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"You know what? The ancestor of the Wu family may really hide a thrilling history, and it seems that everything has traces to follow! Scholar Zhang Peiyuan said mysteriously to his colleagues.
After hearing this, the colleague asked curiously: "You mean, the case of the Wu family in Jiangsu Province to change their ancestral surname?" ”
Zhang Peiyuan nodded, his voice was low and magnetic, and a glimmer of exploration flashed in his eyes: "According to historical records, before Zhang Shicheng broke the city, the whereabouts of his three sons were unknown.
And the information shown in the genealogy of the Wu family also has many coincidences with the time, but I didn't expect that after more than 600 years, this ancestral precept has been passed down from generation to generation......"
However, what is the reason why the ancestors of the Wu family have been tight-lipped until now?
Born in the war, the hero's bloodline has been hidden for a hundred years
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the government became increasingly corrupt, and the salt tax became an important pillar of the national finance, which led to the soaring price of salt, which made the life of the salt people on the southeast coast extremely difficult.
Zhang Shicheng has been transporting salt in Baiju Farm in Taizhou since he was a child to make a living, and he is strong and strong, fighting for righteousness and squandering money, although his family is poor, he often helps people in danger, so he has a high prestige among the local people.
In the autumn of 1367, the entire city of Suzhou was shrouded in the clouds of war.
Zhang Shicheng, who was forty-six years old, could not stand the long-term oppression of the ruler, and held a peasant uprising with others, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army, which was also a rebel army, rushed to Suzhou City like a tide, and their troops were divided into three routes, led by Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and Li Wenzhong, and launched a fierce attack from the east, south and west respectively.
Zhang Shicheng commanded the defenders, relying on strong walls and complex fortifications, and put up a stubborn resistance.
The sound of artillery outside the city shook the sky, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army used the most advanced weapons and artillery at that time to carry out a fierce bombardment of the Suzhou city wall. The defenders on the city wall suffered heavy casualties, but Zhang Shicheng still held out, knowing that once the city was broken, it would be a matter of life and death.
During the siege of the city for many months, Zhang Shicheng repeatedly organized death squads to counterattack in an attempt to break the siege.
During a night attack, he even personally led his army to attack and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with Zhu Yuanzhang's army. However, due to the disparity in forces, these counterattacks ultimately ended in failure.
As the days passed, as the food reserves and equipment in the city were gradually depleted, the morale of the soldiers in the army was not high, and they began to panic.
Therefore, before being captured and captured, he, who had always been cautious, made three important arrangements: first, he distributed his family's property to the strong men in the army to boost morale and let them continue to hold their positions;
secondly, he secretly planned the escape path of his family and confidants to ensure that the family bloodline could continue; In the end, he ordered the burning of the government office and his mansion to prevent the spoils of war from falling into the hands of the enemy, and defended his last dignity.
It didn't take long for the walls of Suzhou City to be breached under a fierce attack. Zhang Shicheng chose to commit suicide in desperation, trying to make his will clear with death, but he failed and was eventually captured by Zhu Yuanzhang's army.
And Zhang Shicheng's perseverance and sacrifice have become heroic deeds praised by later generations.
So where did all his orphans go?
Uncover the mystery of your life and the secrets that can't be said
According to the "Wen Zhang Genealogy", Zhang Shicheng and his wife Liu had a total of five sons, and the first three sons lost contact in the panic.
The other two young sons fled to the Jiangxi region under the care of the nurse and were adopted by the boatmen surnamed Wen, who later changed their surnames to Wen.
However, these two young sons may be the ancestors of the more than 600 villagers surnamed Wu in Shecun, Jiangsu.
Until 2005, why was this secret, which had been hidden for more than 600 years, suddenly made public?
It turned out to be the news that Wu Yuanda, a descendant of the Wu family, broke the news, he was an ordinary villager, but as he grew older, he became more and more strange about the mystery of his surname.
Every year during the Qingming Festival, when the whole village was busy worshipping their ancestors, Wu Yuanda found an abnormal phenomenon, all the tombstones of their family were written "Zhang's" instead of "Wu's", he didn't understand when he was a child, he also tried to ask his father, but his father was perfunctory every time, just saying that this was from the ancestors' testament, which made Wu Yuanda even more suspicious of what was wrong.
Wu Yuanda couldn't help but put a big question mark in his heart: "Since ancient times, the surname of a family has represented the bond of inheritance, and now how can their Wu family have a different name before death and the memory after death?"
So with this doubt, he decided to ask his grandfather and several respected Wu elders in the village, hoping to dig out the truth of history from their mouths.
After some inquiry, Wu Yuanda gradually pieced together the family's secrets, only to learn that this family motto, which has been passed down from generation to generation, is to protect future generations from hunting and killing, and to ensure that the bloodline can continue safely.
However, in Wu Yuanda's view, it is now the 21st century, those old things have become a thing of the past, and many things have already turned the page.
So he began to run around, communicating and negotiating with villagers of the same clan, advocating to restore his ancestral surname and regain his identity as a descendant of Zhang Shicheng. During that time, Wu Yuanda was very busy, studying how to go through the procedures for changing his surname, and persuaded more than 600 Wu villagers to support him.
However, when he went to the relevant department to change his surname, the staff informed Wu Yuanda that the materials he provided were not enough to prove that their Wu villagers were descendants of Zhang Shicheng, so the business had been stuck there without progress.
However, Wu Yuanda did not give up because of this, and he turned to the media for help. When the reporters heard the story of Wu Yuanda, they felt that it was quite valuable, and decided to go deep into Wujia Village to conduct an interview and find out.
As soon as the reporters stepped into Wujia Village, Wu Yuan greeted them warmly, holding the wooden plaque that had been passed down for hundreds of years. He excitedly showed reporters that this plaque was from the ninth generation of Zhang Shicheng's descendants and was engraved in the fifth year of Kangxi.
The reporter carefully observed the plaque and did feel the weight of history, and the handwriting engraved on the plaque was somewhat vague but it could be seen: "The people with the surname of the Wu family are all descendants of Zhang Shicheng and have lived in Hailing." ”
Subsequently, Wu Yuanda took out the family genealogy and told reporters about their family motto and this dusty history. And this interview not only found a window for Wu Yuanda and his villagers to speak, but also brought this forgotten history back to people's field of vision.
Wu Yuanda firmly believes that with the efforts of everyone, they will eventually be able to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors and restore the glory of Zhang Shicheng's descendants.
Now, with the help of expert Zhang Peiyuan, Wu Yuanda and his villagers can prepare complete documents more systematically and then go to the relevant departments again to apply for the restoration of their surnames.
No matter what the final result is, the Wu family has adhered to the family legacy for more than 600 years, and has always kept in mind the "incognito and continuous bloodline", which is why the Wu family is today.
What do you think about the villagers collectively changing their surnames? Welcome to discuss in the comment area!
Information sources:
The incognito descendants of Zhang Shicheng - "Jiangsu Local Chronicles" 2022 Issue 01