"The division of household property in agricultural societies lies at the center of the transmission of economic control from one generation to the next. In assembling an impressive body of data concerned with fenjia (household division) in Qing (1644-1912) and Republican (1912-1949) China, David Wakefield investigates one of the central topics in understanding how Chinese society functioned and continues to function." "Throughout this work, Wakefield brings diverse considerations to bear on the study of inheritance and family. Economic issues, such as family survival strategies, upward and downward social mobility, and the preservation of wealth are weighed; the importance of social class is considered; the wide variety of Chinese family and lineage property practices is carefully examined; women and the nuclear family are studied; family documents, village investigations, and law are analyzed."--BOOK JACKET.