What kind of cover is good for our Huyan family tree?

Genealogy (or genealogy) is a special genre of books in the form of genealogies, which record the lineage of a family with blood relations as the main body and the deeds of important people.

Genealogy is a unique Chinese cultural heritage, one of the three major documents of the Chinese nation (national history, geography, genealogy), is a precious humanistic data, for the in-depth study of history, folklore, demographics, sociology, and economics, all have their unique and irreplaceable functions.

-The origin of genealogy

On the origin of genealogy, there are many different opinions in the academic world, but from the unearthed oracle bone inscriptions, gold inscriptions, inscriptions, and other early Chinese texts, and historical literature on the origin of genealogy, the origin of genealogy can be traced back to at least the pre-Qin Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty already had a system of genealogical revision by historians and wrote "Shiben - Emperor's Lineage". Although the pre-Qin "Shiben" has long been dead for, this "Shiben" is the Qing people, but from the collection of the title can be seen, "Shiben" since the Yellow Emperor to the Spring and Autumn period of the generations of Chinese sons of heaven, vassals, ministers and dukes of the genealogy, is a comprehensive and summarize the genealogy of the previous generation and the contemporary genealogy of all the groups of the blood of the national genealogy.

-Forms of genealogy

There are various forms of genealogy. Before the appearance of written genealogies, there were oral genealogies and knotted genealogies. Later, some were framed with charts and hung in the center hall, while others were bound into books for family members to read. Historically, the families of officials and eunuchs usually adopted the bound genealogy. The common people, businessmen, gentry, and powerful families mostly hung charted genealogies for their descendants to worship.

-Content and Role of Genealogy

The genealogy in the ancient times was unique to the kings, lords and nobles, and the genealogy only served as a proof of lineage, for the inheritance of titles and inheritance of property, and its content was relatively single, only for the illustration of the lineage.

After the Wei and Jin dynasties, the selection of officials, marriages, and even social interactions have to look at the family, so the role of genealogy in political life, economic life and social life is greatly enhanced, the content of genealogy has also increased than in the past.

To the Song Dynasty, the traditional ban on official genealogy was broken, and the popularity of folk genealogy flourished, and at this time, genealogy basically no longer played a role in political life, and its role shifted to honoring the ancestors, respect for the ancestors, and harmony on the family. Genealogy is often repeatedly compiled, each revision of the genealogy, but also became a major event between people of the same family name and the same clan.

By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the structure of genealogy had been basically finalized, and the genealogies passed down to the present are extremely rich.

The contents of the genealogy mainly include three parts: the first part is the lineage map, both the lineage of a person's inheritance, belonging to what generation, his father who; the second part is the genealogy text, is listed in the lineage map of the people in the order of the compilation, respectively, the introduction of the name of the people, father's name, the line of the time, era, rank, title, enjoy the age, death, posthumous name, in-laws, and so on. These introductory text, the long more than 50 words, the short only two or three words, is actually a biography; the third part of the appendix.

Some genealogy, in the establishment of the spectrum, the family lineage will determine the naming of the generation of the sequence, and prior to the marking of the name, generation clear, the countryside is called "generation", is actually the meaning of seniority. Due to the historical formation of patriarchal thinking, men in the "big name", must be scheduled for a word as part of the name. This word should be placed in the full name of the three words in the middle or at the end of each generation level may not be exactly the same, but there are agreed rules.