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XXXII. Clan and Kindred

201---The Five Lineages 1 (III B. 13a-14a).

a.What does tsung mean? Tsung means tsun 'to honour' 2. He who officiates as host to the ancestors is honoured by the members of his lineage 3. The Li says: "When the Head of the Major Lineage has some business to do all his kindred wait on him" 4 b.Why is it that from of old there must always be lineages 5 with [their heads]? To promote harmonious relations. The [Head of the] Major Lineage 6 can lead the Minor Lineages; [the Heads of] the Minor Lineages 7 can lead the groups of younger brothers; they share their wealth so as to keep [the affairs of] the kindred in order. c.All descendants who 'honour' the first ancestor constitute the Major Lineage; this is [the ancestor who is] honoured for a hundred generations. d.All descendants who 'honour' the great-great-grandfather are those who are shifted after five generations. Therefore it is said: "The ancestors are shifted upwards, the lineages are changed downwards" 8. e.All descendants who 'honour' the great-grandfather constitute the Great-grandfather Lineage; those who 'honour' the grandfather constitute the Grandfather Lineage; those who 'honour' the father constitute the Father Lineage. f.[The lineages] from Father Lineage to Great-great-grandfather Lineage together constitute the Minor Lineages. It is by their shifting that they are distinguished from the Major Lineage. The son who is set aside [to become the founder of a new line] 9 naturally becomes the first ancestor of his sons and grandsons. His collateral descendants 10 in each [following] generation naturally form [Minor] Lineages. What is meant by: there are four Minor Lineages and one Major Lineage, in all five lineages, is that thus man's kinship is completely defined. g.Since it is proper that [a man who is set up as] a Feudal Lord is withdrawn from his [original] lineage 11, meaning that he is [to be the first ancestor] to be 'honoured', why is it not allowed for a great officer to be withdrawn from his lineage? The answer is: a Feudal Lord transmits his hereditary [position] to his sons and grandsons, therefore he is withdrawn from his [original] lineage. A great officer does not transmit [his position] to his sons and grandsons, therefore he is not withdrawn from his lineage. The Sang fu ching says: "A great officer [wears the three months' mourning] for the Head of the Major Lineage" 12. It is never stated that a Feudal Lord [wears mourning] for the Head of the Major Lineage.

202---The Nine Groups of Kindred (III B. 14b-15b).

a.What does tsu mean? Tsu 'kindred' means ts'ou 'to collect', chŭ 'to assemble' 13. It means that love and affection flow together and collect. Above, [the kinship] includes the great-great-grandfather in the collecting, below, it reaches to the great-great-grandson 14. If one house enjoys good luck a hundred houses assemble it; it unites and makes them love each other. When alive they have affection for one another, in the case of death they grieve for one another. They follow the way of assembling in a body, therefore they are said [to form] a tsu 'kindred'. The Shang shu says: "[Yao was able] to love the Nine [Groups of] Kindred" 15. b.Why are there nine [groups of] kindred? Chiu 'nine' means chiu 'profound, 16. The affection of the nearer and remoter relatives is profound, [therefore] we speak of chiu-tsu 'the [Profound] Nine [Groups of] Kindred'. c.[These Nine Groups consist of] four [groups of] kindred through the father, three through the mother, two through the wife 17. d.The four [groups of] kindred through the father are [the following]: those bearing the father's surname 18 form the first [group of] kindred 19; the father's married 20 sisters with their children form the second [group]; ego's married sisters with their children form the third [group]; ego's married daughters with their children form the fourth [group]. e.The three [groups of] kindred through the mother are [the following]: the mother's parents form the first [group of] kindred; the mother's brothers form the second [group]; the mother's sisters form the third [group]. The mother's brothers as well as the mother's sisters belong to the 'outside relatives', therefore they are mentioned together 21. f.The two [groups of] kindred through the wife are [the following]: the wife's father forms the first [group of] kindred, the wife's mother forms the second [group]. As [the relationship with] the wife's parents is loose her father and her mother each are considered as one [group of] kindred. g.The Li says: "Among the Three [Divisions of] Kindred there is no occasion for mourning" 22. The Shang shu says: "[Yao was able] to love the Nine [Groups of] Kindred". The meaning [of the two expressions] is the same 23. h.One opinion [says]: The reason for speaking of the Nine [Groups of] Kindred combined [as in the Shang shu] is to express the idea that in the time of Yao [the three divisions] each had three [groups]. Why [,however,] is it that according to the [later] rites only the [groups of] kindred through the father have become four? The meaning is this: When the Chou succeeded to the two degenerated [Dynasties Hsia and Yin] all the people [had begun to] emphasize the [importance of knowing their] offspring. Therefore they raised 24 the rites for the mother's kindred [above those for] the wife's kinsfolk, and lowered the rites for the mother's kindred [below those for] the father's kindred. Thus the [number of groups of] kindred through the wife was diminished [by one], which was added to the [number of groups of] kindred through the father 25. i.Some [say]: When we speak of the Nine [Groups of Kindred] it refers to the affection between those who are related to each other, as [in the case of Chuang-chiang, who was] the sister-in-law of the Marquis of Hsing, and had the Duke of T'an as her brother-in-law 26. When we speak of four [groups of kindred] it refers only to those who wear mourning [for each other] 27. The difference is [that the latter are expected] never to harm one another 28.

Notes

1. For the terms 'lineage', 'Major Lineage', and 'Minor Lineage' see e.g. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, p. 196 (I use the terms in a more inclusive sense). Cf. also his definitions, on p. 193: "A lineage in the sense in which we generally employ this word is a group of living agnates, descended from the founder of that particular line. Logically it also includes dead persons descended from the founder ......"; on p. 192: "One might speak of the whole clan as a lineage, but we prefer to speak of lineages as segments of it and to define them as such"; on p. 195: "A lineage is a relative term, since its range of reference depends on the particular person who is selected as the point of departure in tracing descent"; on p. 200: "The structural form of clans remains constant, while actual lineages at any point in time are highly dynamic, creating new bifurcations and merging old ones."

2. 宗, 尊 .

3. 宗 人 tsung-j ên.

4. The quotation cannot be identified, but an almost similar statement occurs in Mao's Chuan on Ode 174 (Mao shih chu shu, 17.11b). In this Chuan the expression for 'Head of the Major Lineage' is 宗 子 tsung-tzŭ (cf. Chêng Hsüan's comm. in Li chi chu shu, Ta chuan, 34.11b) instead of tsung-jên in the Po hu t'ung text, which probably is a mistake.

5. Tsung, which either means 'to honour' or 'lineage' or a collective name for the Major Lineage and the Minor Lineages.

6. 大 宗 ta-tsung.

7. 小 宗 hsiao-tsung.

8. From the Li chi chu shu, Sang fu ta chi, 32.8b (C. I. 746; L. II. 43). The Lichi text deals with a son, other than the eldest, who is withdrawn from his lineage pieh-tzŭ (see infra) to become the founder and first ancestor of a new line. His eldest son chi-pieh is then the Head of the Major Lineage, which is continued for 'a hundred generations'. The eldest sons of the younger sons of the chi-pieh (chi-ni 'collaterals') for four succeeding generations form Minor Lineages. After five generations, i.e. in the generation of the sons of those who 'honour' the great-great-grandfather, no further collaterals are formed, and the kinship ends. The quotation now means: the ancestors, with the exception of the first ancestor, replace each other in ascending line (father to great-great-grandfather), the lineages are formed in descending line (Great-great-grandfather Lineage to Father Lineage). The word 'honour' in par. c-e and g is to be taken in the sense of 'claim direct lineal descent from'.

9. 別 子 pieh-tzŭ, see n. 8.

10. The text has 繼 別 chi-pieh, which term represents the Head of the Major Lineage. It should be 繼 禰 chi-ni (see n. 8). The statement about the chi-pieh is thus omitted here.

11. See n. 8. Cf. this paragraph also with ch. VII, par. 63a, and Vol. I, p. 130.

12. I li chu shu, 11.49a; C. 409.

13. tsu 族 , ts'ou 湊, chü 聚.

14. I.e. nine generations of lineal descendants bearing the same surname; this is the interpretation of the Shang shu quotation in this paragraph by the Old Text School (K'ung An-kuo's Chuan in Shang shu chu shu, 1.5b; Ma Jung and Chêng Hsüan, see Shang shu chin ku wên chu shu, 1.6).

15. Shang shu chu shu, Yao tien, 1.5b; L. 17.

16. 九, 究 . The Ch'ien tso tu says: "Nine represents the profundity of the change of fluid" (上. 5a of the Ku ching chieh hui han ed.). Cf. also ch. VI, par. 47n.

17. I.e. three divisions having different surnames; this is the interpretation given by the New Text School of the Elder Tai, Ou-yang Shêng, and Hsia-hou Shêng (see K'ung Ying-ta's sub-comm. in Shang shu chu shu, Yao tien, 1.6a; Tsochuan chu shu, Huan 6, 5.23b; Mao shih chu shu, Ode 71, 6.13b).

18. 姓 , properly 'clan-name'.

19. In K'ung Ying-ta's sub-comm. (see n. 17) the first group is formed by those who fall within the five mourning-groups. Fêng Han-yi, The Chinese KinshipSystem, p. 204, apparently basing himself on this source, describes the first group as: "With ego in the center, counting four generations above, four generations below, and the four collateral lines each counting four generations from the lineal line from males through males".

20. 適 人 ti-jên, which denotes a girl married to a common officer (see Chêng Hsüan's comm. on ch. Sang fu, I li chu shu, 11.18a).

21. The division given in this paragraph differs from that given in K'ung Ying-ta's sub-comm. (which represents the New Text interpretation, see n. 17; Fêng Han-yi, l.c., follows the Po hu t'ung division, without indicating it). The New Text interpretation divides the three groups of kindred through the mother into: 1. the mother's father; 2. the mother's mother; 3. the mother's married sisters with their children. The Po hu t'ung statement seems to be incorrect, as the mother's brothers (its second group) actually are included in the group of the mother's father. Besides, the statement that mother's brothers and mother's sisters, belonging to the 'outside relatives' (wai-ch'in, 'non-sib relatives' acc. to Fêng Han-yi, o.c. 175), are mentioned together, is senseless because they are, in the Po hu t'ung passage, mentioned separately.

22. I li chu shu, Shih hun li, Chi, 2.41a; C. 51; St. I. 38.

23. I. e., the Three Divisions are the same as the Nine Groups. Chêng Hsüan's Sinica Leidensia, VI comm. on the I li statement, however, explains the Three [Divisions of] Kindred as: the father's brothers, ego's brothers, and the son's brothers.

24. 與 should be 興, which is the original reading of the Yüan ta-tê ed., and the opposite of 廢'lowered'.

25. The text, as it stands, is hardly comprehensible. For the translation I have followed Liu's explication (74.1a).

26. See Ode 57: Mao shih chu shu, 5.7a; L. 95. Cf. also Vol. I, p. 325, n. 292.

27. "Mourning for sib relatives vanishes at the fourth degree (fourth collateral) and at the fourth generation, both ascending and descending from ego" (Fêng Han-yi, o.c. 178).

28. The whole paragraph apparently is incomplete and not quite intelligible.

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IATHPublished by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003 by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia