{"id":1785,"date":"2021-01-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mychinaroots.com\/?p=1785"},"modified":"2022-11-08T05:52:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T05:52:24","slug":"10-things-you-didnt-know-about-zupus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mychinaroots.com\/blog\/genealogy\/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-zupus\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things You Didn’t Know About Zupus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

When Chinese genealogists talk about zupus (\u65cf\u8c31), we often refer to them as the “holy grail”, the ultimate <\/em>prize in family history research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, at My China Roots we have collected no less than 15,000<\/strong> <\/em>of these records to date, of which 1,687 have been digitized and are searchable online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the fuss? These family history books are an invaluable record of family trees, clan traditions, migration stories and biographies, sometimes tracing back hundreds <\/em>of generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for 10 things you didn’t know about these records… and 10 reasons you should find yours! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Note: Spellings of Chinese characters are based on the Mandarin pronunciation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hands<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Chinese genealogies have been recorded for over 2000 years.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Genealogical records were kept as far back as 221 BCE (or pre-Qin Dynasty), alongside a strong oral tradition of passing family histories down from generation to generation. Initially a practice reserved to royal and aristocratic families, local Chinese clans1<\/a><\/sup>Clans are Chinese kinship groups based on a shared family lineage, surname, and\/or locality. Many clan associations are still active in China and the diaspora, despite their functions and membership requirements changing significantly. For example, Havana’s Lung Gong Society was founded in 1900 for Chinese immigrants with the surname Lao \u5218, Cuan \u5173, Chiong \u5f20 or Chiu \u8d75<\/em>.<\/span> have kept what we now know as zupu since the late Ming\/early Qing dynasty (the mid-1600s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Zupus are also\u00a0referred to\u00a0as family,\u00a0genealogy\u00a0or\u00a0clan books. In Southern Hakka,\u00a0they\u2019re called\u00a0Chukpoo.\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Chinese,\u00a0they can be\u00a0called\u00a0\u5bb6\u8c31\u00a0(ji\u0101p\u01d4),\u00a0\u5b97\u8c31\u00a0(z\u014dngp\u01d4),\u00a0\u00a0\u623f\u8b5c\u00a0(f\u00e1ngp\u01d4)\u00a0\u8b5c\u9304\u00a0(p\u01d4l\u00f9)\u00a0\u5bb6\u8a18\u00a0(ji\u0101j\u012b)\u00a0\u4e16\u8b5c\u00a0(sh\u00ecp\u01d4)\u00a0\u7d71\u8b5c\u00a0(t\u01d2ngp\u01d4)\u00a0\u5bb6\u5fd7\u00a0(ji\u0101zhi)\u00a0\u652f\u8b5c\u00a0(zh\u012bp\u01d4)\u00a0\u901a\u8b5c\u00a0(t\u014dngp\u01d4)\u00a0\u6703\u8b5c\u00a0(h\u00f9ip\u01d4)\u00a0\u5206\u8b5c\u00a0(f\u00e8np\u01d4)\u00a0\u8b5c\u7252\u00a0(p\u01d4d\u00ede)\u00a0\u7252\u8a8c\u00a0(d\u00edezh\u00ec)\u00a0\u8b5c\u7cfb\u00a0(p\u01d4x\u00ec)\u00a0\u7389\u7252\u00a0(yud\u00ede)\u00a0\u8b5c\u8a8c\u00a0(p\u01d4zh\u00ec)\u00a0\u8b5c\u50b3\u00a0(p\u01d4zhu\u00e0n)\u00a0\u5bb6\u4e58\u00a0(ji\u0101sh\u00e8ng)\u00a0or\u00a0\u65cf\u8a8c\u00a0(z\u00fazh\u00ec)!\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. They have had a tumultuous history, but many survived against the odds.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many zupus were destroyed or lost during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when campaigns against the \u2018Four Olds\u2019 rallied the masses to attack and denounce ancient habits, customs, ideas and culture. This included zupus, ancestral halls, and even tombstones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Among
A Mao era propaganda poster. The sign in the middle reads \u2018do away with the four olds, cultivate the four news\u2019. Source: University of Michigan Library <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, all was not lost. Many books were hidden away or shipped off to safety with relatives abroad. The 1980s saw a revival of genealogy and clan associations, with elders all over China putting their heads together to recreate and compile entire zupus from memory and scrawled notes on scraps of paper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In one of researcher\u00a0Waikwan\u2019s\u00a0favorite\u00a0zupu\u00a0success stories, one clan went to extreme measures to keep their\u00a0zupu\u00a0safe\u00a0during the cultural revolution.\u00a0They didn\u2019t dare\u00a0to\u00a0bury it in their own village for fear of being found, so clan members took it to\u00a0a\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0village,\u00a0buried it in the earth\u00a0for over a decade,\u00a0and\u00a0dug it\u00a0up again in 1979!\u00a0\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"MCR
MCR researcher Waikwan speaking with a local villager <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. Zupus can be pretty hard to decipher.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zupus are written in traditional and formal Chinese, often using symbolisms, idioms and repetitive, embellished, \u201cflowery language\u201d. Even native Chinese speakers with a college degree have trouble understanding the content of a zupu and its writing style, vocabulary, and specific cultural and historical references. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Some of them are thousands of pages long.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"taishan-lee-li-clan-zupu\"
Five of seven volumes of the Taishan Li Clan Zupu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Taishan Li Zupu, for example, is seven volumes and 8000 pages long! In an editor’s note in the Lanfang Zhou Zupu from 1616, Zhou Mengri laments the challenge of compilation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Having finished reading several\u00a0jiapus\u00a0from each individual branch, I closed them and sighed. Alas, the difficulty of\u00a0zupu\u00a0compilation, lies not the records, but in the combination of those records\u00a0[\u2026]\u00a0No matter how widely people have spread, how long time has passed, how many surnames people have been awarded; they all originated from one man. One multiplied to ten. Ten multiplied to one hundred. One hundred multiplied to one thousand. One thousand multiplied to 10\u00a0thousands. It is impossible to obtain all of this information only from books. If I am able to learn it from elsewhere, I will brandish my pen to write it to the\u00a0zupu. If not, then there is nothing else I can do. Alas, how difficult it is to compile a\u00a0zupu!<\/em>“<\/mark><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

5. Sometimes zupus contain rules for its clan members<\/strong><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Typically, a zupu includes not only family trees and biographies, but also articles written for its clan members. These might include duties, behaviors or rituals. For example, a clan might prohibit its members from engaging in theft or from misrepresenting the clan; in the past, some even punished the violation of rules with expulsion from the lineage! Different clans also have their own systems and customs for ancestral worship. In the Xiecang Cai Zupu, for example, readers find the following instructions: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

First, clan descendants take position. Raise the incense sticks,\u00a0whilst\u00a0kneeling\u00a0and bowing\u00a0three times. Present the silk and the tea, then invoke the gods to appear.\u00a0Pour the wine and present the food and soup.\u00a0Say\u00a0the\u00a0prayer\u00a0aloud, then\u00a0bow your head once, and rise. Perform the salute, kneeling and bowing three times.\u00a0[\u2026]<\/em>\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\"Clan
On a roots trip to his ancestral village, My China Roots client Raymond Chong and his relatives make offerings of meat and incense at their ancestor’s graves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

6. And some will tell you how to name your children.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"The
My brothers, cousins and I share the generation name: Tai \u6cf0. My father, uncles and aunties share the generation name Kai \u5f00, and my grandfather\u2019s generation had the generation name Huai \u6000. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most Chinese names are three characters long, with the clan name \/ surname first. Some families also follow generational naming traditions, which traditionally served to classify hierarchies between generations. Generation poems (b\u0101nc\u00ec li\u00e1n  \u73ed\u6b21\u806f or p\u00e0iz\u00ec g\u0113 \u6d3e\u5b57\u6b4c) tell families which characters to use for either the middle or end character of a name: the generation name (z\u00ecb\u00e8i  \u5b57\u8f88). In my family zupu, our generation poem (written here as z\u00ecp\u00e0i \u5b57\u6d3e) has been followed since the 16th<\/sup> generation of the Qiu clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. A zupu might tell you where your ancestors came from… and where they went.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zupus can include fascinating epics on how your ancestors throughout history migrated within China, and also how they ended up abroad. For example, in the Xi\u0101n Y\u00f3u Xi\u00e0n L\u00edn Clan D\u00e0 Z\u00fa P\u01d4 \u4ed9\u6e38\u53bf\u6797\u6c0f\u5927\u65cf\u8c31<\/a>, we see that several clan members migrated to the port city of Surabaya in Indonesia: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Revered Jin Biaogong, the fourth generation of Guoling, left his hometown in <\/span><\/em>1928 with his eldest son Qing Qi. He and his son travelled across oceans to Surabaya, Indonesia, where he worked hard to make a living. He showed deep respect for his ancestors, strictly obeyed clan rules, and worked strenuously, showing no fear of hardships. Luckily, the heavens rewarded him for this, and his life abroad was successful.  He left this legacy to five generations of descendants, of which there are 79 including 14 university students, and 9 who studied abroad.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

8. The contents of a zupu must be taken with a pinch of salt.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like any historical document, the contents of a zupu shouldn\u2019t be taken entirely at face value. Part of a strictly patrilineal clan system, and compiled by the family to boast achievements and inspire pride, zupus generally excluded women, and ancestors who brought shame or dishonor to the clan. As wealthy families had more resources to compile and print zupus, peasant lineages are rare, and of course many individuals will never have been recorded because of migration, estrangement or premature death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until recently, women\u2019s full names were almost never recorded in zupu, with wives’ surnames only appearing in their husband\u2019s zupu (and often only if she gave birth to a male heir)! Thankfully, much of that changed with the 1980s revival of zupu compilation, and daughters, wives, sisters are included alongside their male relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Tracking down your zupu is no easy feat.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you want to find your zupu, a good place to start would be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n