Xiamen, A Trip Down Memory Lane. Part 3: The Lineage

Traditionally, the Chinese people have an infamous way of naming their offspring. Every same generation is to have the same character as the middle name as a way to identify which clan one came from and which generation of such a clan one belonged to. The naming system was extremely complex and it differs across the different subgroups of Han Chinese.

While the tradition is still largely kept intact in Malaysia, Singapore and other places with ethnic Chinese populations, many families have lost touch of the exact sequence of names that one suppose to follow across the generations. The modern way of maintaining such a tradition is for a family to use the same middle name of their eldest child for every following child, nephews and nieces included. Fortunately, within my family itself, the original naming sequence is still kept intact. This way, I can easily know if I were to bump into someone of the sap6me lineage as I am just through their surnames and middle names. In fact, it would not be strange to find people with the same middle name, supposedly from the same generation, that are much much older than I personally am.

Above: "蔡氏家府" engraved plaque on top of entrance to ancestral hall.

I have always been very curious how we manage to keep in touch of the whole naming sequence and finally, on my third visit to the village have I only realised that the answer lied within an old ancestral shrine dedicated to the whole family. I have no impression of visiting such a place prior to my third trip. Of course, back then I was only interested in the seemingly infinite amount of fireworks I could play with.

Above: Ancestral altar with ancestral tablets.

It was an old shrine, as with most traditional chinese homes or establishments, above the entrance was a plaque. On the plaque is written "蔡氏家府", translated, it says "Cai/Chua clan shrine". Entering the small shrine, the thing one would normally first register visually is the altar itself. Atop the altar laid the ancestral tablets arranged in order of seniority. This is typical of any chinese ancestral hall.

Above: The four pillars with the characters representing each generation engraved on each pillar. First pillar (top left), second pillar (top right), third pillar with my generation's character "光" at the very bottom (bottom left) and fourth pillar, beginning with "景" at the top (bottom right). 

Though, what really interested me were four pillars with chinese characters engraved on them. The local relatives pointed out that the naming system for each generation is engraved on the four pillars. There was an order as to which pillar is the first one and which is the second, third and fourth.

Above: A three-century old stone horse outside the ancestral shrine.

However, it was unclear to me the correct order because each relative would give a different answer, being unsure themselves. Of course, I quickly looked for the character that represented my generation in the lineage, "光" (light). Supposedly, it was on the third pillar in the order. Counting down the generations, if it were the third pillar, it would have been at least 24 generations down till my generation since the lineage begun. Following the naming system, any next generation child down from my generation should bear the middle name "景", and I personally know at least one relative here in Malacca that bears that middle name. As my character was the last character on the pillar it was on, I was able to spot the next pillar in the order, beginning with "景" as the first character. It just simply is an ingenious way of naming and it helps make tracing one's ancestry that much more simpler.