"Hundred family names" is a book about China's surnames, and has been handed down to this day, the first surname among the hundred family names is Zhao, but the largest family in China's history is not the Zhao family, but the Chen family.
Chen surname ranks tenth among the hundred family names, and is also the population of our country today, according to complete statistics, in 2018, the total number of registered population of Chen surname has reached more than 63 million, accounting for 4.5% of the total population of the country, which shows the number of Chen surnames.
While many people have the same surname, not every surname comes from the same family, and not all people with the same surname live together all the time.
Many people will leave their original families when they grow up, get married and have children to form a new family, but in the history of our country, there was such a family that has lived together for 332 years.
This family is also recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, and fifteen generations have lived together for more than three hundred years without separating the family, this family is the Yimen Chen family.
The origin of the Yimen Chen clan
The Yimen Chen clan, also known as the Jiangzhou Chen clan, is a family that originated in De'an County, Jiujiang City, Jiangsu Province.
The Yimen Chen clan can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, and the ancestor of this family is called Chen Dali, who has two sons, Chen Jian and Chen Wang.
Chen Wang was an official during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and later came to Yimen Village because of the relocation of officials, which also opened the curtain of the Yimen Chen clan.
Later, in the Tang Dynasty, the Huangchao Rebellion occurred, and the Chen branch of Chen Jian was affected by the war and had to move to the location of the Yimen Chen clan.
The total population of the two families after integration reached more than 100 people, which can only be regarded as the middle of the size of the major families at that time.
For more than three hundred years, the Yimen Chen clan lived in Yimen Village and did not move again, and by the early Song Dynasty, the total population of the Yimen Chen clan reached more than 740 people, and by 1000 AD, the family population reached more than 1470 people.
Until the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song in 1062, the population of the Yimen Chen clan reached its peak, with more than 3,900 people, becoming the largest family in the world at that time, and the Yimen Chen clan of the Song Dynasty also had a great say in the song dynasty.
So how did such a huge family not separate for more than three hundred years?
filial piety
Filial piety has been a precious culture handed down from ancient times in our country, and it is also one of the important criteria for measuring a person today.
If a person is not filial to his parents and family, he will have a big problem in his character and morality.
If a family wants to maintain itself together for a long time to form a whole, it is naturally inseparable from filial piety, and the root of the Yimen Chen clan is filial piety.
The meaning of "righteousness" in the Yimen Chen clan is not heavy righteousness, but "filial piety", which is also the basis of the Yimen Chen clan, and during the Tang Dynasty, the Yimen Chen clan was given the name "Yimen Chen Clan" by Emperor Tang because of its emphasis on filial piety.
This is also the earliest praise about the Yimen Chen clan that can be traced back.
There is such a rule in the Yimen Chen family that men are not allowed to take concubines, and if they take concubines, they are in violation of the family rules and need to be punished by the family very severely.
Polygamy in feudal society is a very normal phenomenon, but the Yimen Chen clan restricts the clan by establishing a family law, and the Yimen Chen family law is constantly updated with the changes of the times, and has not become decayed because of the progress of the times.
There is a story about the Yimen Chen clan, according to legend, the Yimen Chen clan once raised more than a hundred dogs, these dogs will eat at the same time every day, will not leave any partners, if one partner is not present, they will not eat.
Even dogs attach so much importance to "filial piety", which is enough to see the importance and admiration of the Yimen Chen clan for "filial piety".
The Yimen Chen clan has also received many praises for attaching importance to filial piety, in addition to the Tang Dynasty Tang Dynasty, many emperors of the Song Dynasty have also praised the Yimen Chen clan.
Many people will ask why the imperial court should praise the Yimen Chen clan for filial piety. In fact, this is precisely the epitome of the social phenomenon at that time.
Because the society at that time was composed of many large families, the state had the state law, the family also had family rules, and the state and the family were homogeneous.
If a family strictly restricts itself in terms of ideology and morality, it can ensure that the descendants of the family are very outstanding in ideology and morality, which also contributes to the stability of the family and society, and can effectively maintain the social atmosphere.
As the ruler of the country, the emperor is also very aware of this, so from time to time to praise these families, can be exchanged for more families to follow, help to stabilize and maintain the social atmosphere.
As one of the largest families in the country at that time, the Yimen Chen clan took filial piety as a family rule, and naturally won the praise of many emperors.
Forced to separate the family
Many readers must have questioned when they read this, why did the Yimen Chen clan split up after more than three hundred years? Is it because of some contradictions within the family? That's not the way it is.
The Yimen Chen clan not only established filial piety as a family rule, but also attached great importance to education, and two of the descendants of the Yimen Chen clan had served as ministers, and as many as 30 high-ranking officials in the imperial court.
China has such an old saying, called the tree big trick, Yimen Chen clan is naturally no exception, after more than three hundred years, the total population of Yimen Chen clan has reached more than 3900 people, which at that time the society has a great influence, and there are many people in the family who are officials in the dynasty.
Therefore, such a large family naturally became a thorn in the eyes and a thorn in the flesh of the emperor's eyes, and the existence of the Yimen Chen clan was likely to threaten its own rule.
Therefore, in 1062, Song Renzong divided the Yimen Chen clan into 291 parts and distributed them to all parts of the country on the grounds that the Yimen Chen clan attached great importance to filial piety and hoped that they would go all over the country to promote and spread filial piety.
The main branches of the Yimen Chen clan are in today's Jiangxi and Sichuan, and the Yimen Chen clan later gave birth to a number of outstanding people, such as Chen Duxiu, the early leader of the Communist Party of China, as well as the famous figures of our party, Chen Yi, Chen Geng and so on.
The Yimen Chen clan has many records in the history of our country, and the Yimen Chen clan is the family with the largest population, the most vigorous cultural development, the longest cohabitation of the clansmen and the most united family in China's history.
epilogue
The existence of the Yimen Chen clan has made many people in later generations understand the importance of filial piety and attaching importance to education, filial piety can unite a big family, let a big family reduce disputes, and increase cohesion, which is also one of the important reasons why filial piety can be passed down in our country.
It is difficult to imagine what kind of situation such a huge family would develop if the Yimen Chen clan had not been forced to separate, and it is very likely that the people with the surname Chen in the whole country are from the Yimen Chen clan, and more celebrities of the Yimen Chen clan will be born in China.
Although the Yimen Chen clan has disappeared in the long river of history, their stories and spirits have still been passed down to this day for the reference and study of many future generations, and we should also attach importance to filial piety and carry forward the traditional culture of our country like the Yimen Chen clan.