Finding a clan genealogy (often called a jiāpǔ 家譜 or zúpǔ 族譜) unlocks a treasure trove of information about your family. One amazing piece of information that is sometimes included is the time of birth or death of an individual. In ancient China, the year, month, day, and hour of birth (know as the Four…
One of the few pieces of information I had to begin my research was the name of our ancestral village. This was passed down to us through tradition, spoken to my mother by her father and written down when she began to try and reconstruct our family tree. Our ancestral village was recorded as follows:…
Converting Chinese dates to Western (Gregorian calendar) dates requires an understanding of Chinese history and chronology. In addition to using the lunisolar calendar, it usually refers to the emperor at the time and their reign year (often using the 60-year cycle characters) to indicate the specific year. This table (pulled from various linked Wikipedia articles)…
Dates are incredibly important when doing genealogy. They are used to calculate ages, understand a person’s place in their country’s timeline of events, and figure out connections between individuals and families; without them, a name feels adrift in history. However, understanding ancient Chinese dates can be challenging for those used to using a Western calendar…
