Cohabitation was a special legal term in Qin & Han periods

referring to maternal brothers who lived together with a share of property. The cohabitation in a clan didn’t have a universal sense because at the time the property of a clan was rarely shared. The royal order in the first year of emperor HanHui says

“officials having six hundred Dan who live with their parents will be awarded …… others won’t.” Undoubtedly

it had an essence of encouraging cohabitation. In the paper

the author thinks the word “Tongju” was used as a verb with the meaning of “live with”. Thus the essence of the royal order was to give economic awards to the officials on the condition that they should live with their parents.