The New Preface (Text)

The New Preface

It was in the autumn of the gengchen year (2000) when the Committee for the Recompilation of the Genealogy of the Lu Residential Compound, a National Level Unit for the Preservation of Cultural Relics, invited me to write a preface for the [new] genealogy of the Lus of Yaxi. Aware that the responsibility was too heavy for me to shoulder and that I am of little talent and shallow knowledge, I originally intended to politely decline. However, it occurred to me that the Lus of Yaxi and the Lus of Lingshan share the same root and origin, both being form the descendants of Grand Duke Jiang, the a Chief Councilor of the Zhou dynasty. Thus, despite [my] crudeness, I am writing a bit to record their greatness.

According to the historical record, Grand Duke Jiang assisted King Wu in punishing Zhou, [the last emperor] of the Yin dynasty, and in taking the empire. [When King Wu] divided up the land, [he] enfeoffed the Duke’s father as Marquis of Qi(the fief was in the eastern part of contemporary Shandong). Lü Chi, Duke Wen, who was the seventh generation descendant of Grand Duke Jiang, had a son named Gao 高. At this point they began to take Gao as their clan name. Gao Xi, who was Gao’s grandson, was a high minister of the state of Qi and helped establish Xiaobai [as the new lord of the state with the title of] Duke Huan. For this he was given the walled town of Luzi as his fief; he changed the clan name from Gao to Lu 盧. This is why historians consider Gao Xi to be the primogenitor of all [those with the surname] Lu.  [Gao] Xi’sdescendants proliferated like thickly leaved spreading branches.

The family tradition of learning was thus long established and men of talent came forth in droves. In Qing there was the Erudite Lu Ao. In early Han there was Lu Huan, King of Yan; the names of both are in the histories. In Eastern Han there was the great Confucian scholar Lu Zhi, who gained a great reputation. Cao Cao once said in admiration: “Secretary Lu is the hope of the world, the bulwark of the state” and warned his troops not to trespass on his village, such was his respect for Lu Zhi.

[Lu] Zhi’s descendents continued without interruption; we can trace their lines. The histories say that [Lu] Yu, son of [Lu] Shi, served the Wei dynasty as Minister of Works, and [Lu] Ting, his grandson, served the Jin dynasty as Director of the Palace Library. The lineage flourished, gaining examination degrees and court rank without interruption. According to the historical record, in the Tangthe Lus produced eight Chief Councilors and three hundreds and twenty odd metropolitan graduates. In fact, the Cuis and the Lus produced more high officials and metropolitan graduates than the Li and the Zheng[clans] and even Li Shimin, the Tang emperor Taizong, lamented himself that “my clan cannot match the Lu clan.”

Over thousands of years things change; what was once part of the sea becomes land for mulberry trees and grain. Lu Shi 盧寔 (cir., 1065), the Registrar of Wu county, was the first to move to Qiaosi (“Clever Brook”) in Dongyang, . Four generations later Yuanfu (Lu Yuanfu 盧員甫, 4^th gen.) moved on to Yaxi (雅溪, “Elegant Brook”) and became the primogenitor of the Yaxi Lus. Four generations later the brothers of [Lu] Dazhen (盧大振, 8^th gen., 1227-1298) and [Lu] Dacheng (盧大成, 8^th gen., 1232-1276) through connections my marriage became Commandant-escort of Prince Wei of the Song imperial clan. When the Mongols [i.e. the Yuan dynasty] invaded the Central Plain, they raised troops to resist the Yuan. The battle was lost and they were killed, and several hundred of their kin were slaughtered. It is said that due to this the waters of Elegant Brook red. How dreadful!

This story was transmitted from the elders to sons and grandsons, for whom not-serving in the Yuan government was righteous. In the ancestral hall a descendant wrote the couplet: “Their bodies reverted to purity: they could serve the Song government but withdrew in the Yuan. They bring glory to their descendants: though they have vanished their virtue is not forgotten.” From this we can see how greatly the Lu descendants honored the two words, “Spirit [of] Integrity (氣節).”

When the Ming dynasty replaced the Yuan, the Hongwu Emperor Zhu [Yuanzhang] adopted the proposals of Confucian scholars Ye Shi (葉適, 1150-1223) and Song Lian (宋濂, 1310-1380) and held examinations to recruit literati. Beginning with Lu Rui’s (盧睿, 13^th gen., 1390-1462) success in passing the metropolitan examination in the xinchou year of the Yongle reign period (1421), [the Lus] produced [in total] eight metropolitan graduates, twenty nine provincial graduates, and one hundred and fifty odd officials in the Ming and Qing. How they flourished! After the examination system was abolished at the end of the Qing and the modern school system was established, the number of Lus who have entered into advanced educational institutions has been increasing as quickly as bamboo shoots after a spring rain. I will omit repeating the number of them, since that list is already recorded in the Generational Transmission section [of the new genealogy.]

Today government policy works and people are in harmony, hundreds of things abolished [after the founding of the PRC] have now been revived. Everywhere work on compiling genealogies has been not uncommon and the compilation of local gazetteers is something everyone knows about. Publication must not be delayed. Lu lineage members were concerned that the old writings of their ancestors and such have not been compiled for a long time and determined to take action. They carefully selected over forty elders who were familiar with ancient literature and organized a Committee for the Compilation of the Yaxi Lu Genealogy to work at putting in order and amending [the old genealogy]; a very challenging task.

It has been several years since I was appointed as an official in Dongynag county. I have frequently visited the Lu Family Compound, a National Preservation Unit, and I was have been deeply impressed by the enormous structure of Seriousness and Consonance Hall (Suyong tang 肅雍堂). I felt, however, that something was missing in its beauty. Now for the first time I have clearly figured out where the problem lies: Even though the Seriousness and Consonance Hall has a reputation comparable to the Imperial Palace, it lacks of writings and paintings so that visitors have no means to know its accumulated history. Now that the problem has been solved celebration and congratulations are in order. I hope that the Seriousness and Consonance Hall and the Genealogy of the Lus will illuminate each other and profusely radiate their extraordinary splendor, continuing the past and opening the way to future, and that they will be a great contribution to the culture of Dongyang county. This is my sincere expectation and thus this preface.

Respectfully written in the middle of the winter of the gengchen year by Lu Ziyue 盧子躍, Mayor of DongyangMunicipality and lineage descendant.