Getting an Heir: Adoption and the Construction of Kinship in Late Imperial China

Getting an Heir
Getting an Heir
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	Anthropological Perspectives
	Comparative Perspectives
Procreation, Adoption, and Heredity
	The Need for Heirs
	Adoption Defined
	Magic Fungus and Fine Wine: Ideas about Heredity
		Heredity in Fiction
		Heredity in Medical Texts
Attitudes toward Adoption
	The Prohibition: Law and Ritual
	Consequences of Adoption in Legal and Ritual Texts
	The Prohibition: Some Interpretations
		The Sanctity of Surnames
		Property
		The Return of the Adopted Son
		Sacrifice and Efficacy
	Adoption across Surname Lines: The Evidence
	Adoption across Surname Lines: The Explanations
Case Studies
	Adoption Procedures
	The Ch’eng Genealogy
	The Adoption of Wai-tsu
	Continuing the Line with Alien Seed: Uxorilocal Marriage
		Uxorilocal Marriage in Law and Ritual
		Motives
	Cross-surname Adoptions
Fiction
	Blood and Artifice
	Women in Fiction
	Incest
	The Wondrous Reunion
Conclusions
Notes
	Introduction
	1: Procreation, Adoption, and Heredity
	2: Attitudes toward Adoption
	3: Case Studies
	4: Fiction
Glossary
	Terms
	Titles of Texts
	Persons and Deities
Bibliography
	Sources in Chinese and Japanese
		Abbreviations
	Sources in Western Languages
About the Author