The exception to this is in the case of a mother.

She is absolute in her household, and mothers, in China, command universal reverence.

If an officer asks leave of absence to visit his mother it must be granted him.

A mother may order an official to take her son to prison, and she must be obeyed.

As a wife without children woman is a slave, but as a mother with grownup sons she is a monarch.
Sec.8.The Tae-ping Insurrection.
Two extraordinary events have occurred in our day in China, the results of which may be of the utmost importance to the nation and to mankind.