中国日报英文版《小谈寻根》-桐城麻溪姚氏九修家谱的文章

姚波

中国日报英文版关于桐城麻溪姚氏九修家谱的文章

2016年3月26日中国日报英文版发表了一篇文章，无论是立意还是深度都很好，现发出来与所有宗亲共享：


网址：http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/en/2016-03/26/content_24113346.htm


英文内容：
Lessons to learn as we get to roots of the family tree


Updated: 2016-03-26 09:54:17


When it comes to the rituals surrounding death, we Chinese are worlds apart from Westerners. At a Western funeral, in addition to the tears shed there are likely to be cheery anecdotes and side-splitting jokes; at most Chinese funerals, the Confucian principle of shen zhong zhui yuan holds absolute sway: being thorough and reverent when one pays respects to dead relatives and offers sacrifices to ancestors.
As the annual Tomb Sweeping Day (April 4) approaches, Chinese will be beginning to pay tribute to dead family members, a tradition with a history of about 2,500 years. One notable change in recent years is that people are casting their minds back well before recent generations, over decades and even centuries.
Some will walk through mountain areas where their ancestors were buried long ago, intent on finding tombstones that bear names they have only seen in a family tree or other similar documents. That is what members of my clan, in the hundreds of thousands with the surname Yao, are doing. But they have a lot of catching up to do if they want to bring the family tree up to date because the clan's official family tree was last published 95 years ago.
The first generation were settled along the Maxi Brook in Tongcheng, Anhui province, during the late Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), so this branch of the family is called Maxi Yao. Over the next 600 years or so until 1921 the genealogy was updated eight times. Copies of the genealogy are held in the Chinese National Library, Tokyo National Museum and the Genealogical Society of Salt Lake City. It contains more than 20 volumes and records over 20 generations of the same clan.
I knew little about my family history until I recently heard about plans to bring it up to date. Growing up after the country started to open up and adopt great economic changes, and educated with an understanding of the outside world, I was too preoccupied with my own achievements and looking after my immediate family to be interested in the wider clan.
Thinking about it now, it is incredible that the family tree was tended to continuously for so long, surviving dynasties, wars, epidemics and natural disasters. That its continuity came to an abrupt halt in 1921 is understandable. The Qing Dynasty had then been gone for a decade, and with it disappeared long traditions and customs.
In the following decades there were clashes of warlords, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the liberation war, and the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Millions of people were uprooted and displaced. Confucian thought, the guiding influence behind family trees, all but disappeared.
Now it seems, in an age of peace and prosperity in China, tracing family roots in an effort to know about one's forebears is in vogue again. People of my clan are lucky to have a genealogy we can refer to. Some 300 members of a WeChat group I belong to have a shared interest in working on family trees. Stories they tell include ones about outstanding family members down the generations, those who passed imperial exams to become officials and scholars. Among them was a key member of the Tongcheng School, a leading literary institution during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Another was known for defeating British invaders as military commander in Taiwan.
Many others who failed to scale such heights are nevertheless recorded in the genealogy with comments including "great integrity", "knowledgeable", "courageous" or "active in charitable causes". I think this reflects people's need to identify themselves with others who share similar family and social values.
Of course, my clan is just one out of thousands. In China, many more people are seeking their roots, and preparing to include themselves in their family trees. In two episodes of the six-part BBC documentary Story of China, two family trees are featured: one surnamed Qin who traced their ancestor to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) poet Qin Guan; the other surnamed Bao whose history dated back to the fourth century. The BBC program no doubt reflects the increased interest in family trees in China.
However, anyone digging into their family history is bound to find a lot more than noble deeds. For one thing, women were regarded as secondary and in the main led lives of misery. The genealogy reflects this state of affairs: they had no name they could call their own, and often deeds for which they gained recognition had to do with chastity, which often involved suicide or decades of widowhood.
As the tradition of building family trees is revived, let us hope that feudalistic ideas including discriminating against women that they sometimes reflect are well and truly buried.


中文   由姚志勇宗亲翻译


小谈寻根


对于为逝去的人举办典礼一事，中国人和西方人的习惯大有不同。在西方的葬礼中，除了泪水，还有轻松幽默的轶事；然而，大部分中国人的葬礼受到了孔孟思想中“慎终追远”的影响：虔诚地缅怀先人和祭拜祖先。


4月4日，有2500年历史的清明节就要到来了，中国人准备去悼念逝去的亲人。近些年有一个显著的变化，人们开始祭拜更早的祖先。


许多人将会翻山越岭到他们祖先曾经埋葬的地方，只为了寻找刻着祖先名字的墓碑，哪怕这些名字他们只在族谱中或者类似的文献中见过。这是我宗族中的族人们，是成千上万姚姓人正在做的事情。但是，如果他们想要把族谱更新到今天，要做的还有很多，因为官方族谱最新的一次更新是在95年以前。


我宗族中第一代姚氏在元代末期（1279-1368）生活于安徽省桐城麻溪河畔，所以这个家族的分支叫做姚麻溪。之后的600年直到1921年，族谱有过8次的更新。该族谱的复印版收藏于中国民族博物馆、东京民族博物馆和盐湖城族谱社会博物馆。这本族谱包含了20卷，记录了宗族的超过20代人。


我曾经对我家族的历史了解甚少，直到我最近听说了要将族谱更新的计划。我生长在中国改革开放、经济蓬勃发展的时代，受到了开放式的教育，曾经过多的专注于自我的成就，更在乎我的直系亲属而不是宗族里的其他人。


现在想想看，我们的族谱多少年，经过了历朝换代、战争、自然灾害依旧延绵不息，这是多么的难以置信的事。即便是在1921年有过一段时间的缺失，也是可以理解为清政府被推翻，许多传统也随之消失了一段时间。


在接下来的十几年里，中国被战火洗劫，抗日战争、解放战争、包括“文化大革命”（1966-76），百万同胞被迁离，族谱的指导思想——孔子文化，差一点就被抹杀了。


如今，中国正处于和平和繁荣的时代，家族寻根、挖掘家族历史正成为一种趋势。我们麻溪姚氏家族的成员很是幸运，有一本族谱可以做参考。我所在的300多人的微信群中许多成员有一个共同搭建族谱的目标。他们每一个人讲的故事中包括了家族里杰出的祖先，例如有人曾经考过状元最后在朝中当了学士、有人在清朝（1644-1911）年间先进的文社——桐城学校里是关键人物、有人在台湾击退英国入侵者的军队将领。


其他没有得到如此高的评价的祖先，在族谱评语中记载为“正直”、“博识”、“勇敢”或者“乐善好施”。我认为这个反映了人们需要在相似的家庭和社会价值中得到区分。


当然，我的家族只是成千家族中的一个。在中国，更多的人正在寻根，并且准备将自己写到他们的族谱里。在六季的BBC中国文献故事里有两季讲述族谱，以两个族谱为主：一个是秦姓，该族谱追溯到了他们的祖先，一个唐代（公元前618-907）的诗人秦观；另一个是鲍姓，他们的历史追溯到了14世纪。BBC节目无疑是反映了中国对族谱的兴趣。


但是，人们挖掘他们的族谱不仅是一个高尚的行为，应该可以得到更多的信息。例如，女人曾经被视为是次要的，而且大多生活在一个悲惨的生活。族谱反映了这种状态的证据：他们没有可以被称呼的名字，并且为了得到认可他们必须保持贞洁，所以要不自杀要不守寡。


随着建立族谱的传统在不断的苏醒，让我们共同期待族谱反映的封建主义思想，包括歧视女性的思想，被彻底的埋葬。