On The Examples Of The Generational Characters In Genealogy Of Ming And Qing Dynasties

During the Ming and Qing dynasties,China’s clan system and spiritual concept have penetrated into all levels of Chinese society.As the carrier of lineage inheritance context,the generational characters not only has the direct role of connecting the past and the future,but also has the indirect role of revealing ethics.The general characters are the main regulations in genealogy,which are usually written by the highly respected members of the family.The content of generational characters is concise and profound,which is reliable evidence for our study of family history and dynasty history.China has always attached great importance to the compilation and collation of family genealogy,as well as the selection of the generational characters in the family.Composing the genealogy and arrange in order of seniority can make the family grow and live in harmony,sacrifice in a standardized way and abide by family rules.The generational characters are the manifestation of patriarchal clan system in the family,which has a process of continuous development and improvement in patriarchal society.The generational characters of Ming and Qing dynasties are becoming more and more mature and standardized.The study of the generational characters in this period is helpful to explore the rules of clan settlement and population migration,discriminate the seniority in the family or clan and trace the origin of the family.Through the case study of some genealogical documents in Ming and Qing dynasties,this paper combs the succession and transmission rules of the generational characters,and finds the historical and humanistic context,which can play an important reference and auxiliary role in the study of philology,history,genealogy and sociology.Based on the existing genealogy of Ming and Qing dynasties,this paper takes the generational characters in the genealogy of 12 aristocratic families as the main sample,supplemented by other genealogy generational characters as the reference,and uses the methods of historical literature,pedigree chart and descriptive research to analyze and discuss.The main contents of the research work including:First,combed the previous research results,to research the formation and development of the generational characters.Second,collected the genealogy catalog,sort out and selected the representative genealogy of Shandong,Jiangsu,Anhui,Zhejiang,Fujian,Jiangxi,Hu’nan and other places from the early Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty as the sample,and made a thoroughly analysis of the generational characters,including the promotion of Confucian morality,the expectation of clan ethical inheritance and the world situation in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Third,by way of examples,this paper revealed the historical origin,development process,features and meanings of generational characters in 12 selected Ming and Qing genealogies.This paper summarizes the compilation form of generational characters in Ming and Qing dynasties into 3 types:the partial generational characters,the common generational characters and the dual generational characters.The partial generational characters can be subdivided into 4 types:characters used the common Chinese character component or described the same things,the shaped similar character,sound similar character and mean similar character.According to the usage,it can be divided into 8 categories:used the common characters in the same generation,recycled generational characters,decided by the tribe,two systems of main and auxiliary,divided into men and women,used in both first name and courtesy name,two sets of generational characters for the living and the dead,and generational characters not used in names.The selection of generational characters is concise and profound,the substantial content in which can be summarized into 5 aspects:characters of generation arranging,characters of educating and anticipating,characters of Confucianism,characters with auspicious and glorious meanings and characters from Chinese Culture or ancient books.Some difficult to be classified are listed as "characters with abstract meaning and others " temporarily.Fourth,discussed the four functions of the generational characters in Ming and Qing dynasties as genealogical documents:historical preservation function,academic function,educational function and cohesion function.