At the end of a week of celebrations for Chinese New Year 2019, our researcher, Louise Skyles, called the number on the front door of the family temple and reached Mr. Zhuo Bing Quan. He is a retired educator who has been working for many years on an expanded, comprehensive jia pu for the Zhuo/Chock family.

He has interviewed many of the descendants who still live in China, and was able to compile a remarkable document.  After he was satisfied that Louise was representing a member of the family (she had to explain my lineage to him before he would discuss our jia pu), and realized that he needed to talk to her since I couldn’t speak Chinese, he shared the following information.

The first generation of the family to live in Guan Tang was Zhuo Feng who moved to the village in 1386. In our original jia pu, there was no information for Zhuo Feng’s parents — he is the first ancestor in our record. Mr. Zhuo told Louise that he went to visit many other Chock families and was able to link our family tree back to 2000 years ago.

The Chock family tree is about 66 generations. The people in the tree which he has collected so far add up to about 10,000. When asked if it possible to get a copy of the book, we learned that since it is a such big book (because he not only wrote the names, but also collected other ancestral info), we have to go there to get the copy.

He said that he had researched for the Zhuo family ever since he retired some years ago. He had felt a great impression that he needed to fill the gap for Zhuo family Guan Tang jia pu.  He has three books. The first one is The Great Source for Zhuo Family History (a great book for finding your branch families, Zhuo Bing Quan actually helped create this book).

The second and third books were written by him, second one is The History of Guan Tang Zhuo family (describing 700 years of history about Zhuo family living in Guan Tang).  The third one is the most important one, The Branch of Zhuo Family Jia Pu  (this is the one with all our family members, and goes all the way to the Chu record). The count of generation begins from Zhuo Hua, he was great grandson of the King Wei of Chu. His name is in the history book.

Here is some info about Zhuo Hua. It is thanks to him that we have the surname Zhuo (pronounced as Chock in some regions).

Zhuo Hua, the Chu aristocrat, was a descendant of  king Wei of Chu (reigned between 339 BC – 329 BC). He was a brilliant minister who had great knowledge and an incredible memory. It is said that there was a fire in the palace, and the books of the ancestors of Chu were burned in the fire. The king of Chu was extremely angry. He wanted to execute the record keeper, but Zhuo Hua relied on his own memory and was able to recite/dictate every word in the books, so that the king of Chu decided not to kill the record keeper.  Zhuo Hua has become famous. Zhuo Hua’s descendants commemorate this great sage by honoring him as their first Zhuo ancestor. He probably the first person who changed his surname to Zhuo.

Our Generations

From Zhuo Hua the family pedigree connects all the way down to Guan Tang’s first ancestor Zhuo Feng.  There are 42 generations from Zhuo Hua to Zhuo Feng.  From Zhuo Feng to me is 20 generations.  There are 31 generations from Zhuo Hua to his first Chu ancestor. So the total of generations are 91.

If later we decide to work on the Shang dynasty (the lineage of  the wife of the first Chu ancestor — she was the daughter of a king of Shang), there are another 26 generations before the start of the Chu records.  The Shang royalty names were written on the oracle bones.

Shang dynasty oracle bone

The Chu royalty names were on bamboo slips.

Chinese traditional bamboo slips. This is one of the main media for literacy in early China.Chinese characters were inscribed on  long, narrow strips of bamboo, and many slips were bound together in sequence with thread.

Next Steps

We are sponsoring a trip to the village for Louise, so she can make a copy of the books, take pictures of the cemetery and family sites, and interview any relatives who remember Chock Chin.  Since Zhuo Bing Quan is not in great health, we felt it was essential to have her make this trip immediately.

I’ll post updates when we see what Louise discovers for us in Guan Tang.