The main contents of genealogy: the origin and lineage of surnames.

First, the origin of surnames

The surnames of China have been constantly evolving through history, such as wars, migration, regime change, taboo surname change, refuge surname change, compound surname change to single surname, etc., and the surnames have become more complicated, so the real origin and source need to be verified in detail. Some historians believe that dynasty changes and social unrest in history have led to the fracture and incompleteness of genealogy, and many genealogies have been fabricated by future generations by imagination.

In feudal times, many surnames were used to being associated with celebrities or traced back to an emperor as their ancestors, which affected the purity and certainty of consanguinity. Many families are rebuilding their genealogies because of the differences in languages, customs and looks between the north and the south, and their lineages are linked together, so the authenticity of their paper genealogies is worthy of scrutiny.

Second, the pedigree table

As the most important content in the genealogy, the "pedigree table" is, in short, a chart that illustrates the relationship between family members, such as father and son and brothers, and clearly writes the names of each family member of ancestors and descendants. It has four basic narrative formats: European, Soviet, Pagoda and Dieji.

(1) European style: also known as transverse style, was founded by Ouyang Xiu, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. The characteristics of European style are: generation division, running from right to left, five generations and one watch, which is very convenient to use. In European style, there is a life story on the left side of the name of each generation, which introduces the person's word, number, fame, official rank, date of birth, spouse, burial place, achievements and so on.

(2) Su-style: also known as the drop bead style, was founded by Su Xun, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. The characteristics of the Soviet-style lineage table are: generations are straight and drooping, there is no horizontal line connection between generations, all of them are connected by vertical lines, and the chart format is also arranged from right to left, mainly emphasizing patriarchal relations.

(3) Pagoda style: As the name implies, it is to arrange the names of generations from top to bottom like pagodas. Pagoda style adopts the connection method of horizontal and vertical lines, and the vertical line is always in the middle of the horizontal line. For a large family with many people, because the names of people can't be arranged on the same page, the relationship between brothers is unclear, which will bring a lot of inconvenience to writing and reading music.

(4) genealogical notation: the relationship between names of generations is not connected by horizontal and vertical lines, but expressed by words. Everyone's name has a related brief introduction, such as: word, number, fame, official rank, date of birth, burial place, merit and so on. The genealogical form of genealogy is fixed and the order is clear, which saves paper.

extended information

genealogy is a historical record of a family. Through genealogy, we can understand the historical outlook, spirit of the times and social fashion at that time, and understand people's production and life under that historical background. According to legend, it evolved from the biographies of emperors, princes and chronologies in the official history. Genealogy is as important as official history and local chronicles, and it is one of the important components of historiography.

China's genealogy generally has family discipline, which is of positive significance for regulating life and educating children. Genealogy, also known as genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy and so on, has different names, and its connotation is the same, but its extension is different. Now it is generally referred to as genealogy or genealogy. Genealogy is a historical picture book that systematically records the lineage characters or concurrent and other aspects of a consanguineous ancestor. Surname is the symbol of "a consanguineous group of the same clan", and genealogy is an atlas to record the consanguineous relationship among family members of a surname.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Genealogy (Humanities)