종족 이야기와 종족 형성 - 明代 福建 香山曹氏 曹四公 이야기를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Determining the first ancestor was the most important task in the process of forming a clan, and Xiangshan Cao clan was no exception. The textualization of oral data on the first ancestor was a key process of forming a clan and establishing identity by organizing first ancestor’s stories and granting them credibility and authority. The members of the Xiangshan Cao clan, who first published the first genealogy in 1588, worked on the textualization of their first ancestor story more than a hundred years ago. The result is the Suxin(蘇信)’s Caosigong biography(1486) and the Longyan-xianzhi(龍巖縣志)’s Caosigong biography(1558). Unlike most clans, Xiangshan Cao clan was able to efficiently compile their first genealogy and forming clan thanks to these two biographies. The reason why the first ancestor story was written and included in local gazettes was that the Cao clan tried to cooperate with the national power and organize their own clan to pursue their survival and development amid the reorganization of regional order in the mid-15th century. Since the mid-16th century, the awareness of Caosigong has spread and the instability of society around Xiangshan has heightened, leading to the development of a small clan into a large clan. The central figure was Cao wenye(曹文燁), who, along with the Xiangshan Cao clan, suppressed the rebellion of Su apu(蘇阿普), asked for the establishment of Ningyangxian(寧洋縣), and took the lead in building a county castle, a government office, etc. In 1588, with the cooperation of his brothers and nephews, he compiled the first Xiangshan-Cao clan genealogy in which the Tang period figure, Cao Dunhou(曹惇厚), was the distant ancestor and the Song period figure, Cao sigong, was confirmed as the first ancestor in Xiangshan. This was a compromise based on the agreement of the members by accepting the friendship of the Chen(陳) clan, the influential clan of Zhangzhou(漳州), and the wishes of the clan for a long history of the clan. According to historicism and the principle that “Write down what you know, but leave what you don’t know blank,” the genealogy from Cao Dunhou to Cao sigong was not included, and the records after Cao sigong also highlighted the genealogy’s credibility by emptying unknown names, dates of birth, and burial sites, etc. In addition, he actively accepted the clan code, rituals, national policies, and ideologies in his genealogy to resolve the instability of the community, conflicts between residents, conflicts between national and private orders, and conflicts within the Cao clan.