What is a family tree? As an important part of China's national history and culture, genealogy is a self-contained science, which is called genealogy. Genealogy takes genealogy as the object of study by studying the nature of genealogy and its development law. Understanding what a family tree is is allows us to fully understand the nature of family trees and the significance of family trees in social development.
Song Suxun's "Su Clan Genealogy Quote": "Su Clan Genealogy, Genealogy of the Su Clan also." ”
Ming Zu Fang Xiaoru pointed out in the "Genealogical Order": "The genealogist, Puye, carries the ancestor's distance, name, secret character, and era number. Genealogists, Buye, Shibu Near and Far, The Gangji of the Hundred Ages, and the Sect of The Ten Thousand Dynasties. The preface to the name is called the genealogy; the article records the marriage eunuch, which is called the book. The Book of Heavenly Sons is called the Chronicle, the Book of princes is the history, the Book of the Doctor is said to be the transmission, in short, it is called the Spectrum. The genealogist, the one who makes up for it, and the one who is left behind makes up for it. Therefore, it is known that the root of the order of the surname, the distance of the number of the jishi, the father and the son of Mu, the hundred generations lie in the present. Zheng Xuanyue: The spectrum is in the family if the net is in the program, the outline is ten thousand eyes, and the spectrum is ten thousand branches. ”
Ming Huang Rubing's "FangQian Lin Family Genealogy Sequence": "State history, family genealogy, genealogy, history and the like." According to ordinary examples, those who cultivate the history of the country must know the meaning of "Spring and Autumn", and then they can understand the king's way and correct the national system; those who cultivate family trees can also know the meaning of "Spring and Autumn", and then they can understand the morality and correct customs. ”
Zhang Xuecheng of the Qing Dynasty said: "There is the history of the world, the history of a country, the history of a family, and the history of one person. Biographical chronicles, the history of one person; the history of the family; the history of the family; the history of the ministry and county, the history of a country; the history of the whole dynasty, the history of the world. ”
In the second year of Xuan unification, "Genealogy of Jixi Ren Mileage Shilu Hall": "There is a genealogy of the clan, and there is a history of the kingdom of Judah." The history is praised and degraded, and the genealogy is based on the source of the chronicle, so it must be detailed in its illustrations, compile its world, and act according to it, so that future generations can know where the book is. ”
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The 1979 "Genealogy" entry in Cihai: "A genealogical book that records the lineage of a surname and the deeds of important people in the old days." ”
The 1986 Ciyuan explains the "family tree": "A book of feudal families recording lineages and deeds." ”
The "Tasks of Genealogical Research" states: "The Genealogy is a history book of the development of the clan recorded in a special form. In the article "Research on the Origin of Chinese Genealogy", it is believed that "family trees are to list the lineage figures of the same blood group one by one." It can also be said that as long as the descendants of a certain ancestor are listed one by one, a simple family tree is formed. ”
In the book "Genealogy of the Chinese Nation", synthesizing the definition of genealogy by ancient and modern scholars, it is believed that "family tree is the main book in the ancient Chinese patriarchal society that records the lineage of clan figures and records the deeds of clans, and is a history of family development recorded in a special form. ”
In the article "Genealogy - A Historical Book with Rich Connotations", it is believed that "a family tree is a kind of book that can more truly reflect the major political, economic and cultural activities of a family in the process of its development. ”
Published on November 11, 1997 in Wen Wei Po's article "Developing Genealogy Resources and Promoting History and Culture", it was proposed that the family tree "is a historical picture book of the bloodline group that records the lineage and deeds of the clan of the same ancestor".
The "Genealogy" entry of the Modern Chinese Dictionary published in 1997: "A book of feudal families recording lineages and the deeds of important people." ”
At the 1998 Chinese Genealogy Symposium held at the Shanghai Library, Yang Dongquan further elaborated in his paper "New Theories on the Definition of Genealogy": "Genealogy is a systematic list of various forms of genealogy of a blood group with a common ancestor or an account of both and other aspects. ”
The "Genealogy" entry of the Great Dictionary of Chinese History, published in 2000: "A genealogical book that records the lineage of a surname and the deeds of important figures in the old times." ”
According to the book "Chinese Name Culture", the family tree is "a book that records the blood relations between family members".
In the book "Genealogy of China" published in 2002, it is said: "Family tree is a special book form that records the lineage reproduction and deeds of important people in the form of a genealogy. ”
In the book "Ancestral Hall, Lingpai, Family Tree", it is believed that "the so-called 'family tree' is the genealogy of a family or clan. ”
In 2005, the fifth edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary "Genealogy" entry: "Family is a book that records the lineage of the clan and the deeds of important people. ”
The above-mentioned various definitions of genealogy, in addition to the definition of "Lexicon" in the 1980s is slightly biased, it should be said that there is no fundamental difference, all believe that the family tree is the same blood group lineage, characters and deeds of the record, but from different angles: some from the narrow sense, think that the family tree is only a record of the family figure lineage; some from a broad sense, think that with the development of society, the scope of genealogical records expanded to the relevant family deeds, including character deeds, etc.; some focus on the attributes of the family tree, It is believed that genealogy records family history; many definitions mainly reflect the book-style genealogy of written records; some definitions cover a wider range, including non-written genealogies, and so on.
Which definition is more scientific and complete?
We may wish to explore from another perspective, that is, from the definition of what is "home" and what is "spectrum".
According to Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words", "home" is a pictographic character, "home" is from the shape of "宀", 宀 is like the shape of a house, is a house for people to live, the house raises "Feng" (pig), which is a symbol of the agricultural and animal husbandry economy, is the collective pig raising into the performance of family private ownership. The people here are, first of all, husband and wife, and the home is the house where the husband and wife live together. Therefore, the "family" can be defined as the organization of the work and life of parents and children based on the marriage relationship between men and women, which is the most basic blood group.
As for the "spectrum", successive scholars have interpreted it in many ways. The Shuowen Jiezi 诂林 said: "Genealogy, book record also." "That is, the genealogy is a booklet. "Interpretation of the Name": "Spectrum, Bu ye, Bu Lieqi matter also." The interpretation of the "Chronicle of Justice and the Three Generations of The Table" is also similar: "Spectrum, Bu ye, list its affairs also." That is, it is considered that the spectrum is a kind of thing in Boulevard, so that it can be viewed directly. The Wenxin Carved Dragon Secretary said: "The general consul Li Shu has a genealogical record... Therefore, it is said that the genealogist Puye, the annotation of the order of the world, the matter of the Zhou Pu. That is, to think that the spectrum is a well-rounded and comprehensive meaning of the puja record. Later, genealogists played a lot of play on "spectrumrs, pu also".
From the above definition analysis of "family" and "genealogy", since "family" refers to a certain blood group, and "genealogy" refers to a comprehensive and systematic layout of similar things, then, combining "family" and "genealogy", "family tree" is "the carrier of describing the lineage of the blood group". Although the names of genealogies are dazzling, the content is very different, the definitions are varied, and the types are diverse, the essence of the genealogy, the simplest expression of the genealogy, is "the carrier of the lineage of the blood group". The element of this definition: One must be a blood group. This blood group can be narrowly defined, referring only to the blood relationship of a family, or it can be broad, referring to a clan, including multiple families with blood relations, that is, a large clan that has formed multiple branches from an old ancestor; second, there must be a lineage name arrangement. This lineage arrangement can be simple, referring only to the subordinate lineage of several generations, such as the directory of ancestors, fathers, sons, and grandchildren, or it can be a directory of dynasties handed down from an old ancestor for dozens of generations, and a directory of the various branches handed down from an old ancestor, and so on.
It is more accurate to define a family tree as "a carrier that describes the lineage of a blood group". This definition includes genealogies in both "note" and "narrative" aspects. The genealogy of "Ji" mainly refers to the literal family tree, and the genealogy of "Shu" mainly refers to the oral genealogy. This definition also covers a wide range, including the genealogy of a family and clan, as well as the genealogy of hundreds of families and clans; including both book-style genealogies and other types of genealogies other than book-style genealogies, such as stele genealogies, cloth genealogies, etc.; both written genealogies and non-written genealogies, such as knotted rope genealogies, etc.; including family trees with relatively mature and rich contents after the Song Dynasty, as well as the most primitive family trees, such as oracle bone genealogies, bronze family trees, etc. At the same time, this definition also excludes those family history records that do not systematically record family lineages, such as family traditions and family histories. Although these works record the historical deeds of a family, it is difficult to call them genealogies because they lack a complete genealogy of the family. Family lineage is the core content of the family tree, and it is also the only criterion for distinguishing whether it is a family tree document.