A study of the clans of the Chu State during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Trends in the study of pre-Qin clan history

Clans are an important object of historical research. According to the different stages of development, organizational forms, and social functions, the clans in the history of the mainland can be roughly divided into five categories: the clans in the ancient feudal society, the clans under the medieval scholar system, the clans under the Song and Yuan imperial examination system, the clans under the ancestral hall patriarchal system in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the clans in modern society. Among them, the pre-Qin period is the origin and initial development stage of the ancient clans in the mainland, and the clans in this period are different from later generations in terms of performance characteristics and organizational forms. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of scholars who specialize in the study of the history of the pre-Qin clan, and the perspective, content and depth of the research have made significant progress compared with the previous ones.

Scholars who have studied the history of the Qin clan in advance generally focus on several major clan systems: the patriarchal hierarchy, the inheritance system, the marriage system, the surname system, the temple sacrifice system, and the clan cemetery system. These institutional-level studies focus on finding the law of clan development and evolution, summarizing the characteristics of clan forms in different periods, and then trying to reveal the social function and dynamic evolution process of clans in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Taking the pre-Qin surname system as an example, in recent years, there are four research monographs, including Zhao Yanxia's Research on the Early Chinese Surname System (Tianjin: Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, 1996), Xie Weiyang's Family Form of the Zhou Dynasty (Harbin: Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 2005), Chen Jie's Research on the Shang and Zhou Surname System (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2007), and Zhang Shuyi's Research on the Pre-Qin Surname System (Fuzhou: Fujian People's Publishing House, 2008).

These treatises undoubtedly have important reference value for us to understand and understand the surname system in the pre-Qin period. However, it should also be noted that the research of the pre-Qin clan and its system by the previous scholars pursued too much of the "general history" investigation of a certain system, focusing on the system and ignoring individual cases, emphasizing the whole and ignoring the regional and microscopic, and this defect is particularly obvious in the study of the Eastern Zhou clan. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of interweaving change and innovation. The decline of Zhou Tianzi's power and the confrontation between the princes and the great powers led to the relatively independent development of clan organizations in different regions and countries, resulting in their clan forms, clan structures, and clan policies having their own characteristics.

One of the purposes of Sun Yao's writing of The Clans of the Spring and Autumn Period is to reveal "the characteristics of the clans of various countries", but its structure is grand enough, but the discussion is superficial. Mr. Zhu Fenghan's "Research on the Morphology of the Shang and Zhou Families" is the most important work on the study of the pre-Qin clan. The study of the clans of the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty occupies a large part of the book, while the study of the clans of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is not classified by country, region or ethnic group, so that the characteristics of the induction and the conclusions drawn are relatively broad, and the depth of the discussion is not as deep as that of the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties.

In view of this, some scholars began to study the clans of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty by region and ethnicity. For example, Mr. Xiao Zhenhao's "Ancient Kingdoms and Surnames in Shandong" examines the clans that existed in present-day Shandong during the pre-Qin period, and conducts a systematic investigation of their family names, fiefdoms, migrations, rise and fall, etc., which deepens the understanding of the early history and culture of the region. Mr. Bai Guohong's "Research on the Zhao Family of the Spring and Autumn Jin Kingdom" analyzes the development of the Zhao family and the changes in its relationship with the Jin clan and the family of the princes of the Qing Dynasty through a detailed analysis of the development of the Zhao family and the changes in the family of the Jin Dynasty and the princely doctors. Chen Yun's "Research on the Genealogy of the Gao Er Clan in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Kingdom of Qi" systematically examines the origin and lineage of the two major families of the Kingdom of Qi and the Gao Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, and distinguishes and analyzes the errors and different texts in the genealogical works of the previous generations.

As for the Chu clans in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, although there have been some case studies, such as the studies of scholars such as Zhang Jun, Li Ling, and Pu Bairui, which will be introduced below, there is a lack of comprehensive investigation of the origin, mining, lineage, migration, rise and fall of the Chu clans, let alone an in-depth analysis of the clan structure and clan policies of the Chu State. So far, the rich achievements of Chu culture archaeology and the continuous progress of Chu script research have provided sufficient conditions for the systematic study of Chu clans and their systems.

Archaeological discoveries have promoted the study of the Chu clan

Due to the lack of inherited classics and the limitation of the field of attention, the study of the history of the pre-Qin clan has been stagnant for a long time. Hong Mai once lamented in "Rong Zhai Essays": "The surname is out of the way, and future generations cannot be examined, but it is proved by history, but it is difficult to know." In addition to Yao, Yu, Tang, Du, Jiang, Tian, Fan, and Liu, Yu Gai is mixed up...... For thousands of years, the world is far away, and the security will be investigated! Since the beginning of the 20th century, with the flourishing of modern archaeology in the mainland, the situation of "unscrupulous" and "safe research" about surnames in the past has been greatly improved.

The development and prosperity of the study of the Chu clan has benefited from many important archaeological discoveries of the Chu culture. From the perspective of clan history research, these archaeological materials can be roughly divided into two categories.

The first type is the written materials that carry various clan information, including golden materials, simple documents, etc. Although the bronze inscriptions of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty tend to be simplified, they are generally engraved with the name of the maker, and some inscriptions also indicate the family origin or background of the maker. At present, the inscribed bronzes of Chu mainly include Xichuan Xia Temple, Monk Ridge, Xujialing Chu Tomb Bronze Ware Group, Xiangyang Shanwan M33 and M23 Bronze Ware Group, Nanyang Xiguan Peng Family Tomb Bronze Ware Group, Chongyuan Bronze Ware, Shouxian Chu Youwang Tomb Bronze Ware Group, etc. In addition, there are a number of important inscribed bronzes such as Chu Yanke Copper, Chu Qu Shu Tuoge, Chu Qu Zi Chimu Yan, Chu Qu Xige, Ejun Qijie, and "Chu Zi Mou" vessels. These bronze inscriptions not only record the Chu family surnames such as the Xue family, the Qu family, and the Shen Yin family, but also involve foreign clans such as the Peng family, the Deng family, the Pan family, and the Shen family.

The age of the materials unearthed in Chu is concentrated in the Warring States Period, including the bamboo slips of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, the Chu slips of the No. 2 tomb of Baoshan, the Chu slips of the No. 1 tomb of Tianxingguan, the Chu slips of the No. 1 tomb of Wangshan, and the bamboo slips of the Geling Chu tomb. According to statistics, Bao Shanjian recorded "about 140 surnames and nearly 1,000 personal names, which are important materials for the study of the surname system and titles at that time". The ancestor worship slips in the Baoshan Jane and Geling Jane reveal the first seal, early lineage and clan branch differentiation of the Zhao family, which is extremely helpful for the study of the Zhao clan in the Chu State. Wangshan Jian and Tianxing Guan Jian respectively recorded the genealogical information of the mourning and Pan clans, which also has an important value of making up for the gaps in the literature. Zeng Hou Yijian recorded a certain number of officials at all levels of the Chu State and their names.

In addition, Shangbo Jian's "King Zhao Destroys the Room", "King Zhao and Gong Zhi", "King Bo Drought of Cambodia", "King Zhuang Jicheng", "Shen Gongchen Ling King", "King Ping Asks Zheng Shou", "King Ping and Wang Zimu", "Why Should the Monarch Be Safe", "Life", "Wang Ju", "Cheng Wang is the Trip to Chengpu", "Chen Gongzhi Soldiers" and other articles, and in recent years, Tsinghua Jian's "Chu Ju", "Department Year", "Liangchen", "Ziyi" and other articles all involve the history or characters of the Chu clan, and cannot be ignored. The existing research on the above-mentioned unearthed documents, including text interpretation, content analysis, determination of material age and historical background, and excavation of historical and geographical connotations, has laid a good foundation for further research on the clan history of Chu State.

The other category is the published information on the cemeteries of the Chu national clan. The more famous ones are Xichuan Xia Temple, Monk Ridge, Xujialing Xue Cemetery, Nanyang Xiguan Peng Cemetery, as well as Xiangyang Shanwan Tomb Group, Xincai Geling Chu Tomb, Jiangling Tianxing Guan Chu Tomb, Jiangling Wangshan Chu Tomb, Xinyang Changtaiguan Chu Tomb, Jingmen Baoshan Tomb Group, Shou County Chu Youwang Tomb and so on. These burial materials of nobles with the same or different surnames in Chu include information on tomb site selection, spatial layout, shape and burial customs, and utensils combination, which have important implications for exploring the burial system, fiefdom, organizational scale, and rise and fall of the Chu clan.

New discoveries lead to new learning. The results of Chu culture archaeology are not only helpful to solve the problems of surname origin and ethnic differentiation that scholars have always paid attention to, but also promote the in-depth development of research fields such as clan structure, political geography, and clan cemetery system.

This article is excerpted by Sun Li and Zhang Yana from Tian Chengfang's "Introduction to the Study of the Chu State Clans in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty". The content has been slightly abridged and adjusted.