I tried to do research on Chén 陳 genealogy. According to written historical records, Emperor Shun was the first ancestor of the Chén 陳 family. King Wu of Zhou (Chinese: 周武王; pinyin: zhōu wŭ wáng) or King Wu of Chou confer the territory of Chén 陳 to Hugong Man 胡公满. The territory of Chén 陳 is in present day Kaifeng, Henan province. Later generations used the name of the territory Chén 陳 as the family name.
在漢桓帝時陳實,字仲弓,為太丘長,名重天下,是陳氏近祖,在廣州市有太丘書院。
Chen Shi 陳實 lived during the reign of Emperor Huan Di 桓帝 (146 – 168 C.E.) of the Han Dynasty. His zì 字 was 仲弓 Zhònggōng. He became a very famous leader of the town of 太丘 Tàiqiū. He is a Chén ancestor of the recent past. There is an academy of classical learning in Guangzhou called 太丘書院 Tàiqiū Academy.
Chen Hui 陳輝 lived during the Song Dynasty. His hào 號 was Fèngtái 鳳臺. He was the official in charge of arbitration. He fathered Mó 謨, Xuān 宣, Yīng 英, Kǎi 愷, Rùn 閏, Tú 圖, and Rén 仁. He originally lived in Zhūjī 珠璣 Lane in Jiǔyǎn 九眼 Court of the Village of Shāshuǐ 沙水 in the District of Bǎocháng 保長 in the Prefecture of Nánxióng 南雄. Because of political unrest, the seven brothers together with their families (altogether 28 people) fled from home. When the great catastrophe arrived, everyone fled in different directions. Mó 謨 went to Xīnhuì 新會. Xuān 宣 went to Dōngwǎn 東莞. Yīng 英 went to Chōngjīn 冲金. Kǎi 愷 went to Wèncūn 汶村. Rùn 閏 went to Cháozhōu 潮州. Tú 圖 went to Gǔgāng 古岡. Rén 仁 went to Qīngyuǎn 清遠.
依據宋賢陳白沙先生所撰之法祖派目:
A very talented Song Dynasty gentleman by the name of Chén Bái Shā 陳白沙 created the following generation poem:
Because many genealogy books are lost, it is extremely difficult to ascertain with certainty who our ancestors were. To start from scratch would not be an easy task.
In April of 1993 my nephew Bǎo Zhēn 葆真 on his way to America, stopped briefly in Hong Kong where I lived. We discussed how to reconstruct our genealogy. Someone said: “There was a gentleman by the name of Yīng Yí 應儀 who took pride in preserving some very old genealogy books. He made a copy of it, which may be used as a model, although there were many details missing. Later on he obtain another old copy from Yù Fú 毓孚 which shed some light on the other copy. This copy went further back from Shun Di to Huang Di, who was our first ancestor. This is most valuable to me.”
My nephew spent many hours helping me to put together this genealogy work so that generations from Dacheng on will have a complete detailed reference zupu. Xiu Xiang fathered Dacheng, Darong, and Dahua living in Ping’an, Tongluozhu, and Dadun villages respectively. Original the character Da 達 was the character He 和. Nobody know why it was changed. The three brothers found this land very cultivatable. It was flat and well watered. They built houses on the land in the shape of a triangle so that they can see each other and they can hear the sound of each other’s chickens and dogs. In other words, they will be able to help each other in case they have problems.
復承前清探花陳伯陶先生繼宋賢陳白沙先生再撰法祖派目;
A third-place candidate in the imperial examination Chen Botao continued Chen Baisha’s generation poem for another twenty generations:
We hope that Dacheng’s descendants will flourish for a long time, when another poet will composed a generation poem for another twenty generations and continue their zupu.
My thanks to my nephew Baozhen, who at the end of June, sent back two copies of the zupu to me. I proofread it and found no errors. Thank you to Yingtang who came to Hong Kong and saw the zupu. He was very pleased with the manuscripts and donated money to have it printed.
吾外孫媳黃思虹女士,負責與台山印刷廠接洽承印事宜,并代為寄發,費神之處,感激無涯矣,是為序。
Thank you to my granddaughter-in-law Huang Sihong who took care of the publishing of the zupu in Taishan and sent it back to me.
陳海峰敬撰 公歷一九九三年六月二十六日 Written by Chen Haifeng 26th of June 1993