Genealogy, also known as genealogy, is a unique cultural heritage of China. Genealogy is of great value to the study of the history and culture of the Chinese nation and to the search for the roots of Chinese people at home and abroad.
In China, many experts are dedicated to the collection of genealogies. In 2009, the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy" was officially published; in 2011, the China Root-Seeking Network was officially launched; they provided a more complete "road map" for the global Chinese root-seeking. This newspaper interviewed the heads of these two projects to tell you about their genealogical lives.
Wang Heming, 74, is a researcher at the Shanghai Library. He edited the ten-volume General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogies, which was the first compilation of Chinese genealogies from all over the world. For Wang Heming, the family tree is almost his entire life.
After being transferred to the Shanghai Library in 1995, Wang Heming focused on genealogical culture for nearly 20 years.
Wish
When Wang Heming was a child, his brother told him that there was a family tree in the family. But he never saw it. During the Cultural Revolution, the family tree was confiscated, and it became his wish to find the family tree.
A white-haired old man suddenly cried in the family tree reading room of the Shanghai Library.
Wang Heming accompanied him, did not speak, and slowly waited for the old man's emotions to calm down. "I finally found my own family tree." After crying, the old man said excitedly to Wang Heming. Wang Heming has seen this situation a lot.
In 1995, Wang Heming was transferred to the Shanghai Municipal Library as Party Secretary and Director of the Institute of Historical Documents. The following year, under his auspices, the Shanghai Library opened a genealogy reading room. Since then, Wang Heming has to go to the genealogy reading room when everything is fine. First, as a genealogy researcher, he often comes to read the relevant materials, and second, he has always had a wish - to find his own family tree. In the process, he also received many readers.
Wang Heming was born in 1940 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province. When he was a child, his brother told him that the family had a family tree. But he never saw it. The family tree was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution. Finding a family tree became his wish.
After being transferred to the Shanghai Library, he was one step closer to his dream. The Shanghai Library has more than 18,000 kinds of genealogies, making it the largest library in China. The surname Wang is a large surname, but the family tree of the Wang surname is more difficult to check. Wang Heming found about 20 genealogies of Wang surnamed Wang in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, in the Shanghai Library, but did not find his family tree. He expanded the scope of the search to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, but still did not find it. Later, by chance, he found the context of his family in the genealogy of the Wang surname in the Kunshan area. Open the family tree to know that the old ancestor moved from Kunshan to Jiangyin. The ancestors of the Wang family were originally from Shanxi, and later moved to Shandong and then to the Jiangnan region.
After 6 years of intermittent work, Wang Heming finally found his family's family tree— a family tree repaired in 1949, more than a dozen copies, printed in lead, with Wang Heming's name and date of birth written on it. In Wang Heming's childhood memory, such a family tree is one per room, because there is no ancestral hall, and the family stores the family tree next to the shrine that sacrifices the ancestral tablet. He found his name on the family tree. There are also the names of his brother, brother, sister and other relatives.
"I'm very happy to see my name on it." After 12 years, when Wang Heming was interviewed by reporters, it was still difficult to hide his excitement. "I quickly told my siblings and other relatives in the family. They were all happy. The original genealogy records the origin of our royal family. Our family has also produced some celebrities and made some contributions to the country, and we are very proud of it. Wang Heming introduced that through this family tree, many relatives who do not contact each other on weekdays have begun to move around.
One of the stories that impressed Wang Heming's memory was that on May 5, 1997, Rong Yiren, then vice president of the state, read with great interest the three Rong family trees in the collection of Tongzhi, Xuantong, and the Republic of China. "Especially in the family lineage table compiled in the 1930s, he flipped through page after page, and when he found the thirty-first Rong family' 'YiRen, born in the fifth year of the Republic of China, the fourth son, graduated from St. John's University', he was excited."
Wang Heming said: "When I said that I would give him a copy of the genealogy table, Elder Rong was very happy. ”
heartache
"After listening to director Gu's introduction, I felt very sad to see so many family trees piled up in the corner."
Wang Heming graduated from a science class and worked at the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences after graduating from the History Department of Fudan University, but the Academy of Social Sciences only used genealogies as general historical materials at that time. In October 1995, he was transferred to the Shanghai Library and began to have extensive contact with genealogy.
At that time, Gu Tinglong, director of the Shanghai Library, took Wang Heming and others to visit the library, and a large number of family trees were piled up in the library, very scattered, and the family trees were covered with dust. Gu Tinglong is the uncle of the famous historian Gu Jiegang. In the late 1930s, he and his friends founded the United Public Library, which specializes in preserving the collection of books of relatives and friends so that they will not be scattered. This includes the collection of genealogies. But the real large-scale collection of genealogies came after the founding of the Country. In 1958, the Shanghai Historical Documents Library, formerly known as the United Public Library, merged with the Shanghai Library, with Gu Tinglong as its director. Since then, the Shanghai Library has begun to collect a large number of ancient books, including genealogies.
"After listening to director Gu's introduction, I felt very sad to see so many family trees piled up in the corner."
Wang Heming reported the relevant situation, and since 1996, he has made the emergency repair of the Shanghai Library literature an important task. Among them, genealogy has become the focus of work. At that time, a genealogy leadership group was established.
The entire work lasted 20 years and was carried out in three phases. From 1995 to 2000, it was the stage of compiling the family tree, mainly repairing the damaged family tree, repairing it and putting it on the shelves, and annotating it to provide readers with borrowing services. In the meantime, in 1998, a genealogy seminar was held, and in 2000, an international genealogy seminar was held. After that, he edited the "Compendium of Genealogical Catalogues of Shanghai Library Collections".
The period from 2001 to 2010 was the family tree development phase. In 2001, the 60-year-old Wang Heming stepped down as party secretary, and he devoted all his time and energy to the development and arrangement of the family tree. In the past 10 years, there have been four achievements: "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy", "Selected Compilation of Chinese Genealogical Materials", "General Theory of Chinese Genealogy", and "General Theory of Chinese Ancestral Halls".
Since 2011, Wang Heming has mainly studied ethnic minority genealogies. And I am ready to concentrate on two things - one is to catalog the genealogy of ethnic minorities, and the other is to study the genealogy of ethnic minorities.
Delight
10 years later, Wang Heming can still clearly remember Ms. Yan's words, and he is still sighing when talking about the situation at that time. "That genealogy is an ancient version of the Qing Dynasty and is very precious."
In 2001, the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy was launched, and it was reported by many media such as Shanghai Wen Wei Po. The Shanghai Library also hopes to unite the strength of Chinese people at home and abroad to complete the compilation of the family tree as soon as possible. The Shanghai Library has received positive responses from all parties. Some people wrote letters to inquire about the situation, and some people wrote letters about their own family trees. Among them, Wang Yixun, a professor at Shandong University, saw relevant reports in American newspapers. Several letters were written to Wang Heming in succession, asking to volunteer at the Shanghai Library. In the letter, he said: "I am willing to volunteer to help in Shanghai, eat and live responsibly for myself, and do not want a penny of labor fees." Compiling a national genealogy is a matter of time. I'm willing to do a little bit about that. After Discussing with his colleagues, Wang Heming felt that Professor Wang was too old, so he wrote a letter and politely declined.
In 2009, the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy" was published in Shanghai, and after six years, Wang Heming still remembers the scene when the book was compiled. When the project was launched, Wang Heming was supported by the Utah Genealogy Society in the United States, and the Shanghai Library donated 2.6 million yuan at the time. The Utah Genealogy Society of the United States sponsored 1.2 million yuan. SaQimin, then vice president of the Utah Genealogy Society, provided Wang Heming with 17,000 volumes of microfilm of the national spectrum. Saqimin, who studied in China as a teenager, loves Chinese culture and is particularly interested in China's genealogy. In the process of cooperating in the compilation of the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy", he and Wang Heming formed a deep friendship. Later, he also went to Shanghai to visit Wang Heming. When Wang Heming visited the United States, he also visited Saqimin.
When the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogies was published, Wang Heming sent a set to Sa Qimin. The Saqi people were very pleased. By then, he had retired from the Utah Genealogy Society and was teaching at the university, teaching Chinese genealogy to American students. "He said he was going to use the book as his teaching material." Wang Heming said.
Not only genealogists are keen to participate in the compilation of the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy. In 2003, Yan Sulian, a retired professor at the Shanghai English College who settled in the United States, returned to China to visit his family. She took the initiative to bring a copy of the Yan family tree to the Shanghai Library. "I heard that you are compiling a family tree, and I hope you will compile the Yan family tree as well." This family tree is given to you for free. Donate it to the Shanghai Library for readers to read. I think this is the best home for this family tree. "After 10 years, Wang Heming can still clearly remember Ms. Yan's words and still sigh when talking about the situation at that time." That genealogy is an ancient version of the Qing Dynasty and is very precious. Wang Heming said.
"The Shanghai Municipal Library is a public institution, and the level is not high, and it can unite the libraries of the brother units and other parts of the world. Why? On the one hand, the Shanghai Library has the basis of genealogy collection, on the other hand, everyone works in the purpose of promoting Chinese culture. Compiling the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy" is An experience that Wang Heming is proud of. Retired, he is still working on genealogy.
Xiao Yu, head of the local literature team at the National Library of China's Ancient Books Library, has been with the family tree for nearly 6 years. In a recent interview with this reporter, he said that the collection and compilation of family trees has entered the digital track, and he hopes to use various channels to collect more family trees and let Chinese people around the world share resources through digital means.
Moody
Xiao Yu led the team to build a Chinese root-seeking network facing the global Chinese to find their roots and ancestors, "so that more people can get close to the family tree, so that more people can participate in the process of repairing the family tree.".
Xiao Yu studied computer science in college, and after entering the National Library of China, presenting ancient books with digitized data became his good and tireless job. Since joining the local literature group in 2008, he has led the team to open up the situation on the road of genealogy digital services, and built a Chinese root-seeking network facing the global Chinese to find their roots and ancestors, in Xiao Yu's words, "let more people get close to the family tree, let more people participate in the process of repairing the family tree.".
In 2011, Zhonghua Rootfinding Network was officially launched to provide services, and the planning and preparation work before this lasted for 3 years. For the sake of popular science, the site also has a small Wikipedia system that contains concepts and entries related to genealogy, as well as material related to surnames. The 6 years of growth of Zhonghua Root-seeking Network is also the process of Xiao Yu and his team growing, constantly facing innovation and challenges. Some users have a lot of data resources about genealogy, are very eager to upload resources to the website, and put forward a lot of feedback on the construction of the website, which also urges Xiao Yu and the team to further improve the website and pay more attention to the user experience.
In the second phase of the planning process, China Root-Seeking Network continued to expand the collection of genealogy directory data. Xiao Yu told reporters that after these years of collection, the 8,000 new genealogies added by the National Library have an overlap rate of less than 30% with the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy", which indicates that at least 5,000 kinds of genealogies in the National Library are new genealogies that have not been included in the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy". Xiao Yu said that this part of the new family tree has been shared by everyone through the China Root Search Network and has become an important continuation of the "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy".
"In addition to continuing to collect family trees, we also hope to minimize the technical difficulty of repairing genealogy", in the second phase of planning, Zhonghua Root-seeking Network pays more attention to the participation of the website, Xiao Yu and his team are also working hard to develop offline family tree editing tools, through the templates and tools set up by the website, to facilitate users to edit family trees. Xiao Yu described the future picture to reporters, that is, individual users can edit the family tree at home, and after editing, they can be put on the website to share or collect.
"Tools and methods are very important for every cultivator, so we want to do a little more in this regard." Although genealogies collected online and in the field are fragmented information, Xiao Yu and his team use a digital system to turn paper documents into data that everyone can enjoy. "This is the highest goal of our work, and it is also my personal pleasure," Xiao Yu said.
"The genealogy is more of a family's history, as a librarian, my task is to collect and organize, and revealing the objectivity of the genealogy itself to the reader is the most important," Xiao Yu said, while dealing with the family tree, people and organizations related to the family tree gradually established contact.
In order to turn the private collection into a public collection and obtain better custody and collection, Xiao Yu and his colleagues extensively contacted booksellers to collect family trees. He told reporters that this is the main way to collect family trees, and it needs to be entrusted by first-level booksellers to collect family trees from small villages and towns. According to Xiao Yu, in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other places, family trees are no longer easy to show, which increases the difficulty of booksellers to collect. In addition, the number of genealogies on the market before 1949 is not large, and each additional collection is one less, and if the price is right, the National Library will also acquire genealogy through the ancient book auction market.
"Our most basic work is to collect the family tree to the maximum, especially before 1949, which may be more urgent, and if it can be collected for better protection, the family tree can be better circulated." Xiao Yu said that the work of collecting genealogies at the National Library has lasted for many years, and although the content collected is not systematic, at this stage, expanding the collection of genealogies is the most important task.
Researcher, graduated from the Department of History of Fudan University in July 1964, and graduated from the Department of History of Fudan University in July 1967 with a major in Modern Chinese History, under the tutelage of Mr. Hu Shengwu. From May 1968 to Anhui Provincial Library, in July 1983 he was transferred to the Director of the Institute of History of the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, and since September 1995 he has been the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Library and the Director of the Institute of Historical Documents.
He is the chief editor of the National "Tenth Five-Year" Social Science Foundation Project "General Catalogue of Chinese National Genealogy", vice chairman of the Shanghai Cross-Strait Academic and Cultural Exchange Promotion Association, vice president of the Shanghai Historical Society, director of the Branch of the Municipal Association for The Elderly Science and Technology, and a member of the Science Popularization Lecturer Group of the Association for Old Science and Technology. Since 1992, he has enjoyed the special allowance of the State Council.
He is the chief editor of many genealogical monographs such as "General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy", "Selected Genealogical Materials of China", "Research on Chinese Genealogy", "Research on Chinese Genealogy", "Outline of Genealogy in Shanghai Library Collection", "Thawed Genealogy Culture" and other genealogical monographs, and currently presides over the writing of "History of Chinese Genealogy", a basic project of national social science in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan".
His major monographs and co-authored works include :"General Theory of Chinese National Genealogy", "General Theory of Chinese Ethnic Minority Genealogy", "History of Chinese National Genealogy", "General Theory of Chinese Ancestral Halls", "General Theory of Chinese Temples" and many other works.
This article is reproduced from: European Times UK edition
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