The Generation Name Poem

班次聯

What is a generation name poem? There is no standard length nor format. Generally, however, it follows the traditional Chinese poem structures of grouping in 4′s, 5′s or 7′s. The correct grouping will lend meanings to the poem. Starting in sequent with the first character each denotes a generation. The poem tumbles over and starts at the top again after reaching the end of the poem.

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

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Tags: biaozi, Chao'an Xian Mei, generation name poem, hao, Lee Dong, Lee Ling Jiang, pihui