As a subdiscipline of sociology, family sociology has long taken the family and kinship as its principal objects of study. Although this naturally entails studying individuals within families, the field has traditionally concentrated on meso-level questions such as family relations, structure, functions, change, and culture.

Over the past two decades, rapid social change and the broadening scope of social science research have brought new issues to the fore, including the gendered division of labor within families, motherhood and childrearing, eldercare, and the allocation of family resources.

The individual has come more clearly into focus, as seen in growing attention to the rights and interests of women and older adults. Yet the conception of personhood underlying much of this research remains narrow and one-dimensional. Family members are often cast primarily as rational actors whose interests and needs take precedence, while their desire for emotional connection, altruism, and other sources of meaning and value is overlooked.

If family sociology aims to promote individual well-being and harmonious relationships within families, it must move beyond this one-sided understanding of the human and recover a more authentic, holistic conception of personhood. While human beings differ in myriad ways, they are also shaped, to some extent, by many similar values and beliefs. For contemporary Chinese people, the traditional Confucian pursuit of “expanding the self” remains a major cultural influence on individual perceptions and behavior.

What makes the concept of ji, or the self, distinctive, and why is it particularly well suited to describing the self in Chinese society? The ancient Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (Discussing Writing and Explaining Characters) defines ji as the “center” (zhonggong). To think of oneself is thus to establish a central point—and inevitably to consider how other people, events, and things relate to it. In this sense, the Chinese conception of ji is not that of a fixed, isolated individual. It describes a reflexive process that begins with the self and reaches outward to other people, society, and even the world.

Moreover, in Chinese thought, the self has long been understood as possessing both the capacity and the impulse to embrace others and the external world. The maturity of the self lies not in drawing rigid boundaries or defending a private domain, but in continually enlarging one’s mind—growing and finding fulfillment through interactions with others and the ethical practices of everyday life.

This outward movement begins in the reflexive awareness inherent in every individual self. Drawing on this inner order, which is fundamental to their sense of existence, people construct their own lifeworlds. Depending on the historical setting and particular circumstances, this reflective orientation rooted in ji may produce different models of personhood. Yet the fundamental Confucian approach to self-cultivation—expanding the openness and inclusiveness of individual life through the “expansion of the self”—remains at the heart of this cultural tradition.

Understanding ji as a central concept in Chinese culture helps explain the new possibilities it offers to contemporary Chinese family sociology. Its reflexivity, inclusiveness, and openness do not preclude diverse values or life experiences. On the contrary, ji can encompass both traditional and modern experiences while pointing toward a conception of the person as inherently reflective and capable of continual growth.

Taking ji as a point of departure, theoretical exploration in family sociology needs to further integrate Chinese and Western traditions while developing new approaches. In practical terms, family problems are shaped by external circumstances, social institutions, and historical conditions, but also by individual attitudes, states of mind, and behavior. The spirit of modernity took shape around modes of life among strangers and therefore tends to understand social relations through the lens of individual rights and obligations. This perspective was transformative in defending rights and safeguarding equality and freedom, yet it also has certain limitations. By contrast, long-standing virtues in Chinese culture—including tolerance, clarity of mind, and self-restraint—can offer valuable intellectual and practical insights if they are freed from normative interpretations that reduce them to externally imposed norms and reconnected with the “expansion of the self,” with its emphasis on cultivating the mind.

Hang Suhong is an associate research fellow from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.