The Local Clan’s Ancestral Memory And Genealogy Writing Of Tongcheng In Ming And Qing Dynasties

Based on the systematic collection on folk genealogies of Country Tongcheng, Anhui province, this article attempts to tease the developmental process of local lineage of Tongcheng in Ming and Qing dynasties from perspective of regional history. Furthermore, it analyzes the description of migrant time, reason and relevant deeds on the first migratory forefathers in genealogy from view of regional social and cultural process. Based on the longtime-distance difference between compiling genealogies and the migration of ancestors, there are many mistakes and contradictions of ancestral memory in the genealogies of Ming and Qing dynasties.We should discuss the significance of social and cultural history on the premise of statement that it put the lineage compiling into the developmental history of local genealogy, more than concerning about the facts contained in the historical narrative itself. On the view of regional social and cultural process, we can seemingly consider the historical background on immigrant forefathers repeatedly emerged in the folk genealogy of Country Tongcheng, under which there were a series of records, for instance, immigration in war between late Yuan and early Ming dynasty, ancestral home were Wuyuan or Dam Waxie of Jiangxi and so on, as a selective text statement on ancestry memory in the process of local people constructing their lineage.