| Generation name | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | |
| Chinese | 字輩 or 班次 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | zìbèi or bāncì |
| Jyutping | baan1 ci3 |
| HokkienPOJ | chū-pòe or pan-chhù |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 돌림자 or 항렬자 |
| Hanja | 돌림字 or 行列字 |
| Revised Romanization | dollimja, hangnyeolja |
| McCune–Reischauer | tollimcha, hangnyŏlcha |
Ageneration name (variouslyzibei orbanci in Chinese;tự bối,ban thứ ortên thế hệ in Vietnamese;hangnyeolja in Korea) is one of the characters in a traditionalChinese,Vietnamese andKorean given name, and is so called because each member of a generation (i.e.siblings and paternalcousins of the same generation) share that character.
The sequence of generation names is typically prescribed and kept in record by ageneration poem (Chinese:班次聯bāncì lián orChinese:派字歌pàizì gē) specific to each lineage. While it may have amnemonic function, these poems can vary in length from around a dozen characters to hundreds of characters. Each successive character becomes the generation name for successive generations.[1] After the last character of the poem is reached, the poem is usually recycled, though occasionally it may be extended.
Generation poems were usually composed by a committee of family elders whenever a new lineage was established through geographical emigration or social elevation. Thus families sharing a common generation poem are considered to also share a common ancestor and have originated from a common geographical location.
Certain groups of generation names are grouped into five characters in order to remember the generation poem in the historic past before writing was abundantly available. Each hand's five fingers therefore represent one group of generation names. Committees of Family Elders can be seen counting and pronouncing each generation name with their fingers.
Important examples are the generation poems of the descendants of theFour Sages (Confucius,Mencius,Yan Hui,Zengzi): theKong,Meng,Yan, andZeng families (the Four Families,四氏). During theMing dynasty,Emperor Jianwen respectedConfucius andMencius so much that he honored their families with generation poems. These generation poems were extended with the permission of theChongzhen Emperor of the Ming dynasty, theTongzhi Emperor of theQing dynasty, and the Ministry of Interior of theBeiyang government.[2][3]
希言公彥承，宏聞貞尚衍；
興毓傳繼廣，昭憲慶繁祥；
令德維垂佑，欽紹念顯揚；
建道敦安定，懋修肇彝常；
裕文煥景瑞，永錫世緒昌。
The generation poem used by theSong dynastyHouse of Zhao was "若夫，元德允克、令德宜崇、師古希孟、時順光宗、良友彥士、登汝必公、不惟世子、與善之從、伯仲叔季、承嗣由同。"[4][5][6] The 42 characters were split into three groups of 14 for the offspring of Song Taizu and his two brothers.[7]
Another notable generation poem is theNguyễn dynasty'sĐế hệ thi (帝係詩 'Poem of the Generations of the Imperial Family'), created by EmperorMinh Mạng.
Generation names may be the first or second character in a given name, and normally this position is kept consistent for the associated lineage. However some lineages alternate its position from generation to generation. This is quite common forKorean names. Sometimes lineages will also share the sameradical in the non-generation name.
A related custom is the practice of naming two children from the characters of a common word. In Chinese, most words are composed of two or more characters. For example, by taking apart the wordjiàn-kāng健康 ('healthy'), the Wang family might name one son Wáng Jiàn (王健) and the other Wáng Kāng (王康). Another example would beměi-lì美丽 ('beautiful'). Daughters of the Zhous might be named Zhōu Měi (周美) and Zhōu Lì (周丽).
Besides theHan majority, the MuslimHui Chinese people[note 1] have also widely employed generation names, which they calllunzi paibie;[note 2] for instance, in theNa family, the five most recent generations used the characters Wan, Yu, Zhang, Dian, and Hong. This practice is slowly fading since the government began keeping public records of genealogy.[8]
TheYao people ofGuangdong has also adopted the Chinese name system, albeit with extensions known as "sub-family-names" to indicate branches. Some groups have more recently (circaSong Dynasty) adopted the generation name system with little modification.[9]
The following is a fictional family to illustrate how generation names are used.
| Family member | Chinese form | Full name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family name | Generation name | Given name | ||
| Father | Li | Yu | Feng | Li Yufeng |
| Father's sibling | Li | Yu | Yan | Li Yuyan |
| Mother | Wang | De | Mei | Wang Demei |
| Mother's sibling | Wang | De | Song | Wang Desong |
| First child | Li | Wen | Long | Li Wenlong |
| Second child | Li | Wen | Feng | Li Wenfeng |
| Third child | Li | Wen | Peng | Li Wenpeng |
| WangDesong 王德松 | WangDemei 王德梅 | LiYufeng 李裕峰 | LiYuyan 李裕岩 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LiWenlong 李文龍 | LiWenfeng 李文鳳 | LiWenpeng 李文鵬 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In place of a biological generation, the character could be used as an indicator of seniority and peer groups in religious lineages. Thus, in the layBuddhist circles of Song and Yuan times, it could be Dào (道 'dharma'), Zhì (智 'prajñā, wisdom'), Yuán (圓 'complete, all-embracing'[10][note 3]), Pǔ (普 'universal'[note 4]), Jué (覺 'bodhi, enlightenment'), Shàn (善 'skillful, virtuous'[11]). The characters demonstrated belonging to a devotionalist group with a social status close to the family one. The affiliation character Miào (妙 'profound, marvelous') usually was used by women, relating them toGuanyin, asMiàoshàn (妙善) was her name at birth.
In the same way, taking the monastic vows meant the break with the family lineage, which was shown by application of theBuddhist surname Shì (釋,Thích in Vietnam) in one'sDharma name, the first character ofGautama Buddha's title in Chinese:Shìjiāmóuní (釋迦牟尼, 'Śākyamuni',lit. 'Sage of the Śakyas').
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Examples of generation poems: