The Ninth Preface 
From the Jisi year of the Jiaqing Reign Period (1809) (Text)

The Ninth Preface 
From the Jisi year of the Jiaqing Reign Period (1809)

The Lu family rose in Zhuo Commandery [in modern Hebei] with the eminent Confucian Lu Zhi, Leader of Court Gentlemen in the Han Dynasty. Since the Six Dynasties (222-589) those who most valued family status have been the Cuis, the Lus, the Lis, and the Zhengs, known as the Four Surnames. Lu Lian, a Song Dynasty Academician serving as the Supervisor of Eastern Zhe Region, first made his home in Tai Prefecture. His descendants moved from Tai Prefecture to Qiaoxi (“Elegant Brook”) in Dongyang County, then to Yaxi on the east of the city wall. All this happened in the Song Dynasty; these are referred to the Yaxi Lus of Dongyang. It has been over eight hundred years since the Lus moved to Yaxi. During this time, eminent worthies came forth in every generation, most of whom were renowned in their day for their handling of governmental affairs or for personal behavior of note. Among them, Censor-in-Chief Lu Rui was especially notable for his accomplishments. Father Lu Hongchun, with the rank of Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, suffered a beating at court beatings for speaking out and his son and Lu Maoding, “the heroic,”^[1] died for loyalty to the dynasty and adhering to integrity; they were indeed great men. Although recently they have fewer civil service examination degrees, the atmosphere of their family is was still pure and respectful, they are still the best in the southeast.

When I was serving as Surveillance Commissioner of Zhejiang Province, the current Secretary in the Bureau of Revenue Lu Bingtao was still a student. He liked learning and was honest in his behavior, and from him I learned of his family background. Moreover, from writing an inscription on the Painting of the Virtues of the Yaxi [Lus] for his respected father, the honorable Lu Fengzhi, I could also imagine the beauty of the natural environment their joy in [learning from] books and histories. Now Secretary Lu Bingtao has brought his genealogy and begged me to do a preface.

The difficulty in the study of genealogy is such that even Ouyang Xiu and Su Xun [the famous Song dynasty scholars] have not been exempt from later criticism. Li李 Yanshou said in his preface to the History of the Northern Dynasties that his ancestor was Gao Yao, who served Emperor Yao as a Grand (da) Judge (li 理) and used the official title as the clan name of Li 理. There was a Li 理 Zheng in the time of [the evil] King Zhou who was too upright for [the king]to tolerate. His wife from the Qihe clan fled with their son Lizhen, hiding in the Village of Yihou where they survived by feeding on fruit from trees, and thus changed their surname from “Li” 理 to “Li 李 ” [plum].^[2] Confucian scholars deride the absurdity of this account.

The genealogy of my family was created in the first years of the Jiajing Era (1522-1566), and my ancestor the honorable Qin Jin, whose honorific was Duanli, set very strict standards [for our genealogy]. Our Qin family migrated from Kuaiji [in modern Zhejiang] to Gaoyou [in modern southern Jiangsu], and then from Gaoyou to Wuxi [in modern southern Jiangsu], which caused a break there in the genealogy. The record starting with the ancestor who migrated to Wuxi was titled the Genealogy of the Qin Family of Xishan, while the pre-Wuxi ancestors belonged to a separate genealogy titled The Generational Chart for Respecting Our Origin.

The Lu family history reaches far back in time, but for the genealogy, they draw the line at the family’s migration to Yaxi. It is neither too inclusive nor too exclusive, it is both verifiable and trustworthy; it can serve as a model.

Looking back on my own family, loyalty and filiality were handed down from generation to generation, and we have had standards in educating our descendants. In the past, Xiangwen inscribed my ancestor Qin Leyi’s, grave with the words, “Wearing loose clothes^[3] and walking in cautious manner, so simple and sincere that one can recognize him as a descendant of the Qin family without even asking. ” But today, when the habit of haughtiness and arrogance is growing and the style of filiality and respectfulness is declining, my ancestors’s rules have practically disappeared. We wish we were like the Lu family—continuing to cultivate the fields received from the ancestors without fail—but it is difficult.

Mr. Lu Bingtao was appointed from Hanlin Academy to serve as [Secretary in] the Bureau of Revenue. A prominent [future] awaits. However, he should be respected by the Lus as a person who extols the virtues accumulated by his ancestors and glorifies his family genealogy and not only because he passed the civil service examination.

Written on the first auspicious day of the fourth month, in the year jisi, fourteenth year of the Jiaqing reign period (1809) the Grand Master of Comprehensive Discussion, Left Vice Censor-in-Chief with rank three grades higher, Qin Ying.

[1] When Lu Hongchun served in the Bureau of Sacrifices of the Ministry of Rites, he almost died from being beated at court for his outspokenness. Lu Maoding was killed by rebels when serving in the Miliary Defense Circuit of Jianchang Prefecture in Sichuan Province; he was given the posthumous title “Liemin” (“heroic”) by the Qing court.

[2] The character for “plum”李 is made up by the characters for “tree” 木 and “fruit” 子.

[3] The term “loose clothes” refers to clothes used in formal rituals in antiquity; it late became a symbol of a Confucian scholar.