Chapter 21 Section 11 Minority Family Tree

Our country is a multi-ethnic country.As far back as the ancient legend era, the ancestors of all nationalities worked, lived and multiplied on this vast land.The people who live in the middle reaches of the Yellow River are the ancestors of the Han nationality, the "Huaxia" people, and those who live in the surrounding area are ethnic minorities of different races.The 5,000-year history of civilization of the Chinese nation is a history of people of all ethnic groups interacting, exchanging, merging and assimilating with each other, jointly promoting social development and creating a prosperous culture.

Through the selection of history, today, there are 56 ethnic groups in my country. The Han population accounts for about 91.96% of the national population. They mainly live in the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River basins and the Songliao Plain. 8.04% or so, but they live on land that accounts for 50-60% of the country's land area.Among the 55 ethnic minorities, except for the Zhuang, Hui, She and most of the Manchus who use Chinese, the rest of the ethnic groups use more than 60 kinds of ethnic languages. Malay Polynesian and Indo-European language families.Due to the unbalanced economic and cultural development among various ethnic groups, some ethnic groups have their own national characters, while others use other national characters, or are still in the stage of oral transmission, wood carving and knotting.According to the statistics of relevant parties in 1949, 21 of the 55 ethnic minorities in my country use scripts, 18 of which use their own scripts, and some use several scripts at the same time. , and most Manchus use Chinese.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the central government and all relevant ethnic regions established special minority language research institutions, and successively carried out ethnic language reform and Latinization of character design for more than a dozen ethnic groups, increasing the number of ethnic groups with their own languages.

The ethnic minorities in our country, like the Han people, have the tradition of respecting the heaven and fearing the gods, respecting the ancestors and adoring the ancestors.Therefore, in the long-term historical development process, a considerable number of genealogical documents have also been formed.Different from the Han genealogy, which only uses Chinese records, due to the inconsistency of social development of various ethnic minorities, the genealogy forms formed and preserved to this day are diverse. In summary, they can be roughly divided into those without written records. There are three types of oral genealogy, physical genealogy and written genealogy, each of which can be distinguished.The physical genealogy can be subdivided into engraved wood genealogy, knotted rope genealogy, and other physical genealogy. The text genealogy can also be divided into records using the own ethnic language, using other ethnic characters, using Chinese characters, and using two languages ​​for comparison. There are many kinds of records, etc., and the complexity of each kind of genealogy content is not the same.At the same time, due to the differences in the size and number of ethnic minorities and the roles they played in the development of the Chinese nation, the number of genealogies formed and the degree of transmission and preservation are also different.Among the 55 ethnic minorities in China today, how many ethnic groups have their own family tree information?How many genealogical materials of ethnic minorities have been handed down to the present?No one has made corresponding statistics yet, and there is also a lack of relevant literature descriptions. The author can only make some simple explanations and introductions based on the limited and incomplete information he has.

Among the existing genealogies of ethnic minorities, the Manchus have the largest number.As the mainstream ethnic group of the last feudal dynasty in China, the Manchus enjoyed many privileges, and at the same time they had ancestors and family backgrounds worth recording. Therefore, the phenomenon of Manchus repairing genealogy was relatively common in both the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.Judging from the existing genealogy, the Manchus used writing to compile their genealogy, probably after entering the customs, that is, after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. genealogy.According to some scholars, in some Manchu settlements in Northeast China today, the rope in the rope pocket on the right side of the ancestor board on the right side of the ancestor board of the Manchu people's home is this kind of primitive knotted family tree.Fotuo's mother, also known as lock's mother, Tuo's mother, children and grandchildren's mother, translated into mother of kindness in Chinese, is a Han woman who was killed to save Qing Taizu Nurhachi in Manchu legend. After Nurhachi ascended the throne, she was honored as "Fuo Tuo Mama" has become the god of the Manchus to bless the reproduction of their descendants and the safety of the population.Fotuo's mother has a statue, only a paper bag, called a rope pocket, which contains a rope several feet long and made of five-color threads. When the children in the family grow up to four or five years old, they will sacrifice to Fotuo's mother at the end of winter. The padlock ceremony is held on the second day of the first day. Boys put red thread around their necks, and girls put blue thread on their necks. After three days, they take them off and put them in a rope pocket. On the next day of sacrifice, tie the colored thread that the child had previously worn on the rope. First, after the daughter grows up and gets married, the husband's family prepares a wine gift, sends the daughter-in-law back to her mother's house to worship Buddha's mother, and then untie the blue colored thread she put on and bring it back, and tie it to the rope of her husband's house. This is called changing the lock. .There are many colored threads on the ropes in the house, which naturally shows that the family is prosperous.

Among the existing genealogies of Manchu characters, some use only Manchu, some compare Manchu and Chinese, and some only use Chinese.From the perspective of formation time, before Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, the pure Manchu language was mostly used. After the middle Qing Dynasty, the comparison between Manchu and Chinese began to appear. After Daoguang, Chinese gradually replaced Manchu as the main written language in the family tree of Manchu characters.The transmission forms of written genealogy include woodcuts, movable type and modern typesetting, and more manuscripts and transcripts.No one has conducted a comprehensive survey, statistics, and systematic collection of the number of Manchu family trees in existence today. Even the Beijing Library, which is the National Library, only has 19 Chinese Eight Banner genealogies and 21 Manchu genealogies.However, judging from the incomplete investigation of more than 500 Manchu genealogies in Liaoning and Jilin provinces since 1983 by the History Department of Liaoning University, there must be more than a thousand Manchu genealogies in existence across the country, and more private collections than public collections. Most of them are scattered and collected in individual hands.

Manchu written genealogy is generally considered to have been edited only after entering the customs. The reason why genealogy revision became a large-scale and common practice was determined by the Eight Banners system implemented within the Manchus.In the Eight Banners system, the genealogy is the main proof and important evidence of the succession of official positions and the identity and status of a person.Before Nurhachi, the Manchus living in the Northeast were composed of countless "Mukun" (clans), and they fought against each other endlessly.After the rise of Nurhaci, on the basis of Mukun, ordinary Mukun was transformed into a social grassroots organization "Niulu" with a military nature. The Zuoling (leader) of Niulu is usually held by Mukunda (patriarch). There are three types: Xunjiuzuoling, Shiguanzuoling and Gongzhongzuoling. Among them, Xunjiuzuoling and Shiguanzuoling can be hereditary. In addition, there are some official positions held by meritorious personnel in the Eight Banners that can also be hereditary.In the early days, this kind of family hereditary official position was proved by the imperial edict issued by the emperor collected by each family. Later, this hereditary honor was recorded in the family tree, and the certificate was also borne by the family tree.It can be clearly seen from a large number of preserved records such as the "Genealogy of the Causes of the Eight Banners of the Yongzheng Dynasty" and other memorials related to the application for the post. The family lineage of the incumbent to prove the validity of his application.This kind of family lineage attached to the application for succession memorial has actually become an early form of Manchu written genealogy.At the same time, in the Eight Banners system, the identity and status of various members are basically fixed and cannot be changed at will. This fixed relationship is also maintained through the family tree.The genealogy, to some extent, has become the basis for indicating the identity of the people in the banner.In addition, starting from the eighteenth year of Emperor Shunzhi (AD 1661), the royal family continued to compile their own genealogy jade documents, plus the imperial revision in the thirteenth year of Emperor Yongzheng (AD 1735), which lasted more than ten years. In the ninth year of Qianlong (AD 1744), the "General Genealogy of Manchurian Clans of the Eight Banners", which was compiled by Fang Ju, had a positive impact on the compilation of Manchu genealogy, especially the metaphorical role of "Tong Pu", which cannot be underestimated. "General Genealogy of the Manchurian Clans of the Eight Banners", 80 volumes, contains a total of 654 Manchu surnames in the Eight Banners except the Aixinjueluo family, 521 Mongolian surnames, Han surnames, and Korean surnames, totaling 1,176, recording more than 20,000 people from the Eight Banners .It can be said that this "General Genealogy" is not only an important collection of clan genealogy in Manchuria of the Eight Banners, but also a collection of surnames in Manchuria of the Eight Banners.The purpose of compiling the "Tongpu" by the Qing emperor was to remind the Manchus of the Eight Banners, enhance their national consciousness, improve national cohesion, and then achieve the purpose of consolidating feudal rule.At the same time, the completion of "Tongpu" also provided the basis and clues for the later compilation of Manchu music.

Under the influence of these factors, and after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of Manchus entered the customs and lived in the big family of the Chinese nation. The Han and other ethnic groups attached great importance to the cultural tradition of compiling family trees, which also promoted the Manchus.After Qianlong, the compilation of genealogy by the Manchus flourished, from the individual behavior of individual families in the past to the general behavior of the whole nation. For a considerable period of time, the attention paid by the Manchus to the compilation of genealogy almost surpassed that of the Han people, reaching the point where one family has one genealogy .After the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the disintegration of the Eight Banners system, the Manchus did not stop compiling the genealogy. Its purpose was to show that they did not forget their roots, to educate the people to strengthen their awareness of being Chinese and to revive the psychology of national glory. During the period of Japanese occupation of Northeast China from 1931 to 1945, the Manchus in Northeast China rebuilt the climax, which is the embodiment of this mentality.A considerable part of the Manchu genealogy we see in Northeast China was compiled during this period.

The Manchu compilation of genealogy is mostly carried out in the Year of the Dragon, the Year of the Tiger, and the Year of the Rat, taking the auspicious meaning of the dragon and the tiger leaping, and the prosperity of the population.The time is generally in February of the lunar calendar.If it is the first revision of the genealogy, the sources of data are mainly the rumors of the past dynasties and the relevant materials copied from the archives of the capital of the Eight Banners. According to the booklet of the newborn, married, and deceased persons of the same family, the list will be continued in turn. The names of the dead are painted in black, and the names of the newborn are filled with red sand. Because girls are going to get married, they are people with a different surname, so they are generally not listed. , the name of the daughter-in-law is attached to the husband, and the surname and banner are written.In the existing Manchu genealogy, due to the differences in the time of genealogy compilation and family history, the content structure and level of detail of the completed genealogy are also different. There must be a lineage list of the lineage, and others such as edicts, edicts, biographies, officials, poems, immigration examinations, family records, family instructions, family regulations, grace, genealogy, temples, tomb pictures, and inscriptions , Memorabilia, photos, etc., are not available in every Manchu family tree.

In the Manchu written genealogy, there is also a special form called the genealogy sheet, which is actually a simplified version of the genealogy book. The time spectrum is usually written on a large sheet of Goryeo paper and yellow silk, or several sheets of Goryeo paper are spliced ​​together, mounted on a scroll or folded, with portraits of ancestors usually painted in the middle, and the names of the deceased are written in black pen. People with red pens write in Manchu, Chinese, Manchu and Chinese, or Manchu and Chinese. There are several kinds of writing, and many music sheets are painted with color pictures from the top along the two sides to the bottom.It is collected solemnly at ordinary times, and on every festival day, it is taken out of the ancestral box and placed on the west wall of the house.In the existing Manchu genealogy, there are more genealogies than genealogies.

The Xibe people, who live in the Northeast with the Manchus, have similar customs, beliefs and habits. They have their own ethnic characters, but there are no records or reports on the genealogy of the ethnic characters, only the records of the real genealogy.Similar to the Manchu people, the Xibe people enshrine the goddess Xili Mama on the west wall of the house, who protects the safety of the house and the prosperity of the population, also known as the mother of children and grandchildren. There are small bows and arrows, small boots and shoes, quiver, cradle, copper coins, cloth strips, back bones (talar bones of pig hind legs, commonly known as Galaha) and other items, which are used to record the number of generations, the number of people, the number of men and women and other items in the family. event.Add a back bone for a generation, hang a bow for a boy, and a red cloth strip for a girl. From the silk rope, you can clearly see how many generations the family has gone through, and how many male and female members there are in each generation. .This kind of silk rope is actually the physical genealogy of the Xibe people. It is usually kept in a bag, and it is usually taken out for sacrifices in the middle of the night. Outsiders are not allowed to see it, and it is very solemn.

Before the Oroqen people used Manchu to record events, they had been using knotted knots to record events, including using knots to record their own generations, forming a knotted family tree.According to relevant records, the family trees of the Oroqen people often use horsehair ropes, one knot per generation, which are usually hung in the middle of the beams of the house, which is very cherished. The Mongolian nationality is a bold and unrestrained nation, and it is also a nation that has created brilliant achievements in Chinese history. The Mongolian nation admires heroes very much. Including the family background of the heroes, these heroic deeds spread everywhere are actually the predecessors of the heroic epics of later generations.Before these epics were recorded, the family lines of the heroes in the epics were actually a kind of oral genealogy.After the creation of Mongolian script, a part of oral history was recorded, forming a family tree of writing.The genealogy of early Mongolian characters is not written independently, but is recorded in other works.For example, the "Secret History of Mongolia" formed in the middle of the 13th century and the "Historical Collection" of Rust formed in the early 14th century both record the family lineage of Genghis Khan's ancestors, Genghis Khan and his successors, with more than 20 generations.In addition, after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it followed the gold system, set up a large official residence, and specialized in compiling the royal family tree. If it perishes, the royal family tree will be lost.In the Qing Dynasty, the Mongols were still the mainstream ethnic group, and there were quite a few Mongolian surnames and genealogies of the Eight Banners in the "General Genealogy of the Manchurian Clans of the Eight Banners" compiled by the imperial edict.Since the Qing Dynasty, Mongolian and Chinese genealogies edited by the Mongolian people are quite a few. Unfortunately, there are no statistics and research documents in this area, and a large number of collections are in the hands of private individuals. In the rich collection of the Beijing Library, only Five genealogies in Mongolian. Theoretically speaking, other ethnic minorities with their own ethnic languages ​​should also have their own ethnic and Chinese genealogy. Unfortunately, there are not many records in this regard, and the collections of large libraries are not as good as In addition to the Manchu and Mongolian scripts mentioned above, there are only four Tibetan scripts and two Yi scripts.In addition, similar genealogies can also be seen in some ethnic documents, such as the ancient book "Southwest Yi Zhi" of the Qing Dynasty, which records a large number of oral genealogies of the ancient Yi people.The special family tree of ethnic characters will probably still be collected in archives, museums, libraries and private hands in various ethnic minority areas, and it is worthy of our investigation, collection, arrangement and research. In the long history of ancient Chinese civilization, there are still some vigorous dramas that have been performed on the stage of Chinese history, but now extinct ethnic groups, such as the Khitan ethnic group who established the Liao Dynasty, and the Dangxiang ethnic group who established the Xixia regime, they all have their own Writing has produced a large number of documents, naturally including the genealogy of the royal family, officials, nobles and scholars.With the passage of time, these ethnic groups no longer exist, and most of their various documents have also disappeared. It is certain that some folks will still be handed down. The ten volumes that were published in Xi'an recently are said to be the genealogy of the Xixia royal family. It proves that these annihilated historical documents are also worthy of our exploration, inheritance and development today. For some ethnic minorities in southern my country who do not have their own written language, the ancestral family lineage is mostly passed down among the clan members in an oral way, forming an oral family tree.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many ethnic workers came into contact with this kind of oral genealogy when conducting ethnic surveys.Among these oral genealogies, some genealogies of father and son with the same name are quite special.The so-called genealogy of father-son joint names means that some ethnic groups have more distinctive names. One or two characters after the father’s name are the first one or two characters of the son’s name. This kind of family lineage with joint names between father and son is easier to recite. Among ethnic minorities such as the Hani, Bai, Daliangshan Yi, and Qiandongnan Miao, ordinary family members can recite thirty or forty generations of ancestral lineages, and special ones such as full-time wizards or elders in the clan can recite as many as six or seven generations. Ten generations of ancestral lineage, the most can be memorized for more than 90 generations.In some other ethnic groups that do not have the same names of father and son, such as the Lisu, Pumi, Achang, and Gaoshan ethnic groups, the family lineage is generally controlled by specialized priests such as wizards and headmen. It is very rare to have dozens of generations of ancestral lineage.