Righteous Children's Army

…In China, with the collapse of the aristocracy that valued lineage, adoptive father-son relationships between people of different surnames were common for political and military purposes. In particular, military commanders adopted many capable soldiers (fake sons, adopted sons) to form their own guards (adoptive sons) from the Sui dynasty, and this was popular from the mid-Tang to the Five Dynasties. The Yi-er Zhuan includes eight military commanders out of nine famous adopted sons of the Later Tang Emperor Li Keyong (Taizong), excluding Li Siyuan (Mingzong of the Later Tang), who ascended to the throne, and thus depicts the trend of the time when “the relationship arose from the sect of the two clans, and the two clans came together to form a father-son relationship” (Preface to the Yi-er Zhuan). …

*Some of the terminology used to refer to the "righteous child army" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…中国では家系を重んずる貴族制の崩壊に伴い，政治的軍事的意図から異姓間に養父子関係を結ぶことが行われた。とくに武将が有能な軍士を多数養子(仮子，義児)として親衛隊(義児軍)を置くことが隋代ごろから見られ，唐中期～五代に盛行した。〈義児伝〉は後唐李克用(太祖)の著名な義児9人中，帝位に就いた李嗣源(後唐明宗)を除く8人の武将を収めたもので，これによって〈干戈骨肉より起こり，異類合して父子と為（な）〉(〈義児伝〉序)った当時の風潮をえがく。…

※「義児軍」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報