Lin clan Xihetang woodblocks prints

[ericli99]

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

I discovered your website on the Internet and I wondered if you would be kind enough to provide me some information.

I have been collecting woodblocks for printing in China and I am thinking of preparing an exhibition.

In my collection, I happen to have an original set of a e¼‰Í“°-—ÑŽ @•ˆf, composed of 12 pages of genealogy (apparently starting in the Tang dynasty and finishing in the middle of the 19th century, as well as 2 portraits of Linshi ancestors officials and 4 maps (probably showing the location of ancestorse halls and tombs).

Would you be able (if you have time) to let me know what was the use of these genealogies and especially of the maps? Were they carved in several series to give to the different branches of the family? What would have been the use of the papers printed from these original woodblocks?

I am sending you some pictures of the woodblocks with my email to give you an idea.

Looking forward to your kind answer.

With best regards.

Eric Li

Attachments:

[laohuaqiao]

It must be a very impressive set of collection.

History and purpose of Chinese genealogy were talked about in this thread,

siyigenealogy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=names&action=display&thread=1286

Genealogy records started in feudal period, at first with the royal family and nobilities, and later this practice was extended to the common folks. The original purpose of genealogy records was to settle title and property inheritance disputes. Within a large family clan, it helps to identify each individual's position in the clan membership.

In the rural villages, it is unusual for surname clans to have thousands of families and tens of thousands of members. Prints from these wooden blocks would be binded into books and distributed to the families (or those families who made financial contribution to updating of the genealogy records).

[Doug 周]

Eric,

Please post or keep us updated on the details of your potential exhibition.

This reaffirms (to me) how the font of older jiapu's are so uniform. They must have only the best calligraphers provide the model for the original woodcuts.

The date of origin of the woodcuts must be at earliest middle 19th century, which post dates Guttenburg's movable typeface.

¿Does anyone know if the Chinese went to movable typeface?

That would make for a huge number of characters to inventory.

You probably already saw this amateurish Wiki on the JIAPU 家譜^click I wrote for the forum.

¿Have you shown your collection to a professional?

Please tell us how and why you started your collection.

Sincerely,

Doug

[Doug 周]

Eric,

BTW, can I use an image or two to include in the Wiki.

Please see your private email on the top right.

Doug

[ericli99]

Many thanks to Doug and Laohuaqiao, I have learnt a lot from your comments and will keep you posted about my exhibition project.

Eric