the eldest son inheritance system were abolished in law, and husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters inherited according to the principle of equality. Along with it, the concept that the property of "home" is equal to "family property" has disappeared. All property belongs to individual private property, and its distribution is equally distributed to all children according to the principle of equality before the law, thus establishing an equal inheritance system. However, the principle of equal inheritance is almost impossible in rural areas. One reason is that the concept of "family property" still exists. On the whole, the consciousness that "family property" wants future generations to inherit "family property" is still deeply rooted, and it still has a great influence until the 1960s. The second is the remnants of unpaid labor. In rural Japan, the eldest son works for his family for free in order to maintain his family business. After his parents died, he naturally became the head of the next generation. Before the promulgation of the postwar civil law, the eldest son and his parents worked together for a long time, maintaining land-centered "property", while the second and third sons made little contribution to the family. In this way, if parents die, the eldest son, the second son and the third son have the same rights to property, which brings new unfairness. In fact, until now, the right of the eldest son to inherit this customary law has not been completely eliminated in rural Japan. The two different "separation" systems in China and Japan not only have great influence on the formation of economies of scale, but also may be closely related to social ideology. For example, liberalism and authoritarianism, egalitarianism and inequality. In a word, the different operating mechanisms of family separation have formed different family forms in China and Japan. As far as the traditional Han family based on paternal consanguinity is concerned, it has certain hierarchy and embodies multi-level structural characteristics, which is obviously different from the traditional Japanese family. The Han family itself presents the characteristics of vertical and horizontal development. Japan's home only develops vertically: the inheritance of the home is inherited by the eldest son, and the sacrifice and residence are also inherited by the eldest son-this is the home. Corresponding to this is the separation, and as the heir of the separation, the separation is also inherited in the role of separation. The resulting clan and family separation constitute the important foundation of Japanese family groups, and family separation is also the internal mechanism of clan or family formation. Kinship in Japan The kinship organization in Japanese rural society is an important part of Japanese social structure. The study of various relationships within the same family is the main topic of modern Japanese social anthropology. The investigation and study of the same clan can be traced back to 1930s, with Hershey Zuo Ji Chuan, Kitano Keiichi and Chuanhong as the representatives. The study of ethnic groups is also one of the central topics in the neighboring disciplines of social anthropology, such as rural sociology and folklore. Japanese blood group is not a single-line paternal blood group defined in the blood theory of social anthropology. Although it has the characteristics of leaning towards the paternal line, it is not a blood group formed by the society based on the principle of paternal and maternal relatives inheritance, as pointed out by Professor nakane chie. Its structure is essentially loose and does not exist as a stable isomorphism. That is to say, B separated from A family is in the middle between A and B separated from C. Compared with the relationship between B and A, B plays a stronger role in C. "Family unity" is a very important concept in Japanese kindred research. The concept of "family combination" was originally put forward by the Japanese rural kindred group Saemon. The so-called "family association" is the * * * identical body that takes the family as the living unit and other families as the unit and combines through various connections in life. In the villages of the same clan, the constituent unit of the same clan is "home", so the relationship between families and the form of family combination are essentially the combination of the same clan. As mentioned earlier, although Japanese families are based on marriage and blood, in fact, family members are based on living and economic conditions. And "home" often includes members other than blood. It can be said that "home" cannot exist without blood elements, but "home" can be established even without blood elements. Of course, the members of "home" and "family" are often the same, but as a concept, they should be clearly distinguished. Japan's "home" is not based on the principle of blood, so the role of members is not necessarily determined by blood. It's okay to inherit from home, even if it's not necessarily direct blood relatives. It is also common for adopted sons and son-in-law to inherit the family business without relatives. This clearly embodies the essence of "home". Family structure like this is not based on blood relationship, so the kinship established as a collection of "families" will naturally penetrate non-blood factors. Of course, "family ties" does not mean kinship, but the establishment of kinship is based on "family ties", but this "family ties" is composed of "family" and "fen", that is, it is composed of an original family called "Ben Jia" and a newly established functional group belonging to this family. The typical separation relationship is that the eldest son inherits the family business and the sons below the second son separate. Clan and separation are isomorphic in function, which is obviously different from the pedigree relationship of China clan. But this does not mean that the same family has no pedigree sequence. To be exact, kin is a separated group based on the ancestral and genealogical order recognized by * * *. According to the genealogical relationship with the ancestral family, there is also a status relationship between the separated groups. Figure 2 reveals the pedigree and sequence relationship of the same family. Fig. 2 Genealogy and sequence of the same clan (Note: See Hiroshi Akada: Relationship between Villages, Family 9 of Japanese Folk Culture, Village People, Primary School Museum, 1984, p. 102. )

As can be seen from Figure 2, ancestors have the highest family status, and the separated groups form a certain sequence according to the established order. That is, the closer to the ancestral family, the higher the status, thus gradually forming the separation of A, B and C. A established the separation of D. In this way, the ancestral family is divided into four branches, and the serial numbers on the horizontal axis in the figure represent the upper and lower sequences. E, separated from the family, is not related to the ancestors, so it is in the last position, which also shows that blood relationship is not an absolute condition in the composition of the same family. Of course, this is a typical family and separation diagram. This is as Fu Wuzhi said: "The Japanese blood relationship not only has the master-slave nature of family and family separation, but also includes non-blood separation ... This can still be seen in old shops in backward rural areas and underdeveloped cities until now." (Note: Japanese Humanistic Society: The Feudal Legacy System, with Gefei, Tokyo, 195 1 year, p. 60. Kinship organizations in Japanese society are similar to the clan system in China on the surface, but the content is completely different. If compared with China, the Japanese are obviously family-centered; In China, in principle, people who become elders often do not come from a certain family, and generally recommend the elders of the highest generation. Therefore, the home in the center is not fixed, and people from poor families may become elders. Therefore, in order to make up for the weakness of this system, a "title" similar to clan directors was specially set up. But these patriarchs are not fixed among people of a certain family. However, kinship in Japan includes non-blood relatives, and the principle of consanguinity is not absolute; According to the principle of paternal consanguinity, China's relatives are obviously linked.

With the abolition of Japan's eldest son inheritance system, the blood group established by family and separation has lost its substantive significance.