The Chinese have been known for keeping detail genealogy records. It is generally accepted that the longest continuous Chinese genealogy record belongs to descendants of Confucius. It is not uncommon, however, for families and clans to have genealogy records extend over a thousand years or more. Amazingly enough, many of these invaluable records survived all the countless upheavals and disasters throughout China’s history.

All the record keeping would lead one to think that doing Chinese genealogy research is as easy as falling off a log. However, I soon found that it is anything but that. Doing Chinese genealogy research while overseas, in my case, Canada, is a very frustrating process. For years I found no information predating my grandfather and his brothers, only eight characters of the generation poem (象賢希聖、學宗孔孟).

Then finally in August 1984 on a trip to Ottawa, during lunch with Uncle Paul (李希勛), one of the last living members of his generation, I decided to probe him on the family genealogy. My question came as a surprise to him as he didn’t expect any interest from the younger generation that grew up in North America. As for me it was hitting the mother lode of information. Suddenly I had information all the way back to my grandfather’s great grandfather. It was like a window suddenly pops open and I was looking at people who lived in the late 18th or early 19th century.

A year or two later, I received a copy of the family tree done by cousin Lee Can Tang (燦棠) who lived in New York. It came courtesy of cousin Lee Kwan Lam (群林) from Hong Kong, who updated it with more current information. This document had more detail and fleshed out what Uncle Paul gave me. For the first time I knew the generation that I belong to (聖) is the 24th generation. Most importantly I was able to follow the various ancestral shrines or branches within the clan and how know how people are related to each other.

Despite the progress, many blanks remained. How many characters are there in the generation poem? Who was the first ancestor? And what is the family’s place of origin? The funny thing is my first exposure to information on the first migration ancestor, Lee Dong (李棟), came from an unexpected source. I was reading a neighbour’s copy of Lei-Ow Monthly (裡謳月刊) issue 5 which had an article on the Lee’s of Xinbu (神步李氏). The article gave their migration history and their generation poem. Within the generation poem were the eight characters that I knew so well. Immediately I knew I had stumbled onto something valuable and decided to keep that particular copy of the monthly.

Then in the early 90’s I received more information from cousin Kwan Lam. This time it was a copy of our own generation poem in its entirety. Surprise! Surprise! It was identical to that of the Lee’s of Xinbu. As a bonus, I was introduced to a location called Wunbu (雲步) which I later found out was a major point in the clan’s migration history.

In the Spring of 1997 a group in my village headed by Lee Guang Sheng (光盛) decided to publish an up-to-date zupu (族譜), clan genealogy record. A little over a year later, I received a copy. It concentrate primarily on the more recent generations rather than the past. Migration history was briefly touched upon. In essence it is the same as the Lei-Ow Monthly article. Information on the ancestors was restricted to the first two migrating ancestors only, Lee Dong (李棟) his eldest son, Lee Hon (李侃). There was nothing on the first ancestor who to moved to and settled in the current village.

In the meantime I was online and searching. Not much happened until one day I came across a post in The Chinese Surname Queries. Jack Lee used his own ancestor’s migration history as an example in answering a post. Yes, Jack (李惠賢) was telling, at least to me, a very familiar story. It was quickly established that we branched off from the second generation. In the ensuing years Jack provided me with much information in my genealogy research.

Things really started to happen in 2001. First I met Chune Lee (李傳宗) who belongs to the same branch as Jack. Chune was kind enough to give me a copy of his zupu (東坑李氏族譜) which answered many questions. Soon afterwards, Simon Lee (李煥祥) wrote me that he is from the same village as Chune. However, he is from the branch of Lee Chun (李侚), Lee Dong’s third son. Now our little online group has at least one descendant from each of Lee Dong’s sons.

In early 2002 Lee Weng Onn from Malaysia wrote to me. It was quickly established that Lee Weng Onn and I belong to the same branch. Weng Onn is in possession of an extremely comprehensive zupu (雲步李氏宗譜), which was published in 1932. It comes in multi-volumes. The total number of pages is a staggering 3,825. From what I’ve seen it kept track of most, if not all, members of Lee Hon’s branch. It even has records of various descendants moving to and settling in different villages.

In mid-November Edward Lee (李國安) visited this site and discovered he and Chune are from the same village. The zupu he has is identical to Chune’s. They had made contact with each other and followed up on the linkage.

In February 2003 another visitor, Edmund Lee of California, wrote to share his genealogy information. Yes, he is another member of Lee Dong’s descendants. His branch is that of Lee Yee (李佁) and they had settled at Jiujiang, Xinhui (新會九江). Since Chune, Edmund, and Simon are all living in the Bay area, a get together was suggested. After many email exchanges the first get together was held in March 27, 2003. Please see photo. Lawrence Jeung attended the meeting because he is researching the Lee genealogy from his grandmother side of the family.

On August 1, 2002, I received an email from David Lee (李光基) of Hong Kong. He is a descendant of Lee Shi Tao (李師道), one of Lee Dong’s first cousins. David was very kind in sharing information from his zupu and invaluable information on the life and traves of our ancestors, which is currently sitting on the back burner.

Coincidentally, Daniel Lee (李玉恆) from California contacted me on October 4, 2002 to say he is a descendant of Lee Shi Tao and there are similarities between his life and Lee Dong’s. Daniel was kind enough to send a copy of his family tree starting with the migrating ancestor to the present, covering over 30 generations and almost 900 years – most impressive.

Both David and Daniel are descend from the same branch and the same village until the 13rd generation when Daniel’s ancestor moved to Zhongshan (中山).

In 2001 Lawrence Jeung and I were in contact because his grandmother’s maiden name is Lee. There wasn’t any progress other than finding historical information on his grandmother’s uncle Lee Sinan (李是男). It was only after David had provided me with his generation name poem information and Lawrence with his keen observation noticed the same characters in the haos of Lee Sinan and other family members. We are confident Lee Sinan and his family belong to the Lee Shi Tao branch.

Setting up this site is my attempt to link up with the other clan members from my village whom I have never met or haven’t seen for years. Now I’m in contact with a much broader clan group!

In mid-June, 2002, I received a call from a friend, Watt Chow (周添活), who calls Hong Kong home. His family is from the same village as my wife, Margaret, but I was told by my father-in-law and others that they aren’t related. Anyway, he was in town visiting his parents and we agreed to meet after dinner. During the course of the evening the subject of genealogy came up. He said he came across his family’s zupu (published in 1909) and managed to secure a couple of copies. He kept one for himself and gave the other to his father, Mr. Frank Chow (周暢宏). Mr. Frank Chow told me their family belong to the branch of the third son, L (周漁隱), while Margaret’s family is from the fifth son, Feng Yin Chow (周鳳隱). He was kind enough to look it up in the zupu for me. Best of all, he even let me borrowe it. From the zupu I managed to construct the family tree from present day to the first ancestor, Feng Gang Chow (周鳳岡).

In late 2001, Tho May Seto (司徒素媚) called to say she had came across some genealogy information on the Xie family and wondered whether I would be interested. It was a hand written linear family tree by her father-in-law, Xie Ping An (謝平安), going all the way back to Nanxiong. (Another item on the back burner.)

In May 2003 Henry Chiu (趙行時) of Hong Kong a cache of genealogy information on the Zhao of Fausik or Fushe (浮石). According to the information they are direct descendants of Sung emperors. In January 2004 I finally got around to have some of the Zhao information online more than half a year after receiving them from Henry. The push come after Katherine Lum of New York contacted me. Her maternal grandfather is a Zhao and from Fausik also. Katherine also provided a treasure chest of information which I can correlate with Henry’s.

Just before 2003 came to a close I received an email from Dr. James Chin of California. As it turned out Dr. Chin is born in Fausik but migrated to the USA at an early age. He is a Zhao also but because of the American immigration policy at the time he and his family had to use a paper name which is Chin. Dr. Chin is corresponding with Henry. Hope there are mutual benefits. Wouldn’t it really be a blast if they are second or third cousins?

In mid-February Jacky Li of Hong Kong by way of Malaysia posted in the forum regarding Xinhui (新會). Subsequent email established that his family originated from Law Ka Wan, Xinhui (新會羅家灣). A quick check of my records revealed that Lee Duanfu (李端夫) once settled there. Jacky is or will be checking with his grandfather and father on their generation name poem. He may be the newest addition to the Lee Dong descendants online club.

Some other families we’ll be researching are: Mak of Xin Tsun (台山都斛下莘村麥氏), and Wong of Baisa (台山潮境白沙黃氏).

Again, thank you for coming by; enjoy your visit and come back really soon. Comments, suggestions and errata are always welcome.

Why? In Chinese culture relationship or inherited position within the family is extremely important. Just by the salutation one person uses to address another their relation is evident. There is no need to add whether the aunt, uncle or cousin is maternal or paternal, younger or older. It is all in the salutation. Using the wrong salutation is considered not only as bad manner but more seriously as a lack of respect to the elder. It is then concluded that the parents failed to discharge their responsibilities properly.

Keeping track of who is who could be a major problem. Here is where the generation name poem comes in handy. When a male member gets married, he would take on an extra name, in our part of the country known as hao (號). It is makeup of the character in the poem that denotes his generation and coupled it with another character. From hereon in he should be addressed by his hao not his given name. To do otherwise is taken as a sign of disrespect. However, this practice of adopting a hao is a dying one. Another naming practice that has been stopped is the biaozi (表字) which was given at the same time as the child was named.

How is this biaogi chosen? There are no hard and fast rules. Some are extensions of the given names in term of meaning. However, it is not uncommon to have one that is opposite in meaning. Some would give the source of the character used in the given name. Some times it is a play on some famous person’s name and/or biaogi. There were cases where it denoted the order of birth within the siblings.

What is still practice is to have members of the same generation sharing a common character in their given names. Some families segregate between male and female while others don’t. In some families this extended to include a host of cousins while some just limited to the immediate members. Confusing? Of course!

In the West it is considered an honour to have a child name after a person. However, with the Chinese the opposite is true. This is called pihui (避韋). It is an old practice of avoid using the characters in the emperor’s name in everything. This practice had created confusions through the ages because scholars had employed various methods to achieve this. One was the use of synonyms. Another was to omit a stroke of the character in question. Both method resulted in changes to the works of various writers. Thus the same work published in different era could have single word differences throughout. Still another method is to leave a blank space. Yes, more guess works for later day scholars. With the concise nature of the old writings, one word could mean the world of a difference.

The sidebar on the left are the generation name poems of the descendants of Lee Dong and his uncle Lee Ling Jiang. It reads left to right instead of the traditional Chinese format, top to bottom and right to left. I belong to the 24th generation. Some members of the 23rd generation are still among us. The oldest of the 24th generation are close to 80 if not over.

Included also are the eight characters of the Chow generation name poem that I know of. They represent the 19th to 26th generations. A point to note is some of the 21st generation used 宗 (Zhong) instead of 家 (Jia).

We would like to thank Erwin Li for sending his family poems, the Lee Clan of Chao’an Xian Mei (潮安急水仙美鄉李氏) to be included here. Erwin’s family has two poems, an internal one and an external one. Currently he is researching

* the reason or purpose for the dual poems
* the protocol for using the correct poem

If you have any information or inquiries please let us know.

Here are some generation name poems:

侃袓子孫之班派
Lee Hon’s descendants

毓元啟應、夫宜奕至
履秩秉睿、允昌會成
修道立德、象賢希聖
學宗孔孟、儒紹周程
楊名上國、建績大庭
聯芳濟美、世祚詒榮

侚袓後裔國泰公子孫之班派
Lee Chun’s Descendants

脩文宏道、宗聖希賢
迺祖南來、長發其祥
濟美多士、奕世永昌

侚袓後裔齊漢公子孫之班派

本毓裔聯英、金枝向日榮
奕世逢春茂、參天曜文明

侚袓後裔江漢雲漢
二公子孫之班派

華維繼孟須世良
廣業文明聖道昌
德煥慶章日啟耀
學宗唐周粵東長

佁袓子孫之班派
Lee Yee’s descendants

晉有聖基、廣衍雲礽
偉烈始興、奕世永昌

尚書房之班派
Lee Ling Jiang’s descendants

慶承天佑、奕世永昌
顯楊偉業、休有烈光
家傳忠厚、仁澤孔長

周松菴子孫之班派
Chow Song An’s descendants

遵成家瑞、開基佰葉

潮安急水仙美鄉李氏
Lee from Chao’an Xian Mei

內世詩文
紹元斯克子、繼美可承宗
英賢咸式穀、世澤乃崇隆。

外世詩文
士文之家、學為園大
承先開來、振衍總派
齒德流芳。

趙宋三派玉牒
Generation poems of Zhao Song dynasty

太祖派
Tai Zu branch

德惟以(守)世令子伯
師希與孟由宜順

太宗派
Tai Zhong branch

元允宗仲士不(丕)善
汝崇必良友季同

魏王派
Wei Wang branch

德承克叔之公彥
夫時若嗣次古光

]]> http://legacy1.net/the-generation-name-poem/feed/ 9 http://legacy1.net/the-story-of-lee-dong/ http://legacy1.net/the-story-of-lee-dong/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:05:24 +0000 Woodson http://legacy1.net/?p=132 Lee Dong is accorded the honour of being the first southward migrating ancestor. He was the eldest son of Lee Hay (李禧) who in turn was Lee Lun’s (李聯) eldest son.

Here is a little historical background. In 1126 AD (靖康元年) when the Jins (女真金人), a northern nomadic tribe who were the ancestors of the later day Manchus (滿清), invaded China. They lay siege to the capital, Kaifeng (開封) or Binliang (汴梁) as it was called then. They returned a year later and sacked the city, returned north with their captives which included the two Sung emperors and members of the royal family totalling over 3,000 people. A little over a hundred years later (1233 AD), this scene was replayed when the Mongolians conquered the Jins.

According to clan records, Lee Dong (李棟) was involved with the failed effort to relief the siege of Kaifeng. From the wordings, he was either a low ranking officer or leader of a local militia which had become common as a defence against the numerous roaming robbers and bandits (流寇). The heros of the famous novel Water Margin (水滸傳) supposingly were from this era.

After the siege, Lee Dong took his family which included his wife, their three sons, Lee Hon (李侃), Lee Chun (李侚) and Lee Yee (李佁), and his younger brother, Lee Jong (李棕) to Lau-sa Li (流沙里) in Panyu just south of Guangzhou. However, there are writing saying they went to Guangzhou’s Gao-de Li (高德里) first. They later moved to what was Gongzhou (岡州) in ancient time but is currently known as Xinxing (新與), in Xinhui county (新會). Lived in Chong-bu Hong (中步巷) which was on the town’s western edge, Lai-yee Feng district (禮儀坊). On a modern day map of Xinhui there is a Gongzhou just west of Xinhui City. Could this be one and the same?

After things somewhat settled, by that I guess they meant after the invaders had left, Lee Dong and his brother returned to Nanxiong (南雄) to tie up loose ends such as disposing real estate properties. Lee Dong died on the return trip. His brother brought his remains back and he was buried at Shek Goe Shan, Xinhui (新會石狗山).

After Lee Dong’s death, the family was on the move again. Except this time they all went their separate ways. Lee Dong’s widow went with the third son Lee Yee and the second son Lee Chun’s third son Lee Kit (李杰) to Gun-jok Hong De-hung Li, Taishan (台山德行里筋竹坑). Lee Dong’s brother, Lee Jong, and his family went to Shunde (順德) and Huengshan (香山)(later renamed Zhongshan, (中山). The second son, Lee Chun was dispatched to Dai Gong, Kaiping (開平大岡). Lee Hon, the eldest son, moved to Wunbu, Xinhui (新會雲步).



Map of Guangzhou showing the southern migration routes from Nanxiong

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