An exhibition of traditional home interior design in Northeast China at Liaoning Provincial Museum Photo: FANG KE/CSST

Grounded in the lived experiences of ordinary Chinese people, the identification, refinement, and in-depth interpretation of indigenous foundational concepts in the social sciences is a fundamental step in constructing an autonomous Chinese knowledge system. Among the many locally rooted concepts that possess both empirical grounding and theoretical potential, the notion of guorizi—literally “getting on with life”—stands out for its broad explanatory power and rich cultural connotations.

Guorizi refers to the everyday ways of living expressed through people’s ideas, attitudes, customs, and beliefs. It encompasses not only the mundane details of daily existence, but also reflects ordinary people’s understandings, expectations, and aspirations regarding life. A deep exploration of this concept can help illuminate the logic and value orientations that define ordinary life in China.

Time: long-term orientation

At the heart of guorizi lies a distinctively Chinese approach to time—one characterized by long-term thinking and life planning. This temporal orientation manifests in three key dimensions.

First, a long-term outlook embedded in the rhythm of daily life. Here, cyclical and linear time intertwine: the changing seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter—coexist with proverbs such as “It takes ten years to grow trees, but a hundred to cultivate people.” Shaped by nature’s recurring rhythms, people accumulate material resources through repetitive labor while pursuing self-development and personal fulfillment over time. Thus, while dealing with everyday matters, they also engage in future-oriented planning. This long-term mindset—concerning family, career, health, and more—enables ordinary people to face an unpredictable future with composure.

Second, a long-term perspective rooted in intergenerational continuity. The Confucian ethic of “honoring the departed and remembering the distant past” incorporates individual life into the extended temporal flow of the family lineage. As such, guorizi is not merely about present-day livelihood; it also bears the weight of a historical responsibility to bring honor to one’s ancestors. This intergenerational vision is reflected not only in the emphasis on children’s education and the transmission of family traditions, but also in a broader sense of duty toward the future of the nation.

Third, a forward-looking strategy of “prepare in leisure, use in urgency.” With the belief that fortune and misfortune can strike without warning, Chinese people have long embraced risk preparedness—a principle that continues to shape the logic of guorizi today. Whether in education planning, home purchases, or time management, one sees echoes of the traditional wisdom to “store grain to prevent famine.” This mindset reflects not only careful allocation of material resources, but also a deeper investment in cultural and spiritual life. It is this capacity for prudent preparation and enduring optimism that enables ordinary people to meet life’s challenges with resilience and vitality, making guorizi more than a practical lifestyle, but a philosophy imbued with depth and wisdom.

Space: family as locus

At its core, guorizi presupposes the individual as situated within family life, positioning the family as the ontological container of one’s existence. The home is not only a physical dwelling but also a spatial construct where ethical practice and existential meaning unfold. Within this space, the relationships, responsibilities, and obligations among family members form the very fabric of daily life. From weddings and funerals to birth, aging, illness, and death, the family is the primary setting in which these major life events occur.

In traditional Chinese thought, “living one’s own life” often implies merely “getting by”—a solitary, sometimes burdensome existence. Yet as modern family structures evolve, individuals such as young people living alone or elderly empty-nesters are continuously reshaping the meaning of home in their own ways. For the solitary youth, home becomes a private haven for relaxation and self-expression; for the elderly, it is a harbor of emotional solace and a vessel of memories.

In this sense, the home is not a passive container but an active nexus of practice, through which individuals, by guorizi, continually reproduce the imagery and meaning of home. In the era of the metaverse—where a virtual “twinned space” may extend or redefine domestic boundaries—guorizi will face new spatial challenges. Preserving the traditional functions of home as a site of intimacy, emotional connection, and intergenerational cultural transmission will require thoughtful adaptation in a reality increasingly shaped by digital integration.

Thus, the deep-seated link between guorizi and the family ultimately underscores that guorizi is a way of being—one through which every Chinese individual realizes the value of life. This realization unfolds through a series of family-centered practices: bodily discipline, emotional cultivation, economic reproduction, and cultural inheritance.

Property: daily essentials

Guorizi is inseparable from the daily essentials—firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. As Japanese scholar Shūzō Shiga observed, what essentially constitutes a home in the Chinese context is a lifestyle based on cohabitation and shared property. The term “property” here encompasses both immovable assets such as land and housing, and movable goods including furniture, grain, clothing, and other everyday necessities.

Within the Confucian ethical framework of traditional China—where ideals such as “father and son as one” and “husband and wife as one” prevailed—shared property was achieved by negating the legitimacy of individual private ownership, thereby rendering the family an ethical entity. This is clearly illustrated in the Book of Rites, which stipulates: “A son and his wife should have no private goods, nor animals, nor vessels; they should not presume to borrow from, or give anything to, another person.” In this light, guorizi becomes a Confucian ethical practice of “shared property as shared fate,” underscoring a life of mutual dependence and collective living among family members.

As China’s traditional patriarchal family structure gradually gave way to a model of marital co-governance, even families today that maintain cohabitation between parents and married children rarely practice full property sharing. Modes of property management have evolved significantly from those of traditional society. Nevertheless, the ideal of mutual reliance and shared living among family members remains the cornerstone of household harmony and stability. The core goal of working together to grow the family’s wealth and safeguard a stable domestic life remains intact.

Therefore, contemporary society continues to rely on the careful stewardship and rational planning of family assets by all members. This collective responsibility ensures not only economic security but also the long-term coherence and resilience of family life.

Ethics: social norms

Guorizi entails the continuous negotiation of a complex web of human relationships and reciprocal norms, with the family at its core. Renowned sociologist Fei Xiaotong famously described traditional Chinese society using the concept of the “differential mode of association” (chaxu geju), a relational structure radiating outward from the “self.” This intricate web of interpersonal relationships, woven through ties of kinship and locality, forms an inescapable and essential matrix of meaning for every individual in Chinese society.

For ordinary people, the situational wisdom and particularistic ethics embedded in human relationships and reciprocal social norms often take precedence over abstract, rational principles of conduct. Mutual support among family members, neighborhood assistance, and ritualized social exchanges beyond the household are integral to the practice of guorizi. Over generations, the art of navigating human relationships has served as a vital medium through which the core Confucian virtues—benevolence (ren), righteousness (yi), and ritual (li)—are enacted and sustained.

Within the domestic sphere, ren is manifested through emotional bonds and selfless devotion, forming the bedrock of familial cohesion. Yi is embodied in interpersonal dealings beyond the family, governed by an exchange logic sensitive to the degree of emotional closeness—essential to earning social respect. Li, as both household regulation and social ritual, permeates every aspect of daily life.

As urbanization rapidly transforms contemporary society, modern shifts in family structure have given rise to new ethical practices. On the Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve, urban white-collar workers uphold filial piety via video calls; WeChat red envelopes reconfigure the traditional gift economy, infusing the custom of “seeking good fortune” with fresh relevance. These evolving scenes are reshaping inherited notions of cultural transmission, revealing the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional guorizi ethics. In this way, the ethics of guorizi exhibit a form of digital rebirth—recast in new media, but grounded in enduring relationships and cultural memory.

Value: pursuit of fulfilled life

Guorizi represents a subtle, ongoing negotiation with fate through the management of the household, ultimately aspiring toward a fulfilled and meaningful existence. It is not simply a matter of shaping one’s destiny, but an art of living—sculpting life through time in the hope of achieving a sense of existential grounding and moral standing. This journey, however, is fraught with uncertainties. Whether one lives a good life depends not only on fate (ming), but also on fortune or circumstance (yun).

Fate is defined by its fixity—those predetermined aspects of existence such as one’s family background or innate endowments, inherited and beyond one’s control. In contrast, fortune is shaped through one’s life course and remains pliable—contingent on individual choices, personal effort, and the vicissitudes of the surrounding environment.

The Confucian tradition teaches that one finds existential anchorage in the roles and relations of the ethical order, and establishes moral purpose through self-cultivation, moral integrity, household governance, and professional endeavor. In this framework, individual lives are intricately interwoven with Heaven, ancestors, and descendants. Thus, within the constraints of fate, individuals variously encounter misfortunes, illness, and adversity—some evade, some endure, and outcomes diverge accordingly.

Those who diligently practice guorizi strive to reshape fate through careful decision-making and persistent effort. In today’s era—an age that valorizes self-betterment—one may witness a student emerging from a remote mountain village to attend a prestigious university, or a factory worker ascending to the ranks of industry leadership. These stories embody the lived realization of ordinary people’s aspiration to settle their fate and fulfill their lives.

Yet, life remains riddled with paradoxes. Some who lead virtuous lives may suffer misfortune; others may devote themselves tirelessly without reaping success. The boundless combinations of fate and fortune give rise to the manifold forms of human experience. Hence the common saying: “hun rizi” (to muddle through life). While “muddling through” differs in posture from “to get on with,” the distinction is often less clear in reality. One who claims to be merely muddling through may, in truth, be taking life very seriously.

If we interpret “muddling through” as a humble way of describing one’s mode of existence, then it becomes evident that in today’s world—where capitalist rationality permeates everyday life—what is called “muddling through” may represent a form of pragmatic wisdom for survival. In this light, “rizi”—life itself—is for every ordinary person a challenging and uncertain journey. Yet the aspiration to live fully and meaningfully continues to animate the lives of ordinary people, guiding their pursuit of a life well lived.

Xu Weihua is an associate professor from Zhuzhou Administration Institute.