Is clan culture making a comeback?

After liberation, although everything was in ruins and society expected to recuperate, the clan culture and activities that were the object of class struggle could only continue to suffer destruction due to "attempts to restore feudalism." During the "Cultural Revolution", countless family trees were thrown into the "bonfire party" unique to that era as the "Four Olds". Alas, genealogy, together with local chronicles and official history, are known as the three pillars of Chinese historiography. In addition to fire and smoke, what was reduced to ashes were the precious memories and efforts of generations. However, in the late 1970s, history began to take a new turn. As the saying goes, "A country is easy to change, but a nature is hard to change." With the opening up of Chinese society and the disintegration of the "political and social integration" people's communes, some places, especially Jiangnan with a strong traditional culture, such as Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang In other provinces, there is a trend of continuing to build family trees. Traditions that were completely denied in the past are gradually being restored and seem to be making a comeback. Attitudes towards official media have also gradually changed. The editor's note on the relevant article also changed from "not allowed" to "not recommended." Importantly, thanks to reform and opening up, at this time, China began a journey of rediscovering society. Just as the faith and power of a seed can crack the ground, the growth of society's free self makes any form of "editor's note" untenable. What's more, since the 1990s, the "Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Ceremony", which is regarded by intellectuals as an ideological substitute, has become an important footnote to the rise of Chinese nationalism. Today, the revival of clan culture has gradually become a trend in villages around the world. Compiling family trees and building ancestral halls kept people from the same clan very busy. Most of them are local people who are enthusiastic about public welfare and have high prestige, including some retired teachers. Many veteran cadres also participated. "After working in the revolution all their lives, it's time to revise their family trees." In addition, there are compatriots from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and overseas Chinese from Europe and the United States. The experienced "overseas spy" back then has become popular in the new era and has become a sincere wanderer who recognizes his ancestors. In the early spring of 2009, when I was still living in the countryside, I happened to catch up with the publication of the genealogy of the Xiong clan in the county. As a person who has seen the outside world in the village and "tricked myself", I was inevitably involved in this grand ceremony. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I really want to "participate in witnessing" the whole process of the village's young and old going to the city to pick up family trees. It's a sunny day. Although the village is small and the ostentation is not affordable, we still rented a pickup truck. A dozen men stood in the back of the truck, beating gongs and drums, roaring firecrackers, and waving red flags. Their magnanimity that "the revolution has been successful and comrades do not need to work hard" made passers-by look at them with admiration and awe. When the pickup truck finally rushed into the county town and joined the traffic in other villages, for some unknown reason, another scene came to my mind. I only feel that the county town is like an isolated island in the vast rural waters. When farmers enter the county town, it is like climbing onto the shore of urban civilization; returning to the village is like diving back into the water. After receiving the genealogy, several young people traveling with me sadly talked to me about some rural festivals they participated in when they were children, and especially regretted the disappearance of the dragon lantern dance before the Lantern Festival. Of course, we have also said that the government does not support traditional culture in rural areas and allows it to flow freely. However, it is keen to get a few celebrities to come to the countryside to lip-sync a few popular songs, thinking that this is "sending culture to the countryside." What a big joke! The wording of "sending culture to the countryside" is even more discriminatory. In fact, Chinese rural areas with profound traditional cultural heritage are not without culture, but have been seriously ignored and destroyed instead of being valued and developed. That day, the truck in the village also took a detour of nearly 20 kilometers on its return trip. When I finally returned to the village, the villagers waiting at the entrance of the village, their daughters and children in the distance immediately lit firecrackers. The firecrackers blew white smoke to cover the sun and the sun.

In 1919, Hu Shi wrote in "Jixi Wangchuan" The preface to "Cao Family Genealogy" says: "There is a big problem in Chinese genealogy, which is the superstition of 'long history'. There is no one named Chen who is not after Hu Gongman, no one named Zhang who is not after the five sons of Huangdi, and no one who is not named Zhang. People with the surname Li are not after Boyang. From now on, every family will be an ancient emperor and an ancient celebrity. I wonder where the descendants of those villains in ancient times have gone?" So Hu Shi suggested that people of all ethnic groups should show some credibility when making music. Ignore any ancestors that do not exist. Instead, you should do more homework on your own tribe, so that you can truly realize the value of "believing in history." Of course, it's human nature to get involved with big shots in exchange for some cheap pride.

I remember when I was a child, I heard the seniors in the village who knew some historical anecdotes talk about "the king of Chu's surname is Xiong" and "Qu Yuan's surname is Xiong", and when the loan was exposed by the financial mirror, I felt a little inexplicable excitement. However, to this day, when I see this new school name trying to “connect with the King of Chu”, I can only laugh and say nothing. In the new version of the genealogy, the font name emphasizing the family's "royal blood" is as follows: "Origined from Emperor Chu Yi, made his fortune in Xinghua Prefecture, and determined to stay in Xinghua Prefecture for a long time." What a good advertising slogan! Readers, please do not blame me for being unserious or snobbish, or even rudely mocking the creations of old people. Who makes me so stubborn and have no master? If so, I can see a picture of decline from this "long-lasting" picture of generations: just like a person who first became the king of Chu and then became the prime minister. , then devoted himself to real estate, and finally had nowhere to go, so he had to become a security guard at the gate of a certain community to salute the owners. From then on, he was "in peace for a long time" - one generation is worse than the other. Deconstructed, through my joke above, you probably see that my generation has no fear of generations. And now that people's hearts are open, no matter how the family tree is arranged, it will not affect the actual life of the people. In fact, this is also the dilemma faced by today’s genealogy. It is also for this reason that children who are not named according to the family tree have to be given another family tree name when the family tree is recorded. On the other hand, since people want to compile county genealogies and even set up genealogy bureaus for this purpose, those in power will inevitably have the ambition to unify the clan surnames in the county. Just like when a new official takes office, if he doesn't demolish a few houses, build a few squares, and do some new tricks, how can he see "political achievements"? The difference is that because there is no coercive force, the "unification" of the bureau does not really disrupt everyone's lives. Today's genealogy is just an annotated genealogy, not a forced label. As for the intellectual community, more and more researchers have begun to notice the positive role of clans in social integration, community building, and the provision of public products. Especially in this turbulent era of transformation, when people are thrown into what Tocqueville said is the lonely place where the old era is gone and the new society has not yet been established, this ancient family relationship is more about mutual help and comfort, and it is a A kind of homosocial or homohumanism, which naturally implies self-help and autonomy among groups. Some scholars have conducted questionnaire surveys among farmers. When asked, "Who should I turn to when encountering difficulties in starting a business?", farmers first turn to immediate family members, followed by friends, collateral relatives, neighbors, and finally party organizations, rural cadres, and villagers. Since clan culture cannot be completely denied in rural areas as it was in the past, the next question to be answered is whether this blood organization can achieve accountability in rural politics. And how to make the villagers who believe in it become citizens in the modern political sense, and truly move from blood to "humanity"?