General format of Zupu

[Doug 周]

I am getting access to a Zupu for 2 of my grandparents. This is possible by doing on line research. I am based in North America and have no Chinese language skills. I will write about my experiences later in the Software forum.

My question: Can anyone explain the general format of the Zupu? Is there usually an introduction first? I assume that daughters are not listed, based on translations of other family tree's. I even assume the book format is left to right, like Western books, though I thought earlier Chinese books were right to left. There are a lot of words in the booklet and I want to help guide my translators if I have a general outline.

Hope my questions don't sound too idiotic.

May1 addendum:
see: siyigenealogy.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=names&thread=778&page=1 REPLY # 6 for how I found the Zupus.
Doug

[Henry]

Doug,

Whew - this is some question ! What are you trying to do?

The following is a rough outline from descriptions I have seen on the Internet:

"the traditional jiapu (or "family register") of the Chinese family or clan. The jiapu documents a great deal of information, including the "origin of the surname, the migration history of the clan, family lineage, ancestral biography and ancestral locality."

1 Genealogical preface
2 Genealogical rules
3 Family instructions
4 Clan origins
5 Genealogical lineage charts
6 Generational orders - generational poems
7 Biographies
8 Records of honors and merits
9 Maps of residences and graves
10 Ancestral hall

This nowhere complete - just to provide you with some general topics that you will encounter.

Based on my experience and exposure - the zupu generally starts like a traditional Chinese book - from the left - top to bottom, right to left. Instead of just traditional Chinese characters, the contemporary zupu(s) are in simplified Chinese.

Instead of being handwritten, most modern Chinese genealogies are published with Chinese typeset characters. Instead of tracing back to just the founder of the family, village, progenitors of the clan for the town, city, county, province - newer Chinese genealogies are tracing back to Huangdi. This is great if you can link your family branch that will provide you with an unbroken lineage all the way back to the Yellow Emperor. Many of the clan associations for the county and/or province are forming groups of genealogy experts to resolve many of the inconsistencies and discrepancies found in clan genealogies.

The annotations for the entries can be quite detailed in terms of and related to the history of the period for that individual. Wives and concubines are listed by their clan and the siblings are listed. This additional information is very useful to definitely identify a particular person.

The ancestors sometimes had 3 or 4 different names and sometimes they are listed. One of the most common problems with verifying ancestors is that they add an additional generation to the lineage by a name - which turns out to be one of the several different names for a person.

I am sure there are others that can add to what I have said. There is so much material. Also, newer Chinese genealogies are including the daughters born to a male clansman found in the genealogy book.

Ask your translator to first translate the table of contents of the zupu - then you can decide what pages you want translated. Usually, the narratives on the clan surname origin, history, and migrations are rather interesting and contain lots of facts.

Henry

[philiptancl]

Select Unicode (UTF-8) to read the Chinese characters

I find that there is other interesting information in zupu compiled within recent years; at least from the county where my ancestors (surname Chen/Chan/Chin/Tan (陳/陈)) originated from. As I had mentioned under Chen/Tan/Chan/Chin (陈/陳) Clan thread in the Clan Progenitor References section elsewhere, the progenitor of Xiao Hu Chen (小岵陈), Yongchun County (永春县), Fujian Province (福建省) is Chen Hong Yuan (陈弘元). Descending from Chen Hong Yuan, I can count some 90 branches in the following counties/provinces:
1. Yongchun (永春): 22,
2. Nan'an (南安): 7,
3. Anxi (安溪): 13,
4. Dehua (德化): 1,
5. Jinmen (金门): 1,
6. Fuding (福鼎): 18,
7. Zhejiang (浙江): 27, and
8. Taiwan (台湾): 1.

In the couple of zupus I now have for this branch, the following useful information is also given:
1. The other counties/provinces the branches spread to,
2. The names of the other branches,
3. The progenitors for each of the branch and their generation levels where they belong,
4. The number of people belonging to each of the branch and the spread of generation levels they belong to,
5. The day of the year when they perform ancestors’ veneration, and
6. The contact person for each branch.

So if you are trying to locate the zupu for your own branch, you could get valuable clues if you can get hold of a zupu from another related branch.

Just last month, I got hold of the lineage booklet showing the Progenitor for my branch of Southern Chen/Chan/Chin/Tan (陳/陈) in Fujian, Chen Zhong Gong (陈忠公), to various other places. The progenitor, Chen Hong Yuan (陈弘元), for my ancestral village Xiao Hu (小岵) mentioned above is only one of the branches contained therein. I hope I would be able to find time to construct the lineage connections from Chen Zhong Gong (陈忠公) to the various places in the Clan Progenitor References section.

[Doug 周]

Wow. So much information. And I have not even started trying to get these translated. This information helps especially if my translator is as unfamiliar with these family tree booklets as I am.

Doug

[Ah Gin]

Doug,

I have sent you an email, re coffee at our SF Family Association & a walk through our Zupu as a sample experience.

Regards, Ah gin

[Henry]

Doug,

My suggestions for translations:

1 avoid professional rate of $50 USD per page - flat rate for some number of pages?

2 check if they can handle translating traditional Chinese characters

3 executive summary rather than verbatim translation - more readable

4 have all names of people and places - also in PinYin and with Chinese characters also

5 convert all imperial reign years into Gregorian calendar years

6 give a sample page to one or more translators for evaluation

7 Chinese charts in both traditional and simplified versions

8 have your lineage chart typed out or you can convert the image of the lineage chart using the COCR2 application program


If you have specific questions - just email me on my personal email


Henry

[Doug 周]

Henry, thanks for the concise bullet points.
Phillip, thanks for the details and examples
AhGin, looking forward to meeting with you and going over your jiapu/zupu. Hope you got my email

Again I will share with the forum how I got access to these jiapu/zupu on line, now that US tax returns are finished.

Doug

[Doug 周]

Here are some examples of the stylized maps from #9 of the list Henry provided on a previous post:

1 Genealogical preface
2 Genealogical rules
3 Family instructions
4 Clan origins
5 Genealogical lineage charts
6 Generational orders - generational poems
7 Biographies
8 Records of honors and merits
9 Maps of residences and graves
10 Ancestral hall

(For those like me who have never seen a Zupu 族谱 before)

[Doug 周]

Here is an example of the lineage Henry listed as #5.

1 Genealogical preface
2 Genealogical rules
3 Family instructions
4 Clan origins
5 Genealogical lineage charts
6 Generational orders - generational poems
7 Biographies
8 Records of honors and merits
9 Maps of residences and graves
10 Ancestral hall

Sometimes there are the generational annotations on the margin:

[phillip]

Can you explain what the general annotations are and the chinese characters - how they arranged and how you came to the conclusion it is the 10th generation and 13th generation? Where do I find the generational poems in the zupus?
Kind regards
Phillip

[gckimm]

Hi phillip:

Welcome to the Forum!

In Doug's example above, the generational annotations are the numbers designating the generation to which the ancestors belonged: 十世 (generation 10), 十一世 (generation 11), 十二世 (generation 12), etc. Note that they are on the right side, as Chinese is traditionally read from right to left. The ancestors belonging to a particular generation are listed in the row next to the number of the generation, with the names written vertically, again reading from right to left.

Finding the generational poem is not so easy. It may be on some page along with other information rather than just by itself. Someone who reads Chinese would have to tale a look. Also, some genealogies do not contain a generational poem.

Greg