While the family headship passes intact from father to eldest son, thefamily property does not. Early in their history the Chinese abandonedprimogeniture, by which the eldest son inherits all the father’s propertywhile the younger sons seek their fortunes elsewhere. The enormous sig-nificance of this institutional change can be seen by comparing Chinawith a country like England or Japan, where younger sons who have notshared their father’s estate have provided the personnel for government,business, and overseas empire and where a local nobility might grow upto challenge the central power. In China, the equal division of landamong the sons of the family allowed the eldest son to retain only certainceremonial duties, to acknowledge his position, and sometimes an extrashare of property. The consequent parcelization of the land tended toweaken the continuity of family land-holding, forestall the growth oflanded power among officials, and keep peasant families on the marginof subsistence. The prime duty of each married couple was to produce ason to maintain the family line, yet the birth of more than one son mightmean impoverishment.
Abandoned primogeniture which has major implications. land is subdivided reducing concentration of power beneath the emperor, peasant families on margin of subsistence etc. Nice example of institutions => social structure, inequality, political dynamics etc.
NTS: are there cross-society/cultural studies of e.g. primogeniture rules vs social outcomes etc.

It can usually be found in urban city

Edmund (Ned) Searles (2010): Placing Identity: Town, Land, and Authenticity in Nunavut, Canada, Acta Vorealia, 27:2, 151-166.