Translocal Lineage and the Romance of Homeland Attachment: The Pans of Suzhou in Qing China

Abstract

In 1854, the Suzhou Pans, one of the most prestigious and powerful lineages in this city during the Qing period, compiled their first genealogy. Counting from the first generation Pan Jingwen (1639–1706), who settled in Suzhou as a salt merchant during the beginning of the dynasty, the Pans had been living in this city for about 200 years. Between 1769 and the time of this compilation, they had produced eight jinshi degree holders, including the grand secretary Pan Shi’en (1769–1854). However, strikingly enough, the genealogy was not prefixed with their place name Suzhou, as were most of the genealogies compiled in Ming and Qing China. Instead, it bears the title “Branch Genealogy of the Pans of Dafu”—Dafu being a village in Huizhou Prefecture from whence Pan Jingwen, the first settler, migrated two centuries before. Continuing to produce high degree holders in the civil service examinations and maintaining their reputation and influence in Suzhou, the Pans compiled four more genealogies up to the early twentieth century, all bearing the same title. The latest edition of their genealogy, still bearing the same title, was compiled in 1992, sponsored by the Pan descendants living in the U.S. What deserves our attention is more than the title of the genealogies. Agnates included in the genealogies were mainly the Pans of Suzhou, yet they also included a group of Pans living in Huizhou: the descendents of Jingwen’s second son Zhaochen (1664–1735) who later moved back to the homeland while his eight brothers all remained in Suzhou. About twenty years before the compilation of their first genealogy, the Pans of Suzhou also incorporated a lineage estate—the Songlin Estate (yizhuang)—in 1832 under the initiation and leadership of Zunqi (1808–1892, jinshi of 1848), who was also the genealogy compiler. Managed jointly by agnates from both Huizhou and Suzhou, the Songlin Estate provided financial aid to both the Pans of Suzhou