Yuan (surname) - Clan Organisation

Clan Organisation

From around the Song Dynasty, clans began organising themselves in mutual obligation relationships, often based around the compilation of genealogies. The role of clan elders was often that of moral or Confucian instruction. The Yuan shi shi fan (袁氏世范: "Yuan clan hereditary rules"), by the Song Dynasty jinshi Yuan Cai (袁采), was an early manual of ethical behaviour and was regarded by contemporaries as a classic of clan instruction. Toward the late imperial period, these relationships strengthened to the extent that clans sometimes provided social welfare and enforced customary law. Regionally prominent clans often allied together based on a common (and sometimes spurious) ancestor, known as the "first ancestor who moved" (始遷祖).

Renewed interest since the late 1980s by overseas Chinese in root-seeking has been largely encouraged by the government of mainland China as a way of attracting foreign direct investment. In 2001, for example, the Hong Kong Association of Yuen Clansmen (香港袁氏宗親會) donated HKD $1.2 million toward the construction of a Yuan Chonghuan Memorial Park on the site of his Ming Dynasty home. In 2004, a group of 68 Yuan clan businessmen from Shenzhen and Hong Kong were invited to Ru'nan county, so-called "ancestral home of all Yuan under Heaven". The group, led by Yuen Mo, a representative of Hong Kong to the National People's Congress, held talks with provincial and local officials with regard to the development of food processing projects in the area.

In recent years, genealogy compilation and clan organisation has seen a resurgence, together with a renewed interest in local history. The 13th "Conference of the Descendants of Shun," held in Ru'nan in 1999, was attended by representatives of Yuan clans from as far afield as Hong Kong and Thailand. A number of local clans are also reorganising themselves and publishing updated versions of their genealogies. In May 2005, after updating their 1939 genealogy, the Yuan clan of Ximen, Ningbo, held a large scale ancestor worship ceremony which was much publicised in the local media. This return to clan consciousness has been limited, however, by increased geographic and social mobility in China.