In ancient China, the patriarchal clan system (Chinese: 宗法; pinyin: zōngfǎ; lit.
This method of social organisation underlay and prefigured the political workings of the Zhou state.
The patriarchal system was based on blood relations, with firstborn succession at its core, and played a role in maintaining the Western Zhou political hierarchy and stabilizing social order.
[3][better source needed] The Zhou people had the custom of building ancestral temples early on, and the clan temple housed a Spirit tablet representing the ancestor, and the number of shrines built inside depended on the hierarchical status of the patriarch.
Similar to the clan society, the nobles of the Zhou dynasty forbade same-surname marriage.