The Book of Rites presents a rigorously ordered, patriarchal family structure in which hierarchy, ritual, and gender are tightly interwoven. Authority flows through the male line: the father stands as head of the household, with elder over younger, husband over wife, and sons inheriting property and ritual responsibilities. This patrilineal order is not merely social but is framed as the proper arrangement for maintaining ancestral continuity, with men serving as ritual representatives before the family’s forebears. Filial piety becomes the central virtue that binds generations, requiring reverence and obedience to parents and elders within an extended, multigenerational household.

Within this framework, the text delineates distinct and complementary spheres for men and women, each defined by specific duties and virtues. Men are associated with the “outer” realm—education, governance, public affairs, and the performance of major ancestral rites that sustain the lineage and its shrine. Women are oriented toward the “inner” realm, charged with domestic management, weaving, cooking, child-rearing, and the careful ordering of household life. Their participation in ritual tends to be domestic and supportive, rather than central in the great ancestral ceremonies, yet still portrayed as necessary to the family’s overall harmony.

Female conduct is shaped by a set of expectations that underscore subordination and service, often summarized as obedience to father before marriage, to husband after marriage, and to eldest son in widowhood. The Book of Rites emphasizes virtues such as modesty, restraint in speech and behavior, diligence in household work, and deference to in-laws. A woman’s role is closely tied to the continuation of her husband’s family line, especially through the bearing of sons who will assume ritual and familial responsibilities. Her worth is thus measured in large part by her capacity to sustain the household, uphold propriety, and preserve the dignity of the lineage through disciplined self-conduct.

Marriage, in this vision, is not primarily a private union of individuals but a carefully regulated alliance between families, structured through formal procedures and embedded in ritual. It serves the dual purpose of social stability and the perpetuation of the ancestral line, with the principal wife occupying a distinct and honored, though still subordinate, position within the hierarchy. Through these detailed prescriptions of role, rank, and responsibility, the Book of Rites portrays family life as a microcosm of a well-ordered cosmos, where clearly defined gender roles and generational hierarchies are seen as the necessary conditions for enduring harmony.