ABSTRACT
The social basis of traditional China was the family and a hierarchy of social status that included emperor and family, scholar-gentry, peasants, artisans, and merchants. Family relationships were the social energy that kept the system stable and functioning. Five Relationships are praised as a world-harmonizing force in a Han dynasty Confucian text called The Doctrine of the Mean (Chung-yung / Zhongyong): “There are five universal ways (in human relations) . . . The five are those governing the relationship between ruler and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder and younger brothers, and those in the intercourse between friends. These five are universal paths in the world.”7 Three of the relationships belonged to the family, although in the case of ruler-subject, the emperor’s relationship to the people was traditionally characterized as a benevolent father smiling on his children. Society was viewed as a patriarchal family at large. If each member bowed to the principle of status, which meant accepting one’s own and respecting that of others, the result would be universal harmony, the ideal echoed in architecture and painting.
