Ancestors: 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family
Encyclopedia
Ancestors: 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family is a book first published in 1988 written by the Hong Kong
-based journalist Frank Ching, in which he tells the story of his ancestors in the Qin (秦) family, beginning with the 11th-century Song dynasty
poet Qin Guan
. He also relates many details about the history of the city of Wuxi
, Jiangsu Province
, the home of the Qin clan. The book has since been translated into other languages and published in France, the Netherlands, China, and Taiwan. An updated edition was published in 2009 by Rider, a part of Random House. Frank Ching is knowledgeable about Chinese history and has conducted extensive research.
"Qin" is the standard pinyin
Romanization of Frank Ching’s surname
.
in 1085 and eventually became an instructor at a Confucian
school in Caizhou. He attempted to take the special court examination at the Song capital of Kaifeng
, but was blocked by Neo-Confucian elements at court who disapproved of his relatively dissolute lifestyle – he was known to be intimate with several courtesans – and because of his association with Su Dongpo’s faction. From 1090 onwards, he held a minor government post in Kaifeng. Later he and many other government officials fell out of favor in 1094 when the Empress Dowager died and Emperor Zhezong began to rule in his own right. Qin Guan worked as a minor government official in a series of small towns until his death.
The second figure Ching describes is Qin Hui
(1090 - 1155) a man almost universally hated as a traitor to the Chinese people. In 1127 the Northern Song dynasty collapsed when the Jurchens
captured Kaifeng. Remnants of the Song court founded the Southern Song dynasty in the city of Hangzhou
, under Emperor Gaozong
. In the years following the formation of the Southern Song dynasty, the Song general Yue Fei
led successful military campaigns against the Jurchens. However, Song government officials, including Qin Hui, believed an ultimate military victory was impossible and feared that Yue’s successes made a peaceful coexistence with the Jurchens unlikely. Yue Fei was recalled to Hangzhou, imprisoned, and murdered on Qin Hui’s orders. Frank Ching argues that Qin Hui was probably neither a relative of Qin Guan, nor an ancestor of the modern Qin clan. He also cautions against excessively demonizing Qin, noting that some objective historians have called Qin a “scapegoat” for Emperor Gaozong, whom many Chinese historians have been reluctant to criticize directly.
Qin Yubo (1295 – 1374), a seventh-generation descendant of Qin Guan, worked as a government official until he retired to Shanghai
in 1354. In the late 1360s, as the Yuan dynasty
was disintegrating, the warlord Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly asked for Qin Yubo’s services, a request to which Qin very reluctantly agreed. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty
and declared himself the Hongwu Emperor. Qin Yubo was named a chief examination official in the Ming capital of Nanjing
, and later prefect of Longzhou. After his death, the Hongwu Emperor appointed him the City God of Shanghai.
.
Qin Jin (1467 – 1544) served the Ming government in a variety of postings in the early 16th century. The son of a Wuxi schoolteacher, Qin Jin passed the metropolitan examinations in 1493 and became a government official. He served as governor of Huguang Province
from 1514 to 1520. During this time, he personally led government forces in a series of campaigns to exterminate bandits in the region. In 1523 Qin was serving as minister of rites in Nanjing
when he took the risky move of writing an official memorandum directly criticizing the policies and conduct of the Jiajing Emperor
. Far from ending his career, one consequence of the memorandum was a promotion to a cabinet position in Beijing
. He became known as a minister who often opposed the Jiajing Emperor’s policies. Over the next few years, Qin was forcibly retired, then reinstated, this time as minister of works. He retired to Wuxi in 1536.
Qin Liang (1515 – 1578) passed the metropolitan examinations in 1547 and became a prefectural judge in Nanchang
, where he became known as a careful and scrupulous official. He was transferred to Beijing in 1551, but he incurred the wrath of the Jiajing Emperor when he refused to take part in the Daoist ceremonies the emperor favored. He was badly beaten with a bastinado. He retained his position in Beijing for several years, and helped supervise the expansion of the Beijing city walls. He was transferred to Nanjing in 1558, but demoted to a position in Zhejiang Province
in 1563, probably as a result of his close association with the disgraced former Grand Secretary Yan Song. He retired permanently from the civil service in 1566, and devoted the rest of his life to writing, including a major revision of the local history Wuxi Gazeteer.
Qin Yao (1544 – 1604) was the son of Qin He, who had achieved renown for leading the defense of the town of Wukang from pirates in the 1550s. Qin Yao passed the metropolitan examinations in 1571 and quickly rose high in the civil service, partly because he was a favorite of the powerful Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng
. Qin became governor of the Nankan area of Jiangxi
in 1586 and soon took part in several victories with local bandit armies. In 1589 he served as governor of famine-stricken Huguang Province for several months. He was shocked at the sight of corpses lying by the roads, and successfully lobbied Beijing for relief. The following year, Qin, who had built up an enormous personal fortune, was accused of bribery and embezzlement. His career was effectively over. He retired to Wuxi, where he spent the rest of his life.
Qin Yong (1597 – 1661) was a student at the Donglin Academy
in Wuxi, where he was a favorite student of academy founder Gao Panlong. In 1637 Qin became magistrate of Qingjiang district, in Jiangxi Province. As magistrate, Qin wrote a history of Qingjiang which traced the region’s history back to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In 1643 Qin was reassigned to be the magistrate of Fenglai District in Shandong Province
, but shortly afterwards the Ming Dynasty collapsed. Qin remained loyal to the Ming, and lived peacefully in retirement in Wuxi for the remainder of his life.
In the same chapter, Frank Ching also tells the story of Qin Yong’s nephew Qin Xian (1616 – 1698), who declared allegiance to the warlord Li Zicheng immediately after Li chased the Ming out of Beijing in 1644, in the mistaken belief that Li would found a durable new dynasty. In reality Li’s rule
lasted only a month before he was defeated by the Manchu
invasion. Having cast his lot with Li, Qin Xian had no prospects of employment with the newly established Qing Dynasty
. Qin retired to Wuxi for the remaining fifty-four years of his life.
. His career suffered a setback in 1660 when he was suspended for nonpayment of taxes. He was probably personally innocent of any wrongdoing, but the taxes were on property that a relative of his had registered under his name without his knowledge. Over time his reputation was rehabilitated, and in 1679 he was readmitted to Hanlin. In 1681 Qin Songling was appointed to the exalted position of keeper of the imperial diary, which kept him in close contact with the Kangxi Emperor
. He took responsibility for overseeing the examinations for the district including Beijing in 1684, but a scandal forced him to retire that same year. He was not disgraced, however. The Kangxi Emperor would call on him several times at his home in Wuxi over the remainder of his life.
Qin Daoran (1657 – 1747) was the son of Qin Songling. Upon his father’s recommendation, in 1703 he became the official tutor of the Kangxi Emperor’s ninth son, Prince Yintang
. Over the following years, the Qing Dynasty became embroiled in a controversy over which of the Kangxi Emperor’s sons would succeed the aging monarch, as the emperor stripped his second son Yinreng of his position as crown prince
, then reinstated him, then demoted him again and refused to name a new heir apparent. With no clear successor to Kangxi, Yintang supported his older brother Prince Yinsi. The Kangxi Emperor suddenly died in 1722, and his fourth son Prince Yinzhen quickly had himself installed as the Yongzheng Emperor
. He quickly moved to suppress the rival claims of his brothers, and as a supporter of Yintang and Yinsi, Qin Daoran was imprisoned and threatened with execution
. Interrogated repeatedly over several years, Qin Daoran attempted to cooperate fully and testified about several years of treasonous and unseemly behavior by the princes. In the end, Qin Daoran was not executed but received an enormous fine, which he and his family was never able to pay. He was imprisoned in a cell in his hometown of Wuxi until 1737.
Qin Huitian (1703 – 1764) won the release of his elderly father Qin Daoran by appealing to the Qianlong Emperor
. He served in the imperial bureaucracy, becoming vice-minister of rites in 1742 and vice-minister of punishments in 1752, and wrote the ‘’’Comprehensive Study of the Five Rites’’’, which was finished in 1761. In 1755 Qin Huitian was named to a highly prestigious position, that of a lecturer on classics to the emperor and his ministers. He was promoted to minister of works, then minister of punishments. In his later years Qin Huitian took on varied responsibilities, serving also as grand minister of the Board of State Music and Chancellor of Hanlin Academy, despite deteriorating eyesight which made the meticulous calligraphy required of a Chinese minister difficult. As Qin Huitian’s health declined the emperor repeatedly refused his requests to be allowed to retire; in late 1764 he was finally granted permission to return to Wuxi for convalescence, but he died en route.
Qin Zhenjun (1735 – 1807), grandnephew of Qin Daoran, achieved renown in October 1774 for his role in defending the city of Linqing
from Wang Lun
’s White Lotus
rebels.
And from John K. Fairbank's analysis of the work we have the following comments,
as well as how writing Ancestors prompted him to have a son of his own. The epilogue also reports that the Qin clan in Wuxi published the 10th edition of the family genealogy in 2007, updating the ancestral records for the first time since the 1920s. For the first time, women were given their own entries in the family records. Ching also anticipates celebrations to mark the 960th anniversary of the birth of Qin Guan
in 2009—the conclusion of 60 sixty-year cycles, which carries special meaning in China—and notes that one descendant of Qin Guan, Republic of China (Taiwan) President Ma Ying-Jeou
, whose mother is a Qin, would probably be unable to attend.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
-based journalist Frank Ching, in which he tells the story of his ancestors in the Qin (秦) family, beginning with the 11th-century Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
poet Qin Guan
Qin Guan
Qin Guan was a Chinese writer and poet of the Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Shaoyou. Taixu was also his courtesy name. His pseudonym was Huaihai Jushi and Hangou Jushi. He was honored one of the four Bachelors of Sumen...
. He also relates many details about the history of the city of Wuxi
Wuxi
Wuxi is an old city in Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Split in half by Lake Tai, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou across the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south...
, Jiangsu Province
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, the home of the Qin clan. The book has since been translated into other languages and published in France, the Netherlands, China, and Taiwan. An updated edition was published in 2009 by Rider, a part of Random House. Frank Ching is knowledgeable about Chinese history and has conducted extensive research.
"Qin" is the standard pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
Romanization of Frank Ching’s surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
.
Song and Yuan Dynasties
Qin Guan (1049 - 1100) is the earliest prominent ancestor whom Ching writes about. A poet and government official, he was a close personal friend and political ally of the prominent official Su Dongpo. After two failed attempts, Qin Guan passed the metropolitan examinationsImperial examination
The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...
in 1085 and eventually became an instructor at a Confucian
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
school in Caizhou. He attempted to take the special court examination at the Song capital of Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
, but was blocked by Neo-Confucian elements at court who disapproved of his relatively dissolute lifestyle – he was known to be intimate with several courtesans – and because of his association with Su Dongpo’s faction. From 1090 onwards, he held a minor government post in Kaifeng. Later he and many other government officials fell out of favor in 1094 when the Empress Dowager died and Emperor Zhezong began to rule in his own right. Qin Guan worked as a minor government official in a series of small towns until his death.
The second figure Ching describes is Qin Hui
Qin Hui (Song Dynasty)
Qin Hui or Qin Kuai was a Chancellor of the Song Dynasty in China, who is widely regarded as a traitor of the Han race for his part in the political execution of General Yue Fei...
(1090 - 1155) a man almost universally hated as a traitor to the Chinese people. In 1127 the Northern Song dynasty collapsed when the Jurchens
Jurchens
The Jurchens were a Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century, when they adopted the name Manchu...
captured Kaifeng. Remnants of the Song court founded the Southern Song dynasty in the city of Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, under Emperor Gaozong
Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong , born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. He reigned from 1127 to 1162. He fled south after the Jurchens overran Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident, hence the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279...
. In the years following the formation of the Southern Song dynasty, the Song general Yue Fei
Yue Fei
Yue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
led successful military campaigns against the Jurchens. However, Song government officials, including Qin Hui, believed an ultimate military victory was impossible and feared that Yue’s successes made a peaceful coexistence with the Jurchens unlikely. Yue Fei was recalled to Hangzhou, imprisoned, and murdered on Qin Hui’s orders. Frank Ching argues that Qin Hui was probably neither a relative of Qin Guan, nor an ancestor of the modern Qin clan. He also cautions against excessively demonizing Qin, noting that some objective historians have called Qin a “scapegoat” for Emperor Gaozong, whom many Chinese historians have been reluctant to criticize directly.
Qin Yubo (1295 – 1374), a seventh-generation descendant of Qin Guan, worked as a government official until he retired to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
in 1354. In the late 1360s, as the Yuan dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
was disintegrating, the warlord Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly asked for Qin Yubo’s services, a request to which Qin very reluctantly agreed. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
and declared himself the Hongwu Emperor. Qin Yubo was named a chief examination official in the Ming capital of Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
, and later prefect of Longzhou. After his death, the Hongwu Emperor appointed him the City God of Shanghai.
Ming Dynasty
Qin Xu (1410 – 1495) was a well-known rustic poet of Wuxi. He was the founder of the Blue Mountain Poetry Society, a local group of intellectuals who disdained political ambitions. Frank Ching interweaves the story of Qin Xu with the story of his son Qin Hui (1434 - 1496), who passed the metropolitan examinations at age twenty-six and went on to a distinguished career in government. Ching also relates the story of the bamboo stoveBamboo stove
The original bamboo stove was made in China in the late 14th century. A monk named Xing Hai in the Ting Song temple on Mount Hui in Wuxi asked a travelling bamboo artisan to make him a stove on which he could boil water for tea. Surprisingly, it included bamboo to form the frame of the stove. The...
.
Qin Jin (1467 – 1544) served the Ming government in a variety of postings in the early 16th century. The son of a Wuxi schoolteacher, Qin Jin passed the metropolitan examinations in 1493 and became a government official. He served as governor of Huguang Province
Huguang
Huguang was a province of China during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It was partitioned in the late Qing Dynasty, becoming the provinces of Hubei and Hunan....
from 1514 to 1520. During this time, he personally led government forces in a series of campaigns to exterminate bandits in the region. In 1523 Qin was serving as minister of rites in Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
when he took the risky move of writing an official memorandum directly criticizing the policies and conduct of the Jiajing Emperor
Jiajing Emperor
The Jiajing Emperor was the 11th Ming Dynasty Emperor of China who ruled from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin...
. Far from ending his career, one consequence of the memorandum was a promotion to a cabinet position in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. He became known as a minister who often opposed the Jiajing Emperor’s policies. Over the next few years, Qin was forcibly retired, then reinstated, this time as minister of works. He retired to Wuxi in 1536.
Qin Liang (1515 – 1578) passed the metropolitan examinations in 1547 and became a prefectural judge in Nanchang
Nanchang
Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. It is located in the north-central portion of the province. As it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake, it is famous for its scenery, rich history and cultural sites...
, where he became known as a careful and scrupulous official. He was transferred to Beijing in 1551, but he incurred the wrath of the Jiajing Emperor when he refused to take part in the Daoist ceremonies the emperor favored. He was badly beaten with a bastinado. He retained his position in Beijing for several years, and helped supervise the expansion of the Beijing city walls. He was transferred to Nanjing in 1558, but demoted to a position in Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
in 1563, probably as a result of his close association with the disgraced former Grand Secretary Yan Song. He retired permanently from the civil service in 1566, and devoted the rest of his life to writing, including a major revision of the local history Wuxi Gazeteer.
Qin Yao (1544 – 1604) was the son of Qin He, who had achieved renown for leading the defense of the town of Wukang from pirates in the 1550s. Qin Yao passed the metropolitan examinations in 1571 and quickly rose high in the civil service, partly because he was a favorite of the powerful Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng
Zhang Juzheng
Zhang Juzheng , courtesy name: Shuda , pseudonym: Taiyue , was a powerful Grand Secretary in the Ming Dynasty under the Longqing and Wanli emperors. Zhang was born in Jiangling, Hubei province, China and died in Beijing....
. Qin became governor of the Nankan area of Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
in 1586 and soon took part in several victories with local bandit armies. In 1589 he served as governor of famine-stricken Huguang Province for several months. He was shocked at the sight of corpses lying by the roads, and successfully lobbied Beijing for relief. The following year, Qin, who had built up an enormous personal fortune, was accused of bribery and embezzlement. His career was effectively over. He retired to Wuxi, where he spent the rest of his life.
Qin Yong (1597 – 1661) was a student at the Donglin Academy
Donglin Academy
The Donglin Academy , also known as the Guishan Academy , was originally built in AD 1111 during the Northern Song dynasty at present-day Wuxi in China...
in Wuxi, where he was a favorite student of academy founder Gao Panlong. In 1637 Qin became magistrate of Qingjiang district, in Jiangxi Province. As magistrate, Qin wrote a history of Qingjiang which traced the region’s history back to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In 1643 Qin was reassigned to be the magistrate of Fenglai District in Shandong Province
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
, but shortly afterwards the Ming Dynasty collapsed. Qin remained loyal to the Ming, and lived peacefully in retirement in Wuxi for the remainder of his life.
In the same chapter, Frank Ching also tells the story of Qin Yong’s nephew Qin Xian (1616 – 1698), who declared allegiance to the warlord Li Zicheng immediately after Li chased the Ming out of Beijing in 1644, in the mistaken belief that Li would found a durable new dynasty. In reality Li’s rule
Shun Dynasty
The Shun Dynasty was an imperial dynasty created in the brief lapse from Ming to Qing rule in China. The dynasty was founded in Xi'an on 8 February 1644, the first day of the lunar year, by Li Zicheng, the leader of a large peasant rebellion. Li, however, only went by the title of King, not Emperor...
lasted only a month before he was defeated by the Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
invasion. Having cast his lot with Li, Qin Xian had no prospects of employment with the newly established Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. Qin retired to Wuxi for the remaining fifty-four years of his life.
Qing Dynasty
Qin Songling (1637 – 1714) was a great-grandson of Qin Yao. He passed the metropolitan examinations in 1655, an extraordinary feat for an eighteen-year-old, and became the youngest-ever member of the Hanlin AcademyHanlin Academy
The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution founded in the eighth century Tang dynasty China by Emperor Xuanzong.Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its main duties was to...
. His career suffered a setback in 1660 when he was suspended for nonpayment of taxes. He was probably personally innocent of any wrongdoing, but the taxes were on property that a relative of his had registered under his name without his knowledge. Over time his reputation was rehabilitated, and in 1679 he was readmitted to Hanlin. In 1681 Qin Songling was appointed to the exalted position of keeper of the imperial diary, which kept him in close contact with the Kangxi Emperor
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
. He took responsibility for overseeing the examinations for the district including Beijing in 1684, but a scandal forced him to retire that same year. He was not disgraced, however. The Kangxi Emperor would call on him several times at his home in Wuxi over the remainder of his life.
Qin Daoran (1657 – 1747) was the son of Qin Songling. Upon his father’s recommendation, in 1703 he became the official tutor of the Kangxi Emperor’s ninth son, Prince Yintang
Yintang
Yintang was the ninth son of the Kangxi Emperor. He was one of the most beloved princes of the emperor although he never held any important office during the reign of his father...
. Over the following years, the Qing Dynasty became embroiled in a controversy over which of the Kangxi Emperor’s sons would succeed the aging monarch, as the emperor stripped his second son Yinreng of his position as crown prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
, then reinstated him, then demoted him again and refused to name a new heir apparent. With no clear successor to Kangxi, Yintang supported his older brother Prince Yinsi. The Kangxi Emperor suddenly died in 1722, and his fourth son Prince Yinzhen quickly had himself installed as the Yongzheng Emperor
Yongzheng Emperor
The Yongzheng Emperor , born Yinzhen , was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the third Qing emperor from 1722 to 1735. A hard-working ruler, Yongzheng's main goal was to create an effective government at minimal expense. Like his father, the Kangxi Emperor, Yongzheng used military...
. He quickly moved to suppress the rival claims of his brothers, and as a supporter of Yintang and Yinsi, Qin Daoran was imprisoned and threatened with execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Interrogated repeatedly over several years, Qin Daoran attempted to cooperate fully and testified about several years of treasonous and unseemly behavior by the princes. In the end, Qin Daoran was not executed but received an enormous fine, which he and his family was never able to pay. He was imprisoned in a cell in his hometown of Wuxi until 1737.
Qin Huitian (1703 – 1764) won the release of his elderly father Qin Daoran by appealing to the Qianlong Emperor
Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796...
. He served in the imperial bureaucracy, becoming vice-minister of rites in 1742 and vice-minister of punishments in 1752, and wrote the ‘’’Comprehensive Study of the Five Rites’’’, which was finished in 1761. In 1755 Qin Huitian was named to a highly prestigious position, that of a lecturer on classics to the emperor and his ministers. He was promoted to minister of works, then minister of punishments. In his later years Qin Huitian took on varied responsibilities, serving also as grand minister of the Board of State Music and Chancellor of Hanlin Academy, despite deteriorating eyesight which made the meticulous calligraphy required of a Chinese minister difficult. As Qin Huitian’s health declined the emperor repeatedly refused his requests to be allowed to retire; in late 1764 he was finally granted permission to return to Wuxi for convalescence, but he died en route.
Qin Zhenjun (1735 – 1807), grandnephew of Qin Daoran, achieved renown in October 1774 for his role in defending the city of Linqing
Linqing
Linqing is a county-level city within the prefecture-level city of Liaocheng in western Shandong Province, China. It is located north-northwest of the prefectural capital Liaocheng. The city proper has about residents , whereas Linqing County as a whole had inhabitants in 1999. The city is...
from Wang Lun
Wang Lun (rebel leader)
Wang Lun was the leader of the White Lotus sect in Shandong province, China in the 1770s. He preached a millenarial philosophy, emphasizing the imminent coming of the Buddha Maitreya....
’s White Lotus
White Lotus
White Lotus was a type of Buddhist sectarianism that appealed to many Han Chinese, who found solace in worship of the "Unborn or Eternal Venerable Mother" , who was to gather all her children at the millennium into one family....
rebels.
Reaction
The history has been received well in a number of places. One review brought forth this comment from Orville Schell,- "...a stunning accomplishment in which, by recounting individual lives of members of his own clan, Mr. Ching brings to life the last nine centuries of Chinese history and culture as almost no other work in the English language has done".
And from John K. Fairbank's analysis of the work we have the following comments,
- " Ancestors is one of the most interesting clan studies thus far. Its graphic picture of how the old ruling class functioned makes it of value to historians as well as to the general reader."
Additions in the 2009 edition
The Rider 2009 edition includes a new prologue and an epilogue in which he discusses events of the previous twenty years, including ancestral graves that had been demolished as a result of the economic development of WuxiWuxi
Wuxi is an old city in Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Split in half by Lake Tai, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou across the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south...
as well as how writing Ancestors prompted him to have a son of his own. The epilogue also reports that the Qin clan in Wuxi published the 10th edition of the family genealogy in 2007, updating the ancestral records for the first time since the 1920s. For the first time, women were given their own entries in the family records. Ching also anticipates celebrations to mark the 960th anniversary of the birth of Qin Guan
Qin Guan
Qin Guan was a Chinese writer and poet of the Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Shaoyou. Taixu was also his courtesy name. His pseudonym was Huaihai Jushi and Hangou Jushi. He was honored one of the four Bachelors of Sumen...
in 2009—the conclusion of 60 sixty-year cycles, which carries special meaning in China—and notes that one descendant of Qin Guan, Republic of China (Taiwan) President Ma Ying-Jeou
Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
, whose mother is a Qin, would probably be unable to attend.