In Great Liang, it's a sort of... honorary title given. It and imu, for women, are given to those that are put on the same level as your parents. An honorary, named parent, in a way, but technically without the obligations. We're a filial country and culture - it's an esteemed thing, to have. You pay them the same respects you would your parents.

He'd saved me when I was a handful of years younger than that memory, and my - mm, my father by marriage was grateful. They'd tried to pass the credit of it onto General Shen, the other man in the memory, but the title still fell to him because of the kind of people they both were.