Now THIS is a family tree! On New Year's day, the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee (CGCC) announced that it is "closing the book" and is now sending the fifth update of Confucius' family tree to the printers. The new publication will contain more than two million documented descendants of the Chinese philosopher who was born in 551 B.C.
The latest revision took 10 years to complete. It gives the most complete and systematic record of Confucius genealogy ever compiled. The previous revision in 1937 included 600,000 members.
The new list, which includes overseas and female descendants for the first time, is expected to be published sometime around Confucius' 2560th birthday, which falls on Sept. 28.
And how does one go about 'documenting' someone born in 551BC? 231AD? Etc.?
Posted by: DE Eaton, Sr., MM | January 04, 2009 at 03:32 PM
I cannot speak for the Confucious genealogy but I used to live in China about 25 years ago and I learned a lot about the culture in the country. One thing I learned is that genealogies are an important part of the Buddhist religion and family records have often been kept in the temples for thousands of years. That would be ORIGINAL records carefully written in scrolls and passed down from generation to generation. If a scroll started to deteriorate from old age and handling, it was copied to a modern piece of paper.
It would not be unusual for ORIGINAL records to be available for many hundreds of years, often more than a thousand years. For a notable person such as Confucious, I am not surprised that records have been kept longer.
Dr. An Wang, founder of Wang Laboratories, used to say he could recite his male ancestry back 40 generations. However, he also quickly pointed out that only the past 20 generations were documented.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | January 04, 2009 at 05:08 PM
How would one get a copy to read? I assume it will be for sale but will it be available in English or only in Chinese? If in English would they then use our characters for the letters? I know this probably sounds silly but I think it would be interesting to read.
Posted by: Mariann | January 04, 2009 at 07:38 PM