Hong and Chin Clan Registries

The background image for this website is a composite of three pages from the Hong and Chin family registries. The left and center pages were hand copied by my paternal grandfather, Hong Hock How, from our ancestral village registry in Dong On 東安, China (Taishan County, Guangdong). Hock How used a booklet made of thin, translucent paper with a hand-stitched, stab binding. Note that our surname in Chinese is Zeng 曾.

The page on the right is from the introduction to my mother's Chin 陳 family registry for our ancestral village Chazhou 槎州 (Taishan County, Guangdong). My copy appears to have been photocopied several times. It also had a hand-stitched, stab binding, which I removed in order to digitize the book, then re-stitched myself. My maternal grandmother, Tso Mee Shew, gave me this copy; however, its author is unknown.

What is a Zupu 族譜？

A Zupu is a Chinese family or clan genealogy or pedigree book. Some books may focus only on a single family branch (known as a Jiapu 家譜) starting with the first ancestor to move to an area, or on a single household (known as a Fangpu 房譜). Zupu's connect a household or branch farther back in time to thier family's founder.

In China, clans or kinship ties are based patrilineal groups of related people with a common surname sharing a common ancestor. In southern China, these ties were often strengthened by a common ancestral village or home, where clans had common property and a common spoken patois that was unintelligible to outsiders. Following Confucian tradition, each family maintained a registry that contained the clan's origin stories and its male lineage.

In Chinese tradition, the eldest person in the clan was giving the very important task of maintaining the clan's registry. When families settled in a new area, they would take a copy of the registry from their old village to use as the starting registry for their new branch of the family. As a result, family lineages in China can be traced back dozens of generations and thousands of years, at a minimum going back a clan's first ancestor to settle in a county or province, and often going all the way back to a China's mythical past.

Hock How was following in this tradition when he made a copy of of the Zeng Family Registry prior to his voyage to the United States in 1915. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, many family registries were destroyed as relics of China's feudal past. Since China opened up in the 1980's, there has been a renewed interest in family genealogies as both local and overseas Chinese try to reconnect with their past. In some cases, family registries have been recreated from copies secretly hidden by village elders or preserved by the Chinese diaspora.

Zupu Format

The individual entries in both the Hong and Chin registries have a fairly standard format listing the generation number, given name, aliases, the last names of wives, and the names of sons. Some entries also have the dates of birth and death using the Chinese calendar. Other entries will note where the person is buried.

Significant ancestors, including the ones who established new branches of the family, will have short biographical notes. 

Use of Classical Chinese

All sections are written in Classical Chinese (Wen Yu Wen 文言文), which may makes the commentaries, morale lessons, and historical notes hard to read and translate even for people who are fluent in vernacular Chinese (ie. modern spoken and written Chinese known as Bai Hua 白話).

According to Wikipedia Classical Chinese:

"...appears extremely concise and compact to modern Chinese speakers, and to some extent [may] use of different lexical items (vocabulary). An essay in Classical Chinese, for example, might use half as many Chinese characters as in vernacular Chinese to relate the same content.

"In terms of conciseness and compactness, Classical Chinese rarely uses words composed of two Chinese characters; nearly all words are of one syllable only....polysyllabic words [having] evolved in [vernacular] Chinese to disambiguate homophones that result from sound changes."

Classical Chinese also frequently drops subjects and objects that are understood and uses literary and cultural allusions that further contribution to its brevity and opacity to modern readers.

Title Page of 1915 Zeng Family Registry The Zeng family registry seen here is a true Zupu since it traces the family generation by generation to the first person to use the Zeng surname and from him back to the mythical founder of the Chinese people, the Yellow Emperor. 武城曾氏 - Wucheng Zeng Family [Wu Cheng is a city in Shandong, where our family founder, Zeng Shen, was born. Shen was disciple of Confucius and revered as one of the four Sages of Confucianism. He was also know as Zeng Zi.] 中華民國肆年歲次乙邓仲秋穀旦 - Autumn of the Fourth year of the Republic of China [1915] 自記家譜 - Self-recorded Family Registry 曉傳立 - Written by Xiao Chuan [Hong Hock How's married name]

Introduction to 1915 Zeng Family Genealogy 武城曾氏重修族譜 - Revised Wu Cheng Zeng Clan Registry 圖像所以追祖貌而廟後進也祖考形骸甫歸於土即欲一見終不得矣有圖像崴月雖久猶可令子孫揣其形容於萬一而景仰也故程子於影像而有取馬然必圖 品行卓絕聲震古今者方今孝思則效之心油然以起不然作畫矣又何益哉我族舊譜圖像甚多茲遵而梓之願見者思齊使後人視今如今之視音按圖數某德某顯某節烈則此圖也未必無小補雲集像圖 The purpose of portraits is to trace the appearance of ancestors and inspire later generations. Once the bodies of our forefathers have been interred in the earth, we can no longer see them. But with portraits, even after a long time, descendants can still imagine their countenance and revere them. That is why Cheng Zi valued portraits. However, portraits must depict those with exceptional moral conduct and illustrious reputations through the ages. Reflecting on their filial piety will naturally inspire the heart. Otherwise, the portraits serve no purpose. Our clan's old genealogy contained many portraits, which have been reprinted here. It is my wish that those who see them will aspire to emulate the virtues of our ancestors, so that later generations will look upon us as we now look upon our forefathers. The portraits depict the virtuous, the wise, and the just and heroic. Perhaps this collection of portraits may provide some small benefit.

Introduction to the Chen Family Registry 潁川源記畧 - Brief Record of Ying Chuan Clan's Origin. Ying Chuan is the name of a city in Henan where one of the largest and most prominent branches of the Chen family was founded in the 2nd Century CE. Characters in the text below in brackets [ ] indicate words that do not exactly match the original text. [This registry is an brief or abridged version. While it describes our family's connection to the founder of the Ying Chuan branch in Henan, the first Chen progenitor, and the mythical Emperor Shun, it only traces each generation back to the clan progenitor in Guangdong Province. Since it connects many branches within the province, it is somewhere in between a Zupu and a village Jiapu.] 陳氏舜後也舜居媯汭為媯氏又居姚墟以姚為姓禹受禪封舜子[於]虞城思其裔也佐少康中興三十二世而周有天下武王封媯滿[於]陳以奉舜祀謂之胡公今汴梁之陳州郎穎川之地也其支鹿封[於]越之㑹稽故名其邑日上虞日餘姚九世而陳公子完奔齊始以國為姓稱陳氏既而食邑於田改姓田氏後竟代齊稱王傳十世并於秦其子孫[育]稱田氏者又稱王氏者謂先世故王家也又有復稱陳氏者故王莽以媯姚陳田為宗室不婚姻其居頓者亦皆以陳為姓馬[掾]古史戴軫齊王之後為[楚]相封穎川侯因徙穎川博十世而生文範先生實字仲弓為潁川功[曹]又常宰

Annotated Translation [with notes in brackets]:

The Chen clan 陳 traces its lineage back to the sage‑emperor Shun 舜. In remote antiquity, Shun dwelt by the Gui River 媯汭 and used 媯 as his clan name; earlier, he had lived at the settlement of Yao 姚墟 and from that place took the surname 姚. 

[Shun was one of the legendary “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors” famed as a model of virtue. His line is remembered under both the 媯 and 姚 names.]

When Yu the Great 大禹 received Shun’s abdication and ruled All Under Heaven, he enfeoffed Shun’s son in the town of Yucheng 虞城 so that Shun’s descendants would be remembered.

[Yu the Great is known as the flood‑tamer and founder of the Xia dynasty.]

Generations later, Shun’s line aided the ruler Shaokang 少康 in restoring the Xia house. After thirty‑two generations, the Zhou dynasty 周 came to hold “All Under Heaven,” and King Wu of Zhou 武王, conqueror of the Shang, enfeoffed Gui Man 媯滿 in the state of Chen 陳 to perform the ancestral sacrifices for Shun; he was known as Duke Hu of Chen 胡公. 

[As the first ruler of the state of Chen and the one charged with maintaining Shun’s temple rites, Gui Man became the acknowledged founding ancestor of the Chen polity and of the later Chen surname, so that many branches of the clan look back to Hu Gong as the source of both their territory and their name.]

The Chen Prefecture near Bianliang 汴梁 in later times occupies this same region, the old land of Yingchuan 潁川. One collateral branch of the clan received lands in the state of Yue 越 at Kuaiji 會稽, a famous commandery in the southeast, and for this reason their settlements were called Shangyu 上虞 and Yuyao 餘姚.

After nine generations, Prince Wan of Chen 陳完 fled to the state of Qi 齊. There he first took his former state name Chen 陳 as his surname, but when he was granted the fief of Tian 田 he changed the family name to 田. In due course his descendants supplanted the original Jiang‑clan rulers of Qi and claimed the royal title of kings of Qi; after ten generations their state was finally annexed by the conquering state of Qin 秦.

Among their descendants, some bore the surname 田, some reverted to 陳, and some took the surname 王, in remembrance that their forefathers had once been kings [of Qi]. Later, others again returned to the surname 陳. Thus, in the time of Wang Mang 王莽 [the usurper who briefly replaced the Han dynasty] the surnames 媯，姚，陳，and 田 were all regarded as belonging to royal kin, and intermarriage among these lines was forbidden. Those who dwelt at Dun 頓 likewise all used 陳 as their surname.

According to an [unknown] official named Ma 馬, citing a work called Ancient History by Dai Zhen 戴軫 [a now‑lost or obscure historical account], a descendant of the kings of Qi later served as prime minister in the state of Chu 楚. He was enfeoffed as Marquis of Yingchuan 潁川侯 and moved his household to Yingchuan.

[In later Chen genealogies, Marquis of Yingchuan is generally identified as Tian Zhen 田軫, who reassumed the ancestral surname Chen 陳 after returning to the old Chen territories. He is regarded as the founding ancestor of the Yingchuan Chen branch.]

After ten more generations there appeared Master Wenfan 文範, whose style name was Zhonggong 仲弓. He served as Merits Officer 功曹 in the Yingchuan administration and held other local offices, thereby continuing and honoring the prestige of the Yingchuan Chen lineage.

[Also known as Chen Shi Gong (陳寔公), Master Wenfan was an Eastern Han moral exemplar and local official. In later tradition he became the paradigmatic ancestor of the Yingchuan Chen clan, praised for his integrity and learning, with many southern Chen lineages tracing their prestige back to him.]

Archived Documents

For archival purposes, I have donated .pdf copies of my the Hong and Chin family registeries to familysearch.org.

There are two versions of the Hong family registry:

Document	URL
武城曾氏自記家譜 1915	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/870724
武城曾氏重修族譜 1928	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/870722  (Will be accessible to the pubic in 2028)

The Chin family registery is broken into the following six volumes:

Document	URL
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 01	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869070
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 02	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869071
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 03	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869072
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 04	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869073
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 05	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869074
[陳氏]頴川源記畧; v. 06	www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/869075