China looks like a patriarchy.
Confucianism says it openly — a woman is subordinate to a man.
Three obediences: to father, husband, son.
This is another implementation of the same mechanism. No different from Judaism or Japan.
The same architecture — masked by the façade of patriarchy.
On the surface, the man rules. Underneath — he does what the woman decides.
- The Chinese home is divided into wai (outside — man) and nei (inside — woman). Whoever controls the inside controls who the son will become. And who the son will become determines the future of the lineage. And the lineage is the only thing that matters in Confucianism.
- In a traditional Chinese household, the daughter-in-law occupied a position subordinate to the mother-in-law. The man stands between two women and does what they decide.
- Xiao — filial piety — in practice, it is the mother whom the son will not refuse. A Chinese man may govern a province. At home, he does what his mother says.
- Empress dowagers ruled China from behind a curtain. Literally — a curtain hung during audiences. Cixi ruled for 47 years over the largest state in the world. As the “guardian” of a child-emperor.
- A Chinese man kills another man in war, in business, in competition. He says — for the lineage, for honour. But who defines what honour is? Who judges whether he fulfilled the task? Mother. Wife. Mother-in-law.
- Foot binding. For a thousand years, mothers broke their daughters' feet. Not fathers. Mothers. So that the daughter would get a better man. So that this man would bring more. Women shaped women — to obtain a man who would bring resources.
- The imperial examination system. A man studied for years. A few percent passed — in some provinces fewer than one in a hundred. The rest — a wasted life. Because the position brought a wife from a good lineage. And a wife from a good lineage gave status to the mother. A man destroys his health and years of his life — to satisfy his mother and get a wife.
Japan hid service elegantly — in aesthetics.
China hid it brutally — behind patriarchy, behind the curtain, behind duty to the lineage.
The effect is the same.
A man destroys another man. He does not know for whom.
He thinks it is for himself.