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I know that daughter in Chinese is 女儿, and son is 儿子. A little side-question: Why isn't "son" 男儿?
My main question is this one though: apart from son and daughter stated above, what are the corresponding words (specifically or in common, please make sure to explain this) for these terms? And are there rules worth to be mentioned about their use?
Male and Female when used alone to refer to people, may be translated to 男性 and 女性. 男 and 女 are not often used alone, except in some forms. 男 and 女 can be used (in form of supplementary description) to form other word as "male teacher" "男教师".
男子漢 can be used to refer to the male gender in general (I'm not sure if 女子漢 is applicable in the same context). It should also be worth mentioning that 男孩(儿) and 女孩(儿) refers (young) boy and (young) girl, respectively.
It's hard for average Chinese to answer the etymology of the words, I think. Why isn't "son" 男儿? For me, I would say because "男儿" has another meaning in both classic and modern Chinese.
男儿 young man, vital man.
男儿何不带吴钩，收取关山五十州. By the poet 李贺 in 唐 Dynasty
nán ér hé bù dài wú gōu ,shōu qŭ guān shān wŭ shí zhōu.
As a man, why not I take the sharp swords to retrieve the lost lands?
In classic Chinese,
子 infant, child
儿 teenager, son
女 daughter, female(gender)
In modern chinese(actually, in vernacular Chinese from 宋 dynasty), 子 and 儿 are common suffix words. I believe this is how 女儿 and 儿子 evovle.
On the subject of 子 and 儿, they both have the meaning of "son".
Sons were the shit! Old China was a male oriented society, just like most other societies older than 80 years. Sons were the privileged kind of children, and really the only children that mattered. So if you have limited resources, these will be spent on the sons, as an investment for the future. Sons could study, make money, carry on the name of the family etc. A blessing to newly weds is 早生贵子(or 族), which is hoping for the birth of a son.
So a 女儿 originally means a "female son". A few generations back, some families didnt even bother with naming their daughters properly (as can be read in Wild Swans).
