"The Empire has its basis in the state, the state in the family, and the family in one’s own self.” – Mencius

            The government actively standardized familial practices in China and thus influenced the Chinese family.  Its structure and Confucian view of the government also reinforced the family dynamic of the father as the authoritarian, and the females as followers who must be loyal and obedient.  Not only that, but the system of obtaining a government position through high scores on standardized tests and loyalty to the state reinforced the Chinese work ethic, the Chinese focus on learning and studying hard, and filial piety.

            During the Han dynasty (206-220 BC), government scholar officials endorsed the Three Bonds, as Wei-Ming Tu states in his article “Probing the ‘Three Bonds’ and ‘Five Relationships’,” “as an integral part of the core curriculum for moral education.  The Three Bonds, a Confucian value set that delineated the authority of the ruler over the minister, the father over the son, and the husband over the wife, mostly applied to the household.  However, the Chinese government, in focusing on promoting the first portion of the Three Bonds for stability in government, also simultaneously then ingrained the idea of the authority of the father over the son and husband over the wife in Chinese citizens.  The Three Bonds became “a mechanism of symbolic control…[its] primary purpose…[was] social stability” (Tu).   To further reinforce social stability, as Patricia Ebrey describes in her article “Women, Marriage, and the Family in Chinese History,” the Han government also elevated the status of family heads: they were given titles, had official authority over wives and children, and held them responsible for the fiscal situation of the family.  In doing so, the Han government essentially drew a parallel from the government with the ruler at its head to the family with the father at its head, indirectly ingraining into citizens the parallel idea that as children and wives are obedient and loyal to their families and their father, citizens need to be obedient and loyal to the state.

While the government directly influenced the family by promoting certain Confucian values, the government structure itself also reinforced the family dynamic and certain traditional Chinese values.  The merit-based Han dynasty was influential in crafting the Chinese work ethic and focus on learning and studying hard due to the fact that social, economic, and geographic mobility were high in the early Han dynasty (Ebrey).  Those who studied hard and got good scores on tests were able to work in the government, achieving social status and economic improvement. Also, filial piety, an important Confucian principle of having love and respect for one’s parents and ancestors, came to be a factor in obtaining government positions. Filial piety “came to be considered a political virtue” since it could macrocomiscally be applied as loyalty to the emperor, and thus, showing a lot of filial piety became “an adequate basis for recruitement to government office” (Ebrey).  Hard work, learning, filial piety, and managerial success then became associated with prosperity, and thus, people highly valued hard work, studying, and filial piety.

            The government was a macrocosmic family with its ruler as the father/head of the household.  Since, as Walter H. Slote says in his article, “Psychocultural Dynamics within the Confucian Family,” the power of…rulers approached the absolute,” people began to perceive that the microcosmic government head—the father of the family—had absolute power as well.  The ruler’s duties included being “the interpreter, executor, and judge of the moral code…[basically having] full responsibility for the stability and harmony of society,” and thus, the father came to be viewed as the disciplinarian and authoritarian of the home (Tu). 

            The political arena basically became “inseparable from the ethical realm,” and so what people did at home became “politically significant” (Tu).  Therefore, the ancient Chinese government and how people acted toward it was extremely influential and intertwined with the family dynamics of ancient China.