传宗接代

傳宗接代
chuánzōngjiēdài
idiom #34,432

Meanings

  1. 1 to carry on the ancestral line
  2. 2 to produce (male) heirs and continue the family

Examples

Lǎo yī bèi rén hěn kànzhòng chuánzōngjiēdài.
The older generation puts a lot of weight on carrying on the family line.
Tā bùxiǎng jiéhūn, duì chuánzōngjiēdài méiyǒu xìngqù.
He doesn't want to marry — he has no interest in continuing the family line.

Tips

history
Found in Li Baojia's late-Qing 《现形》: a man laments that despite slaving to build a fortune, he has no heir to carry on 传宗接代 — what then was the point? Crystallises a very Chinese anxiety about lineage.
culture
Traditionally strongly gendered — "passing on the " meant a son, not just any descendant. In contemporary urban speech it's increasingly used ironically, often by younger people pushing back against family pressure.

Stroke Order

chuán
zōng
jiē
dài