Family Action——a Fieldwork Report On The Compiling Genealogy By Mu Clan In Zhenyuan

Setting the Genealogy of Mu Clan in Zhen Yuan as an entry point, this report focused on the interview of complier group of the genealogy who belonged to Mu Clan scattered in Pingliang City, Zhenyuan County, Qingyang City, Gansu province. This report analyzes the process of the genealogy compiling in five aspects which are events, process, memory, ceremony and symbol, and power and organization. The report focus on the exploring multivariate significance of genealogy compiling trough discovering the stories of people and events in the process.As the most meaningful family action, genealogy compiling is one of the ways for traditional lineage society’s rebuilding and continuation. Taking Mu Clan as an example, elite group took the event of removing the body of Mu Shouqi who was elite in Republic of China as the moment, and reached an agreement on genealogy among Mu families. For the "events" and "process", elite group formed compiling group, raised money, collected materials, recompiled the family trees for the first, second and the third families of Mu Clan, so that they controlled the authority of discourse. For the "ceremony and symbol","memory", and"power and organization", elite group rebuilt and enhance the facts related to the history, heritage, and branches of the Mu Clan based on the collected materials and though utilizing their rights which are entrusted by the compiling committee, election or reputation and authority. For the "memory" part, the genealogy has recovered the lost history caused by natural disasters or political movements, and shows a complete clan history of Mu family.This report presents three points discovered by the writer. First, this report tries to explore the law of structure and culture of Han people based on the fieldwork and migration of Mu family. Second, this report put forward the idea that people should think Great tradition and little tradition in a new way. In the traditional Chinese society, people should not make the great tradition and little tradition oppose to each other, but discover the social and cultural homogeneity of the two traditions inside of the clan. The third one is the discussion of genealogy compiling cycle. The writer suggests that elite group may take the advantage of authorities’influence, trough law10-30, the opportunities brought by the historical events of the clan and the nation to control the authority of compiling so as to continue the genealogy compiling and inherit and authority of discourse of the clan.