Chapter Seven, “Some cultural practice”, deals with some aspects of Chinese culture. The first part looks at Taoism and Confucianism, with quotations from “Daodejing” as well as various Confucius texts such as ‘the Analects”, “Great Studies” and “Doctrine of the Mean”. The second part looks into cultural norms such as family terminology, formal salutations and titles, basic social terminology and practices. The chapter also touches on taboos, family values and the position of women. It ends with words of congratulations commonly used by the Chinese.

The book begins with translation of some of the quotations from Daodejing, the main text of Daoism. It then looks at aspects of Confucian texts, such as the Analects, "Great Learning", the "Doctrine of the Mean", and the "Book of Mengzi". They formed part of the syllabus of Imperial examinations for civil service, a must for every senior bureaucrat and statesmen.

A quick review of the five Classics Scripts, the Book of Change; the Book of Documents; the Book of Odes; the Book of Rites; and the Annals of Spring and Autumn is made.

Some of the common Chinese Social Etiquettes are discussed, including the hierarchy of inter-personal relationships, words used to describing relationship in the complex family structure, as well as some of the formal Salutations and formal titles commonly used.

Some basic Social Phraseology use in the Chinese system is presented, together with some of the taboos to be avoided. The family and the position of women, and the issue of gender differentiation is touched on.

The chapter ends with some of the words of Congratulations commonly used for occasions such as weddings, celebrations, birthdays, successes, etc.

Topics discussed in this website from the chapter include Family relationships, Chinese taboos

For more information please contact the author