This document traces the history of my maternal grandfather's family from it's beginnings in China's mythical past to the founding of the Ying Chuan branch of the Chin clan 潁川陳氏 in Henan Province, through to settling in Char Jew Village 六村槎州 in Toisan County, Guangdong 廣東省台山縣 at turn of the 18th century.
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Char Jew Village Gate 1936-37 Photograph by William S. Chin |
Chin Family Generation Naming Poem:
(This translation is
meant provide the feeling of the poem in English.)
|
世德賜光裕 明廷擢茂良 學宜宗孔孟 華國以文章 |
From generations past, whence virtue's light does shine The worthy does the court of wisdom find Let learning be led by the Sages' hands China rises by pen and written stands |
|
星朗聚群賢 |
Bright stars gather, the wise in counsel meet Grand halls, shine constant in their feat The phoenix sings, as succeeding generations flow From distant sources, the river's length does grow |
| Word-by-word Literal Translation and Notes: | |
| 世德賜光裕 |
1-2. 世德 (shì dé)
- Generational virtue 3. 賜 (cì) - Bestows 4-5. 光裕 (guāng yù) - Brightness and abundance |
| 明廷擢茂良 |
6-7. 明廷 (míng
tíng) - Enlightened (Ming) court 8. 擢 (zhuó) - Selects 9-10. 茂良 (mào liáng) - Outstanding and good |
| 學宜宗孔孟 |
11-12. 學宜 (xué
yí) - Study should 13. 宗 (zōng) - Follow 14-15. 孔孟 (Kǒng Mèng) - Confucius and Mencius |
| 華國以文章 |
16-17. 華國 (huá
guó) - The Chinese nation 18. 以 (yǐ) - Through 19-20. 文章 (wén zhāng) - Literature |
|
明賜進士翰林院檢討,新會陳獻章撰(世稱白沙子). |
Written by Chen Xianzhang from Xinhui (better known as Baisha Zi), who was bestowed with the title of Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty, and served as a reviewer in the Hanlin Academy. |
| 星朗聚群賢 |
21-22. 星朗 (xīng
lǎng) - Stars brightly 13. 聚 (jù) - Gather 24-25. 群賢 (qún xián) - Group of wise men |
| 堂高恆自耀 |
26-27. 堂高 (táng
gāo) - Hall stands tall 28. 恆 (héng) - Constantly 29-30. 自耀 (zì yào) - Shining by itself |
| 鳳鳴昌奕嗣 |
31-32. 鳳鳴 (fèng
míng) - Phoenix sings 33. 昌 (chāng) - Prosper 34-35. 奕嗣 (yì sì) - Successive generations |
| 源遠乃彌長 |
36-37. 源遠 (yuán
yuǎn) - Source is distant 38. 乃 (nǎi) - Thus 39-40. 彌長 (mí cháng) - Extending far |
| 清探花及第, 東莞陳伯陶 (官至太史) | Chen Baotao from Donguan achieved the third place (Tanhua) rank in the Qing Dynasty imperial exam, and held the position of Grand Historian. |
| 上列兩班派聯由十一世起至五十世用.... |
The above two generational poems are to be used from the 11th to the
50th generation.... |
REVISION HISTORY:
February 5, 2026: Added family naming poem and translation.
September 13, 2023: Added to post: photograph by William S. Chin of the Char Jew Village Gate taken on his first visit in 1936-37.
February 18, 2022: Added paragraph on page 11 about Feng Tai’s sons scattering to places with the water radical in remembrance of their home town Sha Shui. (Source: Gene M. Chin https://www.chinfamilytree.com/indexenglish.html)
11/17/2021: Minor corrections to table of contents formatting. Corrected generation numbering for Chen Wen and added Hanson Chan's ancestor Chen Zhi-tong.
6/18/2021: I have made the following updates to this document to more closely match the family tree in Hanson Chan's book Finding the Direct Bloodline of My 111 Ancestors in China:
- Added entries for the cadet branch of Marquises of Chen that moved to Qi and adopted the name Tian.
- Removed entries for the Emperors of the Chen Dynasty, which has been republished in a separate article.
- Added entries for the Fujian branch of the family.
See Oops! Mistakes in the Book for the reasoning behind these changes.
7 comments:
Kenneth,
Nice website
Thanks Doug. Hope you're doing well.
Kenneth, Consider joining our group Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group (bacgg.org) You have a lot of expertise. If not join, then just subscribe to our mailing list here: https://bacgg.org/index.php/about/
Thanks for the info. I would love to attend the BACGG meetings, but I'm living near Philadelphia now. So, for now, I've subscribed to the mailing list.
I'm astounded by what you've accomplished with your research. I am just starting my research and don't think I will be nearly as successful as you have been. I posted on the siyi geneology board about my start to researching my Chan family ancestral roots. Kudos for you for you patience and diligience!
@Gam Kau,
Keep up your research! I've been working on my family stories for over 20 years. So, slow and steady wins the race. Start with interviewing your elders first because they are a diminishing resource. Get names of people and places using Chinese characters which are always more reliable than romanized names which can vary considerable depending on dialect and who's doing the romanization.
After you've capture as much about your living relatives and their immediate ancestors you can link that up to the 4800 year history of China and the Chan family. The ancient history has already been done so you just need to link your branch to rest of the family tree. Philip Tan on the Siyi Genealogy board can be a big help with all things related to the Chen/Tan/Chan/Chin 陳 family as well as many other clans.
Hi Kenneth, Mr. Tan was a fantastic resource for me. I ended up using My China Roots to help research and even with the research I was confounded, but Philip had a look at the research and was able to link what they uncovered to the historic Chan family tree. I'm still missing a gap of a few generations to really complete the link, but it is amazing progress! :)
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