Use of Honorifics on Headstones

[ALing]

The word 公 is used below a man’s surname on his headstone as a title of respect.

What is used for the woman below her husband’s surname?

I have seen 門 which seems to translate to “door”. What is the significance for this character?

Can 氏 be used as in zupus to mean “from the clan of”?

[gckimm]

Hi Aling:

In former times, women's headstones never carried their personal names. They were named instead "(Surname of husband) + 門 + (Surname of wife) + 氏. 門 literally means "door," but also refers to a husband's family. 氏 literally means "clan," but is used to refer to a woman's own family. For example, my great-grandmother could be called 伍門陳氏--"a woman of the Chun clan married to a man of the Ng clan." Sometimes the 門 character is dropped. Sometimes, even the reference to the husband's family is left out.

The term 氏 was also used anytime a woman's name was recorded somewhere and women themselves and their family members referred to them in this way. If someone asked my grandfather the name of his mother, he could say "Chun Shee" (陳氏). This is why so many Chinese women are called "____ Shee" in census and immigration records.

Chinese genealogies (and ancestral tablets) always referred to female ancestors as ____ 氏. This is why the names of almost all female ancestors are lost forever.

When translating genealogies, some people translate the names of female ancestors as "Miss ____." My preference is to translate the names as "____ Shee," since this is how they were known.

Greg

[ALing]

Hi Greg,

Thank you for your explanation.

I have been learning a lot about Chinese Heritage here :->.