In rural Liaoning, household structure, household position, and the rules of household formation combined to determine individual fate. Demographic decisions were decided by family strategy more than by personal preference. The family as a whole allocated labor and redistributed wealth; nurtured the young and cared for the aged. Family members who wanted to marry or bear children accordingly vied for a finite cache of rights and resources, distributed unequally by gender, by family relationship, and by seniority. The Liaoning peasant household was therefore not only a locus of affect and socialization, but also an arena of negotiation and conflict.

Household organization is a product of such negotiation. But just as these decisions can change household structure, so the arrangement of relationships within the household, in turn, influences individual opportunities and expectations to marry, to bear children, to retire, and to depart. Thus, each step along the household progression is the product of two reflexive forces: group strategy and individual will.

The domestic cycle reflects the common resolution of tensions within the domestic group. Rules of household formation show how people normatively resolved their competing claims. From them we can deduce the relationships between household members, and understand how authority was transmitted and transmuted within the household.