In the traditional agricultural society, a big family can live together, with four generations living under one roof and five generations living under one roof. Almost all family members are farmers and depend on the land for survival. Members of this family seldom go out or move. Some villages may be close to the county seat, but people in the villages may never go to the county seat once in their lives. Family men plow and women weave, self-sufficient, and rarely exchange materials with the outside world; Family affairs are basically self-care, and the patriarch has great judicial and administrative power over his people. The government also supports this, on the one hand, it reduces the difficulty of management, on the other hand, it also saves a lot of administrative and judicial expenses. As a result, there is a saying that "imperial power does not go down to the county." The ancient government did not regard the family as the cell of society, but regarded the family as the cell of society. The management of the government must be based on the squire and the patriarch.
The ideal life of men plowing and women weaving in ancient society
In this case, it is possible and necessary for a large family to compile genealogy. Genealogy is one of many tools to maintain the centripetal force and order of a big family, in addition to ancestral halls, clan rules, generations, ancestral graves, ethnology and so on.
Ancestral hall (ancestral hall has a very sacred position in ancient families)
But in fact, such a big family can only exist in an agricultural society. After entering the industrialized society, the agricultural society has gradually weakened or even disintegrated: land is no longer the only means of making a living, or even the main means. A large number of family members entered the city and even settled in the city. Instead of dividing themselves by blood relationship, they belong to modern and more efficient organizations such as industry, companies, trading companies, units and political parties. Family members frequently go out and migrate, and basically give up the idea of settling on the land; The patriarch of the family is almost no longer binding on the family members who go out, let alone the judicial power and administrative power. Even for family members who still live in rural areas, there is almost no judicial power. The modern government has extended its tentacles to the most basic level. The traditional family disintegrated rapidly, and the small family became the mainstream of society. The modern government believes that the cell of modern society is the family, and it does not need the family as an auxiliary management means. The norm of modern society is law, not clan rules. For those who violate the clan rules, the patriarch has no legal power to deal with them except by means of morality and public opinion.
In this case, the ancestral temple, clan rules, generations, ancestral graves, ethnology and so on of a large family are not attractive and binding to modern people, and so are genealogies. After many rural people enter the city, the first generation knows the seniority, but when naming their children, quite a few people don't choose names according to seniority. In the second and third generations, I'm afraid I don't even know my seniority. Strictly speaking, this kind of name that does not follow the seniority is unqualified, and it is also difficult to enter the genealogy.
At present, the urbanization rate of China is 47%. At present, the urbanization rate in the world has exceeded 50%, and it is generally above 80% in developed countries. Our country has always regarded urbanization as an important goal of government work, and urbanization is the killer of this old enemy. After the completion of large-scale urbanization, the ancient big family, as well as related genealogy and ancestral halls, can only appear as "cultural heritage".