View source for Generation name

{{Short description|Chinese practice of siblings' names sharing a common syllable}}
{{For|the social sciences concept|Generation#List of named generations{{!}}List of named generations}}
{{redirect|Banci|the Indonesian gender identity|waria (person){{!}}waria}}
{{Infobox Chinese
|hide = no
|c = 字輩 or 班次
|p = zìbèi or bāncì
|j = baan1 ci3
|poj = chū-pòe or pan-chhù 
|hangul = 돌림자 or 항렬자
|hanja = 돌림字 or 行列字
|rr = dollimja, hangnyeolja
|mr = tollimcha, hangnyŏlcha
}}

A '''generation name''' (variously '''zibei''' or '''banci''' in Chinese; '''tự bối''', '''ban thứ''' or '''tên thế hệ''' in Vietnamese; '''hangnyeolja''' in Korea) is one of the characters in a traditional [[Chinese given name|Chinese]], [[Vietnamese name|Vietnamese]] and [[Korean name|Korean]] given name, and is so called because each member of a generation (i.e. [[sibling]]s and paternal [[cousin]]s of the same generation) share that character.

== Generation poem ==
The sequence of generation names is typically prescribed and kept in record by a '''generation poem''' ({{lang-zh|t=班次聯}} {{transliteration |zh|pinyin|bāncì lián}} or {{lang-zh|t=派字歌}} {{Transliteration |zh|pinyin|pàizì gē}}) specific to each lineage. While it may have a [[Mnemonic device|mnemonic 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.<ref>{{cite book | last = Michener | first = James A. | author-link = James A. Michener | title = [[Hawaii (novel)|Hawaii]] | year = 1959 | series = [[Fawcett Publications|Fawcett Crest Book]] | publisher = [[Ballantine Books]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-449-21335-8 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/hawaii00mich_0/page/480 480–85] | chapter = IV: From the starving village }}</ref> 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 5 characters in order for one to remember the generation poem in the historic past before writing was abundantly available. Each hand's 5 fingers therefore represent one group of generation names. Committees of Family Elders can be seen counting & pronouncing each generation name with their hands & fingers.

Important examples are the generation poems of the descendants of the [[Four Sages]] ([[Confucius]], [[Mencius]], [[Yan Hui]], [[Zengzi]]): the [[Kong (surname)|Kong]], [[Meng (surname)|Meng]], [[Yan (surname)|Yan]], and [[Zeng]] families (the Four Families, [[w:zh:四氏|四氏]]). During the [[Ming dynasty]],  [[Jianwen Emperor|Emperor Jianwen]] respected [[Confucius]] and [[Mencius]] so much that he honored their families with generation poems. These generation poems were extended with the permission of the [[Chongzhen Emperor]] of the Ming dynasty, the [[Tongzhi Emperor]] of the [[Qing dynasty]], and the Ministry of Interior of the [[Beiyang government]].<ref>{{in lang|zh}} [http://www.ndcnc.gov.cn/datalib/2004/HundredName/DL/DL-20031203183333/ 孔姓 (The Kong family, descendants of Confucius)] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110903010033/http://www.ndcnc.gov.cn/datalib/2004/HundredName/DL/DL-20031203183333/ |date= September 3, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|zh}} [http://www.ndcnc.gov.cn/datalib/2004/HundredName/DL/DL-20040216142301 孟姓 (The Meng family, descendants of Mencius)] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060116060231/http://www.ndcnc.gov.cn/datalib/2004/HundredName/DL/DL-20040216142301 |date= January 16, 2006}}</ref>
{{blockquote|<poem>
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。
</poem>}}

The generation poem used by the [[Song dynasty]] [[House 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。"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.sina.com.cn/zjf895|title=浙江趙建飛_新浪博客}}</ref><ref name="梁永樂、趙公梃2014">{{cite book |author=梁永樂、趙公梃|title=八爪魚家長──孩子愛玩不是罪 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5Y9gBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 |date=1 July 2014 |publisher=明窗 |isbn= 978-988-8287-38-3 |pages= 107–}}</ref><ref name= "Chaffee1999">{{cite book | last = Chaffee | first = John W |author-link = John W. Chaffee |title=Branches of Heaven: A History of the Imperial Clan of Sung China |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sEvQbGpqQG0C&pg=PA25 |year=1999 |publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center |isbn=978-0-674-08049-2 |pages= 25}}</ref> The 42 characters were split into three groups of 14 for the offspring of Song Taizu and his two brothers.<ref name= "Lee2004">{{cite book | first = Thomas H. C. | last = Lee |title= The New and the Multiple: Sung Senses of the Past |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WMhzF0OfadwC&pg=PA357 |date= January 2004 |publisher=Chinese University Press |isbn= 978-962-996-096-4 |pages= 357–}}</ref>

Another notable generation poem is the [[Nguyễn dynasty]]'s ''[[:s:vi:Đế hệ thi|Đế hệ thi]]'' (帝係詩 'Poem of the Generations of the Imperial Family'), created by Emperor [[Minh Mạng]].

== Practice ==
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 for [[Korean name]]s. Sometimes lineages will also share the same [[radical (Chinese)|radical]] 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 word ''jiàn-kāng'' {{lang-zh|c={{linktext|健康}}|labels=no}} ('healthy'), the Wang family might name one son Wáng Jiàn (王健) and the other Wáng Kāng (王康). Another example would be ''měi-lì'' {{lang-zh|s={{linktext|美丽}}|labels=no}} ('beautiful'). Daughters of the Zhous might be named Zhōu Měi (周美) and Zhōu Lì (周丽).

Besides the [[Han Chinese|Han]] majority, the Muslim [[Hui people|Hui Chinese people]]{{NoteTag|Some authors consider the Hui people to be a Han Chinese subgroup.}} have also widely employed generation names, which they call ''lunzi paibie'';{{NoteTag|{{sic}}, possible corruption of ''lùnzì páibèi'' 论字排辈, an alternate term for 字辈. Not to be confused with [[wikt:论资排辈|论资排辈]].}} <!-- ? ?派別] --> for instance, in the [[Nasr al-Din (Yunnan)|Na 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.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/chinaoffcenterma0000unse |title = China off center: mapping the margins of the middle kingdom |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-8248-2577-2 |edition=illustrated |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinaoffcenterma0000unse/page/121 121] |quote = ma surname hui. |access-date=2011-04-09 |url-access=registration |author1=Susan Debra Blum |author2 = [[Lionel M. Jensen]] }}</ref>

The [[Yao people]] of [[Guangdong]] has also adopted the Chinese name system, albeit with extensions known as "sub-family-names" to indicate branches. Some groups have more recently (circa [[Song Dynasty]]) adopted the generation name system with little modification.<ref>{{cite web |last1=YU |first1=Xiao |title=瑶族的汉式姓氏和字辈制度 |trans-title=Chinese surname and generation names in Yao people |url=https://www.chinafolklore.org/web/index.php?Page=5&NewsID=9133 |website=China Folklore Network / China Folklore Society |access-date=23 December 2022 |language=zh |date=2011-08-10}}</ref>

== Example ==
The following is a fictional family to illustrate how generation names are used.

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Family member
! colspan="3" | Chinese form
! rowspan="2" | 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
|}

{{tree chart/start|summary="Example family tree in the Generation name article"}}
{{tree chart| |,|-|^|-|.| | | |,|-|^|-|.| | }}
{{tree chart|SQs  | |SQt  |y|XZj  | |XZs  |SQs=Wang '''De'''song<br>{{lang-zh|王'''德'''松|labels=no}} |SQt=Wang '''De'''mei<br>{{lang-zh|王'''德'''梅|labels=no}} |XZj=Li '''Yu'''feng<br>{{lang-zh|李'''裕'''峰|labels=no}} |XZs=Li '''Yu'''yan<br>{{lang-zh|李'''裕'''岩|labels=no}} }}
{{tree chart| | | |,|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.| | | | }}
{{tree chart| | |XHz  | |XHl  | |XHy  | | |XHz=Li '''Wen'''long<br>{{lang-zh|李'''文'''龍|labels=no}} |XHl=Li '''Wen'''feng<br>{{lang-zh|李'''文'''鳳|labels=no}} |XHy=Li '''Wen'''peng<br>{{lang-zh|李'''文'''鵬|labels=no}} }}
{{tree chart/end}}

== Affiliation character ==
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 lay [[Chinese Buddhism|Buddhist]] circles of Song and Yuan times, it could be Dào ([[wikt:道|道]] '[[Dharma#Buddhism|dharma]]'), Zhì ([[wikt:智|智]] '[[Prajñā (Buddhism)|prajñā]], wisdom'), Yuán ([[wikt:圓|圓]] 'complete, all-embracing'<ref name="Soothill">[[William Edward Soothill]] & [[Lewis Hodous]], 1937, [http://mahajana.net/texts/kopia_lokalna/soothill-hodous.html ''A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms''].</ref>{{NoteTag|圓 corresponds to ''pūrṇa'' ('teeming, filled') in Sanskrit, as in the [[Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment|Complete Enlightenment]] (Pūrṇabuddha 圓覺).}}), Pǔ ([[wikt:普|普]] 'universal'{{NoteTag|普 is the equivalent of ''viśva'' in Sanskrit.<ref name="Soothill" />}}), Jué ([[wikt:覺|覺]] '[[bodhi]], enlightenment'), Shàn ([[wikt:善|善]] 'skillful, virtuous'<ref name="Muller">[[A. Charles Muller]], ''Digital Dictionary of Buddhism''.</ref>). The characters demonstrated belonging to a devotionalist group with a social status close to the family one. The affiliation character Miào ([[wikt:妙|妙]] 'profound, marvelous') usually was used by women, relating them to [[Guanyin]], as [[Guanyin#Legend of Miao Shan|Miàoshàn]] (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 the [[Buddhist surname]] Shì ([[wikt:釋|釋]], [[Thich|Thích]] in Vietnam) in one's [[Dharma name]], the first character of [[Gautama Buddha]]'s title in Chinese: ''Shìjiāmóuní'' (釋迦牟尼, 'Śākyamuni', {{abbr|lit.|literally}} 'Sage of the Śakyas').

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1664/1663/3330 Generation Names in China: Past, Present and Future]
* [http://www.foreigners-in-china.com/chinese-family-culture.html The naming custom in traditional Chinese family culture]

Examples of generation poems:
* The [http://tieba.baidu.com/p/66130305 generation poems of the Ming dynasty princes] {{in lang|zh}}
* The [http://www.usashaolintemple.org/chanbuddhism-lineagepoem/ Shaolin lineage poem], used by monks at the [[Shaolin Monastery]] and representing the continuity of the [[Dharma transmission]]
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20051212165851/http://www.geocities.com/bx_huang/Huang_generation_poem.html  generation poem of the descendants of Huang Qiaoshan] (871&ndash;953)
* [http://www3.telus.net/arts/wunbu/igen.html Ten generation poems of the Cantonese Lee family] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007104912/http://www3.telus.net/arts/wunbu/igen.html |date=2010-10-07 }} {{in lang|zh}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Generation Name}}
[[Category:Chinese given names]]
[[Category:Vietnamese names]]
[[Category:Korean given names]]