• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.229-243
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• 2015

When ancient Chinese people called their relatives, both the marriage system and their blood ties are reflected in the kinship terms. For examples, the ancient China's unique marriage system, "yingqiehun," is reflected in kinship terms, like "shi," "di," and "zhi," which reflect the fact that women relatives married the same person, and thus resulting from the polygamy. Furthermore, there are good reasons to assume that there are master-and-servant relationships, as evidenced through the kinship terms "yingqiehun" from the beginning of polygamy. In this paper we will study the feature of their unique marital culture, "yingqiehun" by analyzing each meaning of "shi," "di," and "zhi" and other examples, and will also examine the cause of its prevalence at that time.