Shengyu Zhidu

What it is about

Shengyu Zhidu is Fei Xiaotong’s 1947 book on marriage, kinship, and the social organisation of having children. It is a different work from From the Soil and the direct shelf item for questions about how societies structure parenthood and conjugality. Fei analyses why reproduction is never only a private wish but a set of institutions that bind sex, marriage, and care of the next generation. The book is classical Chinese sociology, not a medical fertility guide and not a modern parenting manual.

Questions it can answer

• How does Fei analyse marriage and kinship as the social organisation of having children?
• Why is reproduction more than a private wish in this account?
• How does this book differ from From the Soil on the same author’s shelf?

What you will not find

• IVF, obstetrics, or fertility clinic instructions
• A week-by-week newborn care schedule
• Western attachment-therapy protocols