History by genealogy

Dominador Awiten .

HALFWAY through my reading of the fascinating and substantively copious book, a handful of impressions are firmly entrenched.

“Ancestors (The Story of China told through the lives of an extraordinary family)” is a veritable treasure trove of insights about the grand history of China, the once considered sleeping giant that is currently an assertive world power.

Frank Ching was among the first American journalists to be based in Beijing after the reestablishment of normal diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979. 

In that year, the Cultural Revolution officially ended, preceded three years earlier by the death of Mao Tse Tung.  The struggle to eradicate the “Four Olds.” — Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas — was instigated by the Communist Party, exploiting the amateurish idealism and credulity of the youth and the students — they having been launched as the invincible army of Red Guards to scourge the old in a violent, merciless way from their tradionalist and capitalist way of life and preserve the triumph of Communism.

However, the value of traditions and mores – the essential and characteristic conventions of society – cannot be gainsaid nor depreciated.

With the reformist bent of the rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping, who successfully wrested control as paramount leader of the country, the traditions associated with Confucius and other sage Chinese philosophers were reestablished and held sway to date.

On his death, the legacy of Deng for his people and country is the shrewd saying “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” that paired Communist control with market economics.   Moreover, the handover of Hong Kong and Macao to China from the former colonial rule of Britain and Portugal, respectively, smoothly proceeded under the aegis of Deng’s leadership.

In a relatively relaxed, although tightly regulated society, Frank Ching succeeded with his labor of love and devotion to attempt and come up with a history of his family’s lineage according to known and documented sources. The book was published in 1988.

The genealogical narrative of the Qin clan provides a parallel historical saga of the Chinese nation through various ruling dynasties that spanned several centuries until the present-day Chinese Communist Party rule.

A few insights from the book may be mentioned here:

(1) There is a propensity for persons in power to admire poets and artists; the emperors themselves, indulge in literary and artistic endeavors that add luster and glitter to their governance.

(2) Entry to the government service, and rising through the ranks, are possible by passing the different levels of civil service examinations.  Those who top or score very high in the examinations usually gain the favor of the emperor or his high ministers.

(3) By reason of the foregoing two truths, education, such as being apprenticed to a learned sage, or formal schooling, is a very important treasure to the family, of immensely greater value than material possessions.

(4) Family is the core of society.  This principle renders as a natural obligation filial piety — the respect and adoration by children of their parents; and this key virtue in Chinese culture and society necessarily entails a long period of mourning when a parent dies.

The above principles are cherished and revered in our 1987Constitution.

Thus, we have the constitutional provisions that state:

Article IX (B) Civil Service Commission Section 2(1))(1). —  Appointments in the civil service shall be made only according to merit and fitness to be determined, as far as practicable, and, except to positions which are policy-determining, primarily confidential, or highly technical, by competitive examination.

Article XV The Family. Section 1. — The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.