3000 Years Genealogy

How many can boast that they know who their ancestors were up to 3000 years ago. That is about 1000BC, a time when most of the world were still inhabited by cave men.

Confucius was born in 551BC - about 2,500 years ago. True to his teachings of filial piety and honoring ancestors, he had preserved the names of his forefathers up to 15 generations. His descendants after him followed his example and preserved the genealogy records until today. So in total, a genealogy record of 95 generations spanning a period of 3,000 years are kept.

The interesting thing about this genealogy is that prior to Confucius the practice of using surname did not exist. Take a look at some of his immediate descendants, notice all of them had the same surname Kong.

孔丘 - Confucius
孔鯉 - Son
孔伋 - grandson
孔白 - great grandson
孔求 - great great grandson

Now, Confucius' ancestors are a different story altogether. It's as if their names were given to them by other people according to their trade, physical attributes or position in the clan; which is quite similar to how people from the rest of the world got their surnames like Taylor, Shoemaker, Armstrong etc. I've listed down the names of Confucius' forefathers and taken the liberty of speculating their roles in society based on the meaning of the characters that made up their name.

15	微子	Wei (small) - probably a physically small guy.
14	微仲衍	Mid brother Wei the Yan (develop, spread) - opened new settlement?
13	宋公稽	Honorable Song the inspector - government auditor.
12	丁公申	Honorable Ding the petitioner - head of the village.
11	湣公共	Honorable Min the Gong (share, public) - social worker.
10	弗父何	Mister Fu the carrier - a porter
9	宋父周	Mister Song the Zhou (weekly) - government official with weekly. routine
8	世子勝	Victorious son of the generation - most probably self styled.
7	正考父	Mister checking uprightness - a judge.
6	孔父嘉	Mister Kong the excellent - a valiant guy.
5	木金父	Mister wood and gold - dealing with commodity and precious metal.
4	祁父	Mister Qi (abundant) - rich guy.
3	防叔	Uncle protector - a law enforcer.
2	伯夏	Elder uncle Xia (summer, grand) - bubbly and enthusiastic fellow.
1	叔梁紇	Uncle Liang Ge (silk) - silk merchant.
0	孔丘	Confucius, Kong Qiu - a hill with an opening, a cave.

Its probably safe to say that Confucius, with his teachings of venerating ancestors was instrumental in making surnames fashionable among the Chinese.

Some interesting links

Genealogy of Confucius from 1000BC to present (Chinese)