Inheritance Practice In Ping'an Village

Post-mortem inheritance and equal inheritance among sexes are the two principles of themodern inheritance law But at present, the property succession reality in China's rural area isdifferent from these principles. First, when there are two or more sons in a family, the usual habitis still "splitting the household when the parents are still alive"; second, the married-out daughtersdo not inherit anything at all. More than seventy years after the above-mentioned principles wereestablished in China, what is the reason of the disparity between law and reality? This is the veryquestion this research is about to answer.This research is a community-based case study. The research spot is Ping'an village: a villagein Shijiazhuang municipality, Hebei Province, which is the researcher's hometown. The mainresearch methods are interview and participant observation, supplemented with questionnaire anddocument study. Around the focus of family property succession, this study involves such socialproblems as elderly support, family line succession, virilocal residence, villager status attainment,building-plot application regulations, marriage, funeral rituals and so on. Explored are the political,economical, social and cultural foundations of the inheritance practice in Ping'an village.The main principles of the household division are: sons inheriting equally, married-outdaughters not inheriting, sons sharing the responsibilities of parent-supporting, and married-outdaughter being exempted from the supporting responsibilities. Traditionally, the reason thatdaughters do not inherit is that daughters cannot hold family lines. This research finds that theprinciple behind the traditions is stirpism of the succession of property and family lines. Stirps arethe subject of succession of family lines and property, and also the subject of holding andtransferring property ownership. Family property is the common property of all family members,not the personal property of the father, so the Chinese family is a corporation. Different from themodern inheritance, the ownership transfer of property in the "household division"takes placebetween two corporations, not between two individuals. For the families with only one son,because father and son ever belong to the same stirp, there is not property ownership transfer, butonly the shift of managerial power between two successive property managers of the family.Traditional household division is the dual event of intergenerational property transfer andproperty splitting among brothers. Only at this occasion is there the real transfer of propertyownership. The result of household division is the birth of new stirps. The new stirps are the newsubject of rights. Only under the birth of new subjects of rights can there be transfer of propertyownership. At this time, old stirp dies out, its property being divided by the newborn strips.Parents after household division do not belong to any stirp, neither do they constitute independentstrip. They are only the collective dependents of their sons, or the "living ancestors incarnatedearlier".Traditionally, sons'succession toward his father is inclusive. That is to say, they not onlyinherit their parents'property, but also their debts as well as the responsibility of supporting themin their old age. If there is more than one son, the usual practice is to support the elderly parentsalternatively: parents get accommodation alternatively from each son. Another choice is that eachof the two (or two groups of) sons receives one parent respectively, separating the old couple intheir old age. Because parents lost right of owning the building-plot thus the right of owning ahouse, they actually have to sojourn periodically in their sons'homes. In Ping'an village, thestandard of living of the elderly is generally lower than their sons. The main reason of this is thatthey do not have independent income resources, only relying on their sons'provision. Some sonsrefuse to give living allowance to their elderly parents. This phenomenon is deeply rooted in thetradition of pre-mortem inheritance, which deprived the parents of their own property when theyare still alive. For the parents with unfilial sons, daughters are their last resort. The five-guaranteepractice is also undermined by the traditional masculism. In traditional Chinese society, only man has the right to hold the family line. Sonless familyusually chooses to adopt a nephew to succeed the family line. In Ping'an village, this adopted heircould also be a sister's son or a daughter's son. Daughters customarily cannot succeed eitherfamily line or family property. The adopted son, because of his lack of affection toward theadopting parents, tends to neglect them. As a matter of fact, the adopted son's intention is on theadopting parents'property, under the cover of "family line"or "blood line". Some author thinks that the intergenerational relationship in the Chinese family is of"feedback style", contrary to the western "succeeding style". Nevertheless, the study in Ping'anvillage shows that the intergenerational relationship is also mainly of succeeding style, only withmore feedback elements than in the west. Only the money parents spend on their son's marriageand their contributions in rearing the grandchildren already surpasses the value their son depositsin supporting his elderly parents. Sons'succession of property from their parents is actually free.As a result, we cannot explain the fact that daughter do not inherit their parents'property bysaying that the married-out daughters do not support their elderly parents. There must be othermechanism under the phenomenon. Villagers think that the reason of daughter's not inheritingtheir parents is that they inherit their parents-in-law's property. This is in fact that daughtersexchange their rights as daughters for the rights as daughters-in-law. I call this kind of exchange"total exchange". In total exchange, some daughters get more, some less than that without theexchange. Total exchange goes against the principle of individualism of modern law. There is a longstanding tradition of virilocal residence in China. This kind of custom isbuttressed not only by the traditional ideology, but also by the now political-economicalinstitutions. In addition to the residence registration system, the building-plot applicationregulations also play an important role in reinforcing the virilocal residence. Along with theestablishment of the collective land ownership, a free building-plot allocation system also comesinto being. In Ping'an village, the number of building-plot a family can get is as same as thenumber of sons a family has. The right to hold a building-plot is the most important right endowedto a community member. In Ping'an village, being enrolled in the registration is not the adequateprerequisite to be a full member of the village. A daughter with brother or brothers, even thoughwho does not shift her registration, is still deprived of the right to hold a piece of building-plot. Onthe contrary, a son without Ping'an village's registration still has the right to have one. Thisindicates that the standard of recruiting villagers is still the membership of genealogy, notresidence registration. As a result, the principle of allocating building-plot is in full accord withthe principle of household division: stirpism. For the sonless families, there is now another choice besides adopting sons, that is to havemarried-in sons-in-law. Because a daughter with a married-in husband takes her father's surname,family line and property, I call her "descendent daughter". In Ping'an village, a daughter with amarried-in husband behaves socially much like a son rather than a daughter. Her children addressboth her agnatic and affined relatives with patrilineal addresses. Her identity is an analogical sonrather than a daughter. So I also call them quasi-sons. Using the term "descendentdaughter/quasi-son", we can explain Ping'an village's registration and residence regulations: adaughter with brother cannot have married-in husband, and only one of the sisters can havemarried-in husband. After one of the sisters marries in a husband, because of her quasi-son identity,her sisters (if she has) become daughters with a brother, then lost the right to marry in a husband. In Ping'an village and its adjacent areas, there is another unique form of marriage:succeeding-husband marriage. The feature of this kind of marriage is: the widow remarries butdoes not leave her deceased husband's family. The newly wedded husband takes the deceasedhusband's identity and becomes one member of his family. I suggest using "succeeding-husband"to name them. They often come from comparatively under-developed areas and poorer families."Succeeding-husband marriage"solves the problem of widows and fatherless children, but not theproblem of supporting parents in their old age. Both "married-in husband marriage"and "succeeding husband marriage"take place in thetraditional cultural framework. "Descendent daughter"and "succeeding husband"are allanalogical sons. The uxorilocal marriage practiced in Ping'an village is still "contingent uxorilocalmarriage", not "conventional uxorilocal marriage". The proof of that is that daughters withbrothers cannot marry in a husband and only one of the sisters can marry in a husband. This kindof uxorilocal marriage is a mere remedial measure when there is not a son, not a free choice. Social patterns such as farming, daily appliances, and leisure in Ping'an village are alreadyvery modern. However, in the realm of marriage and family, villagers'life style is still traditional.Musculism, clanism, and ancestor worship are still very important in villagers'mentality. One ofthe most urgent problems in research is that we cannot fully understand the tradition. To thequestion what cultural principles underline tradition, researcher cannot reach a full accord. Thisresearch tries to understand the principles deeply underneath the tradition and custom. Forexample, the principle under the practice of household division is generalized as "stirpism". Onlyafter we make clear the cultural principles underpinning the tradition, can we understand thecontemporary social life, because the present is only the continuity of the past. Property inheritance is only one link of the traditional cultural system. It is closely relatedwith other institutions such as family line, patriarchy, descendant, genealogy, marriage, andfuneral etc. Only do we study all the above-mentioned institutions, can we fully understand theproperty inheritance system. Meanwhile, only do we reform the attitude around theabove-mentioned institutions, can we reform the property inheritance practice in rural areas inChina. The welfare nature of the land ownership and building-plot allocation requires a very strictrecruitment of the applicants, and patriarchism is the most natural guideline the grass-roots carderscan take. In the rural area, collective land ownership is actually village ownership. This villageownership makes the village more closely shut to the outside world. To a great extent, the presentvillagers committee resembles the past genealogy organization, in both its functions and its rules. There are also some modern elements introduced into the marriage and family arena. Forexample, the attitude that daughter can also hold family line is probably the result of thedissemination of the ideology of gender-equality. The succeeding-husband who is broke up withthe family of his wife's ex-husband can still hold the community membership and live peacefullyin the village. Even his newborn son can take his own surname rather than that of his wife'sex-husband. Nevertheless, these new elements are all introduced within the traditional cultural...