Abstract: This paper is trying to explore the links between the contemporary social structure and the traditional mourning apparel system in China. In ancient China, there was so called sangfu (the mourning apparel) system that when a person died, his or her relatives wore special clothes for a special period to express their mourning. The pattern of the clothes and the length of mourning period had five classes, and the relatives wore different classes of clothes according to their relationship with the dead. For the closest relatives, the mourning apparel is the “heaviest” and the mourning period longest, and the clothes become “lighter” and mourning period shorter along with the relationship becoming more and more distant. This was called qinqin principle (being nicer to one’s closer relatives) in the mourning apparel system. Another principle was called zunzun (being more respectful for your older or higher authoritative relatives) which means that for father, grandfather etc. or higher male political leaders, the mourning class should be heavier and longer. The system was thus a “circle” with the self as the center. This system is actually the institutional base of chaxugeju, a concept coined by Professor Fei Xiaotong in his famous book, From the Soil: The Foundations of the Chinese Society. Based on the analysis of classical literature and the study of Confucian classics, the author points out that the two principles of the system are respectively “ren” (benevolence) mentioned by Confucius and “yi” (righteousness) by Mencius. They are the two most important virtues in ancient China. In contemporary era, to a large extent, the social structure is still based on the social circles in which guanxi and renqing are the most important considerations among social actors, as the Chinese still regard ren and yi as the important virtues in social relationships.