What does a genealogy mainly include?

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

First, the origin of surnames

Chinese surnames have been constantly evolving in history, such as war, migration, regime change, taboo surname change, refuge surname change, compound surname change to single surname and so on. And the surname has become more complicated, so its real origin and source need more detailed textual research. Some historians believe that dynasty changes and social unrest in history led to the fracture and incompleteness of genealogy, and many genealogies were fabricated by future generations by imagination.

In feudal times, many surnames were used to being associated with celebrities in order to raise family background and county prestige, or traced back to an emperor as an ancestor, which affected the purity and certainty of blood relationship. Many families are rebuilding their genealogy because of the differences in language, customs and looks between the north and the south. Their lineages are linked together, so the authenticity of their paper genealogy deserves scrutiny.

Second, the lineage table

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

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

(2) Su-style: also called Didi-style, which was created by Su Xun, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. The characteristics of the Soviet-style lineage table are: generations are vertical, 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, which mainly emphasizes patriarchal relations.

(3) Pagoda style: As the name implies, the names of generations are arranged from top to bottom like pagodas. Pagoda type adopts the connection mode of horizontal line and vertical line, and the vertical line is always in the middle of the horizontal line. For a large family with many people, because people's names 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) Diary annotation: No horizontal or vertical lines are used to connect pronouns, only words are used to express this relationship. Everyone's name has a brief introduction, such as: word, number, fame, rank, date of birth, burial place, merit and so on. The genealogy forms are fixed, the order is clear, and the paper is saved.

Extended data

Genealogy is the 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. Legend has it that it evolved from the biographies of emperors, princes and chronicles 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 rules and family instructions, which are of positive significance for regulating life and educating children. Genealogy, also known as genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, etc., has different names, the same connotation, but different extensions. Now it is generally called genealogy or genealogy. Genealogy is a historical picture book that systematically records the lineage characters or concurrency of a blood ancestor. Surname is a symbol of "consanguineous group", and genealogy is a map that records the blood relationship between family members of a surname.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Genealogy (Humanities Data)