The generation name of a Hakka family

[teoh@cs.utk.edu]

>From chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au Wed Apr 16 11:06:51 1997
From: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>
Subject: The generation name of a Hakka family



   The generation name of a Hakka family 

   Every ethnic Chinese in the world inherits a family surname. 
He also has a generation name which is recorded in his genealogy.
His parents give him a name too. So his full name has three characters. 
   As Dr Han Suyin said,
   "A man's life begins with his ancestors and 
    is continued in his descendants".

As long as we possess Chinese surnames we cannot extricate ourselves from 
Chinese culture. Our roots are very long and old. They are complicated 
and sometime entangled too. It will be interesting to know a bit about 
them and to find out how, when and where they began.

   The founder of my family was a Hakka (Guest People). His home town was 
in northern China in the present day city of Xin Zheng in Henan province.

   Twenty five generations ago in around 1270AD during the Song Dynasty 
(960AD to 1279AD), he fled from the conquering Mongolian armies. Genghis 
Khan and his hordes were riding into Zhong Yuan (Middle China). The Song 
Court fled to the South and later to the coastal province of Guangdong. 
The Hakka People who were supporting the Song Court went with them. That 
was what we called the third migration of the Hakka People.

   In 1278AD the last ruler of the Song Dynasty was Emperor Zhao Bing who 
was only a young boy of eight years old. After fleeding the mongols they 
arrived at Xin Hui district in Guangdong province. They set up their 
Court in the boats because they had no land of their own.

   A year later the Mongols had finally caught up with them. In front of 
them was the deep sea of South China. Behind them were the Mongolian 
army. The Song Court was in the situation of betwwen the deep sea and 
the devils.

   The Prime Minister, Lu Xiu Fu carried the young Emperor Bing on his 
back and said,

   "We the Emperor and the Prime Minister should not be 
    humiliated by foreigners".

   He, with the young Emperor on his back walked right straight into the 
South China sea. Both of them were drowned. That was the end of the Song 
Dynasty after in existence of 320 years.

   After the extinction of the Song Dynasty the founder of my family got 
married and settled down in a small village in the district of Dong Guan 
district in Guangdong province. He composed or he engaged a scholar to
compose a poem of thirty six characters as a guide for his future 
descendants, a kind of family tree. The thirty six characters were divided
into two rolls of eighteen characters each. The rolls were hung up left 
and right in between his family altar.

   Of course, all his descendants inherited his surname Chung. For his 
children he used the first character of the roll hanging on the right hand 
side beside the altar. This character became the first generation name of 
his new family. All his children shared this character as the offspring  
were the first generation. Each one of his children would be given a 
name as his/her own which no one shared, for example my full name 
Chung Yoon Ngan. Chung is my surname, Yoon is my generation name (25th 
generation) and Ngan is my own name.
    
   All his grandchildren were named after the second character and they 
became the second generation of the family. His great-grandchildren 
were named after the 3rd character as they became the third generation 
and so on until it came down to us Yoon the 25th character i.e the 25th 
generation.

   All my brothers and sisters share the character Yoon as we are the 
25th generation. The children of my father's sisters are not considered 
as the direct descendants of the Chung family. They belong to another 
family. Those belong to the 25th generation from other families of our 
Chung clan also share the character Yoon as their generation name.
Ngan, my last name, is my own and no one share it with me.
(Please Note: the last name of an European is his surname). 

  CHUNG Yoon-Ngan    chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au