Ancestral Genealogies in Modern China by Masahisa Segawa

Author:Masahisa Segawa [Segawa, Masahisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Research, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781000485752
Google: gDlJEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-11-29T04:27:43+00:00

Conversely, smaller lineages rarely formed such higher-order lineages. However, it is not that they never formed such organisations at all. In Sheung Tin, Lee lineage does not maintain any cooperative activities with other lineages of the same surname. However, Cheung lineage cooperates with other lineages in Pat Heung valley in worshiping their common ancestors. As discussed in Chapter 2, the first ancestor of Cheung lineage migrated from Wuhua County in eastern Guangdong Province to Pat Heung and settled down in Shek Tau village. Then, his sons moved to Shan Keuk, Tso Hang, and Sheung Tin. In each village, descendants with the surname Cheung formed a lineage organisation to worship the founding ancestor of the village. Furthermore, the descendants living in these four villages perform rituals at the main ancestral hall in Sheung Tin and at the first ancestor’s grave near Tai Po.

However, the higher-order lineage of Cheung surname comprises only lineages located in Pat Heung valley and therefore differs from the large-scale organisation of the Tang lineages, which included many lineages across a wider geographic area. In the case of Lee lineage of Sheung Tin, as I explained in Chapter 2, its founding ancestor moved from a village near Tai Po market in the Eastern New Territories. However, perhaps because this village is far from Sheung Tin, the descendants living in these two villages have not maintained close cooperation. Therefore, we can assume that small lineages, which lack sufficient wealth or power to form large organisations for common ritual activities, can maintain higher-order lineage only with other nearby lineages. In Cheung lineage’s case, they could maintain cooperation among the members living in different villages because they are all in the same valley (Table 4–2).

Another marked difference between the large- and small-scale lineages is the landed property that they hold as common estates. Land register documents from 1906 show that both Lee lineage’s Yue Hing Tong and Cheung lineage’s Shing Mei Tong have limited amounts of land as their common estates. This is true even today. Furthermore, their common estates are not cultivated lands but the building lots containing the ancestral halls and lineage members’ houses. Sheung Tin is located at the bottom of Pat Heung valley, and hamlets are mostly built on mounds among the low wetlands used for rice fields. Their common estates are mainly confined to these living plots. The traditional image of Chinese lineages established by Maurice Freedman and other anthropologists of the mid-20th century is one of corporate units based on the holding of large cultivated lands. In their assumption, lineages maintain their power and solidarity by keeping the most basic resources of an agrarian society as their common property. It has often been argued that traditional Chinese society was based on agricultural production and that the main purpose of organising the lineage was to accumulate cultivated land and prevent its dispersal.

Table 4–2 Participation in the higher-order lineage: comparison among three lineages Clan association Tang lineages in Central Guangdong ― ―

Higher-order lineage Tang lineages in Dongguan/Xin-an

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