GUO and his brother were excited after their first day in the Shanghai Library: the archived information they found in the genealogy room there had proved that all the villagers in their hometown with ¡°Guo¡± as a last name were descendants of Guo Ziyi, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

¡°Now we are almost clear about the past of our family: we are one offshoot of this prominent general during the Tang Dynasty,¡± Guo said with satisfaction.

Over the past year, he and his brother have visited several provinces and libraries around China. After beginning their tour from their hometown in Zhuji of Zhejiang Province, they continued on to Shanxi and Sichuan provinces. Last month they found a catalogue in the Zhejiang Provincial Library which told them that most genealogies of their family could be found in the Shanghai Library. They came to Shanghai after the Spring Festival and were surprised by what they found.

¡°We have finished confirming the ancestors and history of our family. Our next step will be to travel around China and trace the branches of our Guo family. Information about our ancestors is not enough for us; we also want to find out about the people who share our forefathers and are living in China today.¡±

Guo said their work wa not considered pointless because all members of the Guo family in his village were eager to know the history of their family. ¡°We want to know our past because we believe this can help us a lot. We will be proud of our outstanding ancestors and maintain close contacts with family members we have never met before.¡±

The Guo family genealogy is only a small part of the archives preserved by the Shanghai Library. Every day from Monday to Saturday several people from various places can be found there consulting the tremendous data base of genealogies. As the largest data base of Chinese genealogies in the world, the Shanghai Library has more than 15,000 original family tree books. With digital and microfilmed archives, the total collection contains genealogies of 283 family names.

Academic value

¡°As the first library which set up a genealogy room for the public in China, Shanghai Library is a centre for collecting Chinese genealogies and for related studies in China as well as in the world,¡± said Chen Jianhua, the assistant director of the Historical Documentation Centre in the Shanghai Library.

Shanghai Library has a long history of collecting and preserving family tree books. In the early 1930s when Gu Tinglong and Zhang Yuanji founded the library, they began to collect and study genealogies. Before 1949, there were 400 family tree books in its collection. In the 1950s, social movements advocated abandoning all the heritage of China from before 1949 and the books were considered worthless. The documents and archives were sent to paper mills and were slated to be turned into paper pulp. Gu was uneasy about this and worried that much historical data would vanish.

After receiving a grant from the government, he visited almost every paper mill in China and bought many genealogies for the Shanghai Library. According to the library, Gu salvaged 5,800 family tree books that way.

¡°In contrast to family tree books in other countries, these unique documents are priceless as studies of Chinese history and folklore,¡± Chen said. ¡°In Western countries, family trees only give brief descriptions of the relationships between people who come from the same family. But Chinese genealogies contain abundant information: people can find records of family members¡¯ economic activities, educational traditions, places of residence and families¡¯ disciplines. The information greatly supplements the official historical record.¡±

Zou Zhenhuan, the dean of ancient Chinese history at Fudan University, also waxed enthusiastic over the value of genealogies. An expert in ancient Chinese history, he said that much important historical information comes from genealogical books. ¡°When we carry on our studies, it¡¯s often difficult for us to find concrete description or even traces of ancient civilian lives because in ancient China the official history only provided information about emperors, higher officials or other outstanding persons. But for historical studies, the main object of interest is ordinary civilian life. Thanks to the good tradition of Chinese genealogy, we can acquire a lot of information on such topics that is just as important as what is recorded in official history.¡±

Zou also pointed out that family tree books not only benefit historical studies, but also other subjects.

¡°If someone wants to study migration trends in ancient China, detailed records of family members¡¯ places of residence can provide them with credible and ample evidence.¡±

Blood ties

Beyond their academic value, the tradition of compiling genealogies is closely related to Chinese people¡¯s attitudes to their hometowns and traditions. Commented Zou: ¡°Unlike Westerners, Chinese see their relations with their hometown and with fellow people from the same place as an essential part of their lives. Wherever a Chinese goes, his hometown is always on his mind. A family tree book is a literal expression of this attitude: With a definite record in the book, people can see that they are closely related to a group.¡±

Guo and his brother indicated their desire to ¡°keep tight relations¡± with people from the same family. ¡°Though members of our family have migrated everywhere in China, even overseas, we still hope that our family can become a group of tightly related kin,¡± said Guo.

According to Chen, people of all economic levels have great interest in searching and compiling their family tree books. Rong Yiren, the former Chinese vice-president, once visited Shanghai Library and was glad to find the genealogy of his family there. After his visit, he was delighted to receive a copy of his family tree book.

¡°Since the genealogy room was set up in 1996, every day we have met people from China and overseas who are interested in their families¡¯ genealogies. They have proposed all kinds of questions related to genealogy. We give them relevant suggestions and help them as much as possible. There is no cost to them and we are pleased to do this because it¡¯s good to see that people are satisfied with the results they find here,¡± said Chen.

Both Chen and Zou have seen a revival in activities related to researching and compiling genealogies. ¡°It¡¯s the return of tradition, after it was interrupted by the ¡®cultural revolution¡¯

(1966-76). It¡¯s natural for Chinese to revive this tradition when they are economically better off,¡± said Zou emphatically.