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2. My Family Tree's Roots

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We in the Liu family of the Zhaping Chinese: 渣坪 town in Hengyang Chinese: 衡阳 update our genealogy book roughly every 60 years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties These were the last two dynasties in power before the Xinhai Revolution ended dynastic rule altogether. They spanned approximately 1644-1911 AD. , the scale of such genealogy records was rather small, and they were split into four main branches (Liu Geng Chinese: 刘庚, the name of the branch. , one update; Liu Xi Chinese: 刘细 , five updates; Liu Fu Chinese: 刘富 , seven updates; Liu Qing Chinese: 刘庆 , ten updates). In 1937, our family expanded the genealogy book and unified the four branches, marking the very first time our entire family has compiled such a book. My brothers and I had thus encountered an opportunity to be officially “put in the record”. In 1995, we updated this genealogy a second time; Kang Jichun Chinese: 康继纯, sister-in-law , Nie Bihua Chinese: 聂碧华, wife , Yuhong Chinese: 宇红, daughter , Yucheng Chinese: 宇澄, daughter (and the translater’s mother) , and Yuxing Chinese: 宇星, daughter were also put in the record. My brothers and I were naturally very enthusiastic about this event, and so the people in charge of the genealogy books gifted us an intermediary genealogy book Chinese: 中级本族谱, pinyin: zhōng jí běn zú pǔ. This is likely an “unofficial copy” (akin to an unofficial transcript) for personal reference and usage. .

Pictured on the left is the genealogy book my brother and I retrieved from Hengyang, which contains a total of 34 editions. Among these, the majority of the content is a directory of names, organised according to ancestry. They follow a strict and consistent format, and they contain short summaries of each person’s lives. A portion of these contain graphics that depict previous genealogy updates, familial rules and values, and ancestry shrines, among others. Some genealogy books even have records of filial peity and imperial examinations.

The genealogy books from Zhaping, Hengyang date back to the Song dynasty c. 960 - 1270 AD ; thus, the volume of information is enormous, and the people that were added to the record in the past two hundred years or so only get to write a few words about themselves. Below are the descriptions of my brother and I from the 1995 genealogy book. Each paragraph only gets a couple dozen words; in some sense, they’re miniscule biographies. There, our given names are “Hexie Chinese: 和协, brother’s given name ” and “Hezhong”. This is because we followed family naming conventions, wherein the common character People of a family share a family name; this is often the first character in each person’s full name. In addition, a set of brothers and sisters will share a second character in their given name. My grandfather and his brother shared 和, and my grandfather’s three daughters shared 宇. rotates between the middle and last character. In practise, however, we pushed the “he” down to the end, and we went by “Xiehe” and “Zhonghe” instead.

With the recent modernisation of Chinese society, the structure and notion of a family has slowly been eroding; the younger generations see little point in the genealogy books. In addition, these genealogy books are vastly enormous, and with the exception of particular research, it’s only the elderly generation, who have neither the time nor strength to maintain and read them. Most of the thirty-some books we retrieved from Hengyang in 1998 have been encased in a layer of dust.

After I discussed it with my brother, and with the permission of my children, we decided to donate our genealogy book to the Hengyang City Library Chinese: 衡阳市图书馆, pinyin: héng yáng shì tú shū guǎn. . After a brief written and telephone correspondence, they warmly welcomed the donation, for they lacked local and regional works and artefacts.

Only then did I feel a desire to thoroughly read through the genealogy book, or else all the time and effort my ancestors spent compiling and updating the records would go to waste.

“You don't know what you don't see; one look and you'll know Chinese: 不看不知道，一看才知道. Pinyin: bú kàn bú zhī dào, yī kàn cái zhī dào. .” It was only while skimming through the books of ancestors and close relatives that I discovered that, despite the majority of the books being lists of names, some detailed our family’s rules and values, various ceremonies and ettiquette, praise for accomplished family members, and even short prefaces written with each update of the genealogy (including the one I wrote with Xiehe in 1995). It was all very worth reading.

One volume was titled “420 Years of Art Literature Chinese: 七甲文艺, pinyin: qī jià wén yì. The 甲 likely refers to “a time period of 60 years”, though it could be referring to unnamed people as well. I think the former is more likely. ”, which was comprised of birthday wishes, biographical events, and epitaphs. Pictured on the right is an article that commemorated my great grandparents both making it past 60. Yuqing Chinese: 余卿; it’s the name at the upper-left hand corner of the right page. was my great-grandfather’s given name, and the “virtuous partner Chinese: 德配任宜人, pinyin: dé peì rèn yí rén. I don’t think there’s a good way to translate this. ” refers to my great-grandmother. They were frugal despite being well-off, but they were also philanthropists, thus earning the praise of our family.

In addition, the records contain a section with each ancestor’s burial site, and some are even accompanied by a map. It aims to aide future descendants in searching for their deceased ancestors.

I ended up postponing donating the records to the Hengyang City Library, and I spent several months gradually reading the parts that were worth reading, which included records of close relatives, familial customs, ancestral records, ettiquette, the prefaces to each volume, articles praising family members’ achievements, etc.

In addition, I made quite a few copies of the ancestral records left behind by my great-great-grandfather, mostly for the sake of my brother and children.

On top of this, I followed the information in the genealogy book and began organising a record of my family’s patriarchal lineage. There is far too much information to collect for a complete family tree; I only needed to skim through a small portion of the ancestral records to produce this. After combing through these documents (pictured on the left), I was able to compile the “Liu Family Family Tree Roots Chinese: 刘民家谱源流表, pinyin: líu mín jiā pǔ yuán líu biǎo, lit. “Record of the Liu family genealogical origins”. I am unsure if the 民 is part of a nickname or geographical indicator, or if it means “unified people”, “nation”, “union”, etc. ”, pictured at the bottom.

Due to the lack of historical data, the first 13 generations of our family records do not contain dates of birth or death. The table starts at our earliest ancestor Qing Shigong Chinese: 青石公. I believe this is more of a formal title rather than a name, but it is hard for me to tell. and continues for 32 generations; the dates of birth and death are recorded from the 14th generation. Grandfather Rengao Chinese: 仁高, the name or title of an ancestor. was born during the reign of Külüg Khan (1308 AD). I am truly fortunate that my ancestors kept such meticulous records for us descendants to view.

Although this patriarchal lineage is nothing more than a summary, the information it represents is unfathomably massive, and I’ve reduced it all down to just a trace of all that came before me. Put another way, this data pays symbolises the retrospective gratitude Chinese: 饮水思源, pinyin: yǐn shuǐ sī yuán, an adage that loosely means, “When quenching one’s thirst, one mustn’t forget the water’s source.” Those that enjoy privilege and good fortune in life should never forget the sacrifices and hard work of their ancestors. I owe my ancestors.

(Written 2017)