Apr 16 2008
Paihang 排行 and fang 房
Long before the one child policy, Chinese families were well stocked with kids born from the wife and sired by the concubines. More generations living under one roof symbolized the prosperity and longevity. The patriarch could be the father upto the great great grandfather. They number coded the off spring - paihang 排行 seniority among sibling, on top of their names. When the sons grew up, got married, had his own corner within the compound, hence came the fang 房 branch.
There was da paihang 大排行 the major seniority among sibling, taken from the brothers’ kids, and xiao paihang, minor one within a single family. Some family would rank the sons and daughters separately while others mixing them all together. But fang branch was strictly for the son’s. The daughters were farmed out to her husband’s family, as the saying went that married daughter like pot of emptied water.
If a concubine got to live with the wife (in the same dwelling) - that’s called guifang 归房, then her children would be included in the family count. But if the concubines were stashed in the love nest off site, then her kids would not. When taking in multiple women was the norm at time, there had to be some serious issues that the concubine was being ostracized from the family.
For Yeye, there wasn’t much of branch since the Lϋ’s 吕 has been sustaining by the lone male heir for six generations. We call Don’s grandmother as Ergu Po 二姑婆 - Second Grandaunt and Lucy as Sangu Po, the Third Grandaunt 三姑婆, wasn’t because of Yeye: the rank came from their oldest sister Xiaomin who died young.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much about my great grandmother, the Suns, except knowing she was the youngest children, and her bro’s been with the family at times.
For Popo’s side, omg .. it’s messy. Both the Lius and Zhous had huge branches. She inscribed on the back of this wedding picture: to 子文十七弟 Ziwen the 17th younger brother. The Lius of Shanghai ranked the boys and girls separately. Popo was the 7th among her female cousins, and this Ziwen was the 17th among his brothers and male cousins. Actually I got this picture from a distant uncle in Hong Kong, who funds many science awards in China - thanks to the Internet 
- that includes S.S. Chern’s. This little 17th kid bro was in fact his late father.
The Zhous mixed the boys with da girls. Popo’s mother was the 8th children born by a concubine. There were three concubines, together with the wife, they yielded 9 kids: six boys and three girls. All the Lius and Zhous married well, 门当户对. The Lius had multiple marriages with Li Hongzhang. One of Liu’s daughter (1855-1873) married Jingfang (1855-1934), Li’s oldest son. Two (one of the daughters’ never married due to illness) of the Zhou girls, Popo’s mom married the Liu and another married Yuan Shikai’s son. Those were just on the daughters’ side. For the sons’, pls stay turned, :).