Ancestral Roots of the First Family in Southern China

The first family in southern China is a historical honor that refers to the Zheng family based in Pujiang， a county in central Zhejiang Province. The populous clan was honored by Zhu Yuanzhang， the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)， as the Number One Family in the South of the Yangtze River. The family deserved the royal kudos. By the time the honor arrived， the family members had lived together in the town for fifteen consecutive generations through the dynasties of the Song (960-1279)， the Yuan (1271-1368) and up to the Ming. For over 330 years， they worked together to make the family fortune and the clan purse provided all the food expenses. In its heyday， the purse was big enough to provide for more than 3，000 people of the family.

We visited the big family in late March 2010. The family lives in Zhengzhai Town or Zheng Residence Town. We meant to explore the glorious past of the family and their way of life. We happened to run into two groups of people surnamed Zheng in town to seek their ancestral roots and attend the annual ancestral ceremony.

One group of 62 Koreans were from Seoson， Korea. They arrived one day before the ancestral ceremony. The oldest was 85 and the youngest a teenager.

Zheng Yuhuan， a scholar of the family genealogy， told us that the tie between the town and the Zheng family in Korea was set up in November， 2001 when the representatives of Zheng descendents from all over the world gathered in Henan Province to attend a seminar on the history of the Zheng family at home and abroad. He stayed in a hotel room with Zheng Houyong from Korea. Naturally they chatted about their ancestors and it happened the first ancestor of the Zheng family in Seoson， Korea was Zheng Chongying， whose name is recorded in the family book of the Zheng family in Pujiang， Zhejiang Province. Back home from the seminar， Zheng Yuhuan crosschecked and confirmed that the branch in Seoson was from Pujiang.

Zheng Cengbao， an assistant at the Ministry of Personnel of the Southern Song Dynasty， decided not to accept the appointment of the Mongols after the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) fell. He and his family escaped by ship and journeyed eastward from Hangzhou. After a long voyage on the sea， they finally reached a small island off Seoson. They settled down. Later， Zheng Renqing， the son of Zheng Cengbao， became a prime minister for Korea. The family grew. Today， the Zheng branch from Pujiang has about 18，000 descendents in Korea.

On March 21， 2002， the clan council of the Zhengs in Seoson dispatched a delegation of eight to Pujiang to visit their ancestral roots. The two sides have kept in touch since then. In 2004， the Zhengs in Seoson organized a large delegation to attend the annual ancestral ceremony in Pujiang. After a hiatus of 682 years， the branch officially came back to the roots. They have come to make an annual visit since then.

“Our ancestors were brothers. We are members of the Zheng family and we are one family，” said Zheng Sheng， chairman of the Zheng clan association of Seoson at the ceremony.

Zheng Yuanjiu， 85 of age， made his fourth pilgrimage to Pujiang in 2010. His first visit was in 2004 and since then he has been back every two years. He hoped that his descendents would carry on his ancestral worship and he said he would ask his children to come over if he couldn’t make the trip in the future.

An official surnamed Chun from Korean Consul in Shanghai was present at the ceremony. He said he was touched by the people paying homage to ancestors. He said that it was the best way to carry on tradition and virtue. He hoped that young people would understand the value of legacy left over by their ancestors.

Zhang Bitao， director of the foreign affairs office with Pujiang County government， told us that Korea is home to more than 800，000 descendents of Zheng. The connection between the Zheng clan in Seoson and the Zheng clan in Pujiang is more than a family affair. It is a way to promote people-to-people friendship and cultural exchange between China and Korea.

Also present at the ancestral ceremony was a small group of Zheng descendents from Fujian. Their comeback is no less legendary and probably more mysterious.

We learned that the Zheng family in Pujiang has everything to do with the number one unsolved mystery in Chinese history: the disappearance of Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). When his uncle came from Beijing and seized the throne， the young emperor is said to have escaped. He was not found anymore. It is said that Zheng He led a fleet and voyaged westward six times in search of the dethroned emperor. There are many sites in Zhejiang and Fujian where the emperor is said to have stayed during his mysterious escape.

The Zheng family in Pujiang has its own story to tell about how the family helped the emperor on the run. Emperor Jianwen stayed in Pujiang for a while after he had fled the capital. But a neighbor saw him viewing lanterns in a Lantern Festival night and reported to the government. The emperor hid himself in a dried well and soldiers saw a spider web covering the well and thought no one could be inside it. The emperor knew Pujiang was not safe any more and decided to run again. Zheng Qia， an eight-generation descendent of the Zheng Family in Pujiang， decided to go with the emperor. Zheng Qia， like the emperor， lost himself in history and was not heard of anymore.

Evidences support that the Zheng family in Zheng Qi Village， Ningde County， Fujian Province in the south is from Pujiang and has everything to do with Zheng Qia.

Zheng Longxi， chairman of the Zheng clan in Pujiang， has visited the village many times and looked around for evidence that could tie the branch with the roots in Pujiang. There are many material proofs around village and records in the county.

The village still has five residences in the Anhui architectural style built in the Ming Dynasty. There are some inscriptions and couplets in the village that read as if directly copied from the family precepts of the Zheng clan in Pujiang. The village has a wine-drinking game strangely named “nine generations live together”. It is strange because no family in Fujian had put its roots that deep and stayed together in the same place for nine generations. The old houses in the village have names that are homophones with house names in Zheng Residence Town. All this suggests this branch has close ties with the clan in Pujiang. Careful studies of these names and evidences suggest that Zheng Qia and Zheng Qi were the same person.

Since 2009， Zheng Longxi has visited Zheng Qi Village many times. And an official relationship has been established between the two sides. Since then more evidences have been found， through mutual visits and in depth investigations， to support that the Zheng family in Ningde and the Zheng family in Pujiang are from the same roots.

At the ceremony， the descendents from Zheng Qi village wept in happiness. After 500 years， family members shook hands again.

Yang Lianghui， an official from Fujian County Government， was also present at the ceremony. He told us that many people surnamed Zheng in Ningde went to Taiwan in the early 1950s. These people have their descendents in Taiwan. The Zheng people in Ningde have come into contact with these descendents in Taiwan. Yang said probably some Zheng descendents would come from Taiwan and visit their ancestral roots in Pujiang.

Under the four ancient firs， which are more than 600 years old， the representatives of the four Zheng clan associations from Pujiang， Seoson of Korea， Hangzhou， and Zheng Qi Village of Ningde， Fujian， held hands firmly and warmheartedly. They unanimously agreed that it was more than a family gathering. They vowed they would do their best to carry on the moral assets of their common ancestor through descendents one generation after another. □