Confucius
Confucius, who is revered as the "Master of All Ages", because Confucian orthodoxy contributes to feudal rule, Confucius and his family have been respected by the kings of successive dynasties, and his descendants have continued to multiply from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the present.
Speaking of the celebrities of Confucius's descendants, many people can blurt out a few. For example, the 20th generation of Sun Kongrong was a great Confucian at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the 74th generation of Sun Kong Fansen was a cadre who touched China's aid to Tibet, the 75th generation of Sun Kong Xiangxi was Chiang Kai-shek's finance minister, the 76th generation of Sun Kong Linghui was a top table tennis player, and so on.
Referring to the lineage of the Confucius family, it is not difficult to find that before the 56th generation of Confucius's grandchildren, the descendants of Confucius had both single names and double names, and the family was prosperous but the names were complex; after the 56th generation of grandchildren, the family name seemed to have a reference - the character generation.
Obviously, this character generation will not be prescribed by Confucius to future generations before his death. When it comes to the ranking of the Confucius family, it is inevitable to avoid a key figure - The Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao.
Zhu Yunjiao
The Jianwen Emperor gave 8 characters to rank in the line, and the Kong family put together a five-word poem
The habit of ranking characters has a long history, and it is now accepted that it originated in the Song Dynasty, became popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was mostly used by large families that prospered. Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, prescribed a ranking of characters for the descendants of his own branch, and together with his own "Kuang" character, formed a small couplet of 14 characters:
"Kuang De Wei Congshi Lingzi, Bo Shixi and Meng Youyi"
The famous calligrapher Zhao Mengfu is the 11th-generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang also arranged a character ranking for his children, note that it was arranged for each son to be ranked, which was not biased by the father.
For example, the characters he gave to his successor Zhu Biao were: Yunwen obeyed the ancestral precepts, Qinwu Dajunsheng, Shundao Yifengji, Shi Liangshan used Sheng, and the Emperor's grandson directly called Zhu Yunjiao.
Later, the branch of Zhu Di, the king of Yan, who succeeded in usurping the throne, was assigned the following characters: Gao Zhan Qi Jian You, Hou Zai Yi Chang You, Ci He Yi Bo Zhong, Jian Jing Di Xianyou, so the emperors after Zhu Di were called Zhu Gaozi, Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Qi Zhen, Zhu Qi Yu, Zhu Jian Shen...
The old Zhu family themselves used it happily, and did not forget to cooperate with the Confucian mascot they ruled China, the YanShenggong family. Confucius was named Yan Sheng Gong in the Song Dynasty, and only in the early years of the Ming Dynasty did he use the character ranks, I have to say that the old Zhao family still cut a little ah!
During the jianwen emperor's period, a holy decree was promulgated, and the imperial family was given an 8-character genealogical ranking of the Yansheng gong family, which was convenient for the old Confucius family to standardize the naming:
Gong, Yan, Cheng, Hong, Wen, Zhen, Shang, Yin
Wanshishi table plaque
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the YanShenggong who attacked the seal has been two generations, namely The 56th Generation of Confucius Sun Kong Xixue and the 57th Generation of Sun Kongne, so the Kong family applied to list "Xi" and "Yan" in front of the 8 characters given by Zhu Yunxiu, and made up 10 characters:
Xiyan Gongyan Cheng, Hongwen Zhen Shangyin.
This five-word poem, you want to say what profound connotation, that Kong family is a cultural person, naturally can help Zhu Yunjiao explain in the clouds, we ordinary people look at it, you can be regarded as a cultural person's smooth mouth.
During the Qing Dynasty, the Characters were avoided and changed, and Yuan Shikai gave the characters to the Kong family and did not recognize them
The 8 words given by Zhu Yunjiao are enough for 8 generations to use, and soon they will not be enough. By the time of the 65th generation of Sun Kong Yinzhi's attack on the Shenggong, the next generation of the Kong clan was born, and the royal gifts had just run out.
No way, you can't always stuff the child back, right? Therefore, Kong Yinzhi, the Duke of Yansheng, went to the imperial court and asked for another 10 words. The reigning emperor at the time was the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, who looked at the Fold of the Kong Family and gladly agreed:
Xingyu passed on widely, and Zhao Xianqing prospered.
So the Confucius family's character generation continued another round, this trip was born, some branches were born a little slower, and the character generation was used from the last year of the Ming Dynasty until after the founding of the Country.
Inui Takashi Images
But if you are born faster, then the 10 characters that will continue at the end of the Ming Dynasty will soon be insufficient. On the side of the Ai XinJue Luo family, all kinds of avoidance are endless, and they often become "word prison". What about even the Anglicans? You still have to avoid it, and honestly change the name.
Therefore, in the previous 20-character genealogical ranking, because Qianlong's name was Hongli and Kangxi's name was Yin Chan, "Hongwen Zhen Shangyin" should be changed to "Hongwen Zhen Shangyan". In the second year of Tongzhi, it was the turn of kong Xiangke, the 75th generation of Yan Shenggong, who was anxious for the next generation, and the characters were used up again, so he asked the imperial court to give another 10 words:
Let Devi bless, Chin Zhao nian prominent.
The imperial gifts of the Qing Emperor have not been used up to this day, but there is a person in the middle of the way who inserts a bar, he is Yuan Shikai.
Yuan Shikai was restored
In 1915, the early morning had already died for several years. However, Yuan Shikai was unwilling to become the president of the Republic of China, and had to act perversely to carry out the restoration work. After Hong Xian's claim, Old Yuan felt that he had opened up a new dynasty on a whim, so he planned to give the Kong family a new generation, it was best to skip the Manchu Qing gifts directly and directly use the old Yuan to give!
The 10 characters given by Yuan Shikai are:
Dingxin founded the national fortune, kefu zhen family voice.
These 10 words are not only given to Confucius's family, but also to the descendants of Mencius and confucius's disciples Yan Hui and ZengShan' descendants, and the four families use the same set together.
At that time, these four families were useless and difficult to say, but with Yuan Shikai's life, the four families he sent were the same attitude: not to admit it.
However, the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China is a historical fact, and if the dynasty is changed, it is inevitable to ask the new government to continue it, and the 76th generation of Yan Sheng Gong Kong Lingyi is ready to report to the Beiyang government on his own draft characters, and wrote 20 words in one go.
However, before it could be presented to the Beiyang government, the Yansheng gong family pulled up the white cloth. More than a year later, the widow, Mrs. Tao, submitted to the Beiyang government for approval and passed the 20-character ranking on the new continuation of the YanShenggong family:
Jiandao Dunding, Mao Xiu Zhao Yi Chang, Yuwen Huan Jingrui, Yongxi Shi Xuchang.
Kong Lingyi took a group photo with Puyi's English teacher Johnston in his early years
From the 56th generation available to the 105th generation, how many generations of the Confucius family are there?
In summary, you can take stock of the genealogical order of the Kong family:
Jiandao Dun and Tranquility, Mao Xiu Zhao Yi Chang,
Yuwen Huan Jingrui, Yongxi Shixuchang.
A total of 50 words, managing 50 generations. So how many have been used so far? The answer is the 28th "read" character. At the end of the last century, the descendants of the Confucius family registered an association in Hong Kong to compile statistics on the descendants of the Confucius family around the world in order to repair one of the most authoritative genealogies. According to the latest data they gave in previous years, the latest generation of Confucius descendants has used the word "nian" and is the 83rd generation grandson of Confucius.
In feudal society, it was not uncommon for families to have large families, but families like Confucius, which had an orderly inheritance and had been honored by all dynasties, were rare. Thanks to the royal family's generations and the promotion of these family families, it is a common tradition to divide the generations into large families throughout China. For example, the author himself is the light character generation, the previous generation is the learning generation, and the next generation must be the Shi character generation.
Such a generational ranking is originally intended to facilitate the identification of generations and make the elderly and young respected and humbled in an orderly manner, but in practice, it often deviates from the initial expectations.
Or take the Example of yan Sheng Gong's family, in the Kong family, it is likely that the younger generations are older, and the older generations are younger. It is also not uncommon in life, seeing a face to drink happy wine, a group of bosses bowing to welcome a child, which is caused by the disparity in generations.
This generational difference often overwhelms young people, which is not something that can be shaken by a dollar.
What causes this discrepancy? I think there are two main reasons. If you are particularly fertile and have given birth to five, six, seven or eight sons in a row, then it is very likely that the sons of your eldest son have begun to organize wedding banquets, and your youngest son still needs to change diapers every day. Even, the old man may be the same age as the eldest grandson. This difference in fertility time for multiple children and grandchildren has led to generational differences within the branch.
Economic factors are also an important reason for the generational differences between the side branches. Some branches have strong financial resources, and they may become married and become fathers around the age of 12, so their families may breed 5 or 6 generations in a hundred years; and the branches with poor life are often poor and wifeless, and they are very old to get married and start a family, so within a hundred years it is only 3 or 4 generations.
This is also why Kong Fansen, a good cadre of New China, is even one generation higher than Kong Xiangxi, a huge rich man in the Republic of China.
Kong Xiangxi
Why did the fallen side branch change his name and surname in order to enter the Confucius Mansion as a maid?
The gap is slowly widening, and the old Kong family, which has prospered for more than 2,000 years, is even worse.
In feudal society, it was not allowed to accept people of the same ethnic group as servants in the Confucius house. If nothing else, it was because of the disparity in generations that it was extremely embarrassing for the master and servant to meet.
You think, the whole kong government is economically strong, and the speed of fertility and replacement is extremely fast, while the speed of other fallen side branches is much slower. Recruit a servant surnamed Kong of the same clan, you just wanted to get angry with him for splitting his head and covering his face, and as a result, when you asked for the name, according to the generation, the family is the uncle of your grandfather's generation, which is worth it? Accustomed to servants, lost in majesty, angry at uncles, morally degraded. Where is the maid invited into the house? This is the ancestor invited.
Old photo of Confucius
However, no matter how leafy it is, it is only the main trunk, and the descendants of Confucius in the side branches live in poverty. In the Confucius house, the living treatment is not bad, how can it be mixed in? Many descendants of the Kong family in the side branches simply changed their names and hid the word representing the generations, and the more ruthless people directly changed their surnames, just in order to be able to enter the house as an errand boy.
Therefore, at that time, the only stubbornness of the poor people in the side branches was: I was older than these broad relatives! That's all.
Do you also have a tradition of genealogical sorting? Will your next generation still be named according to the genealogy rules?