家規(guī)家訓(xùn)書法作品。This exhibition at Xiamen Art Museum presents calligraphic works that feature family mottos.

“您貴姓？”在中國，初次見面，這一問總是少不了。

當你回答“我姓某”時，如若姓氏相同，問的人自然而然就會將你歸到某姓氏的家族里，因為通過這個姓氏可以追根溯源。

千百年來，人們把祖宗的世系記錄下來傳給子孫，以此證明家族的存在、家族延續(xù)的血脈。這就是家譜。

作為姓氏宗族的檔案，家譜承載了一個家族的歷史和世系的脈絡(luò)，也承載了這個家族的價值觀和正能量。與家譜相伴的，往往有文字化的家規(guī)、家訓(xùn)、家風。從世族大家文字化的家訓(xùn)，到普通百姓父母長輩的一言一行，家規(guī)、家教雖然形式不同，傳遞的卻都是一個家庭或家族的道德準則和價值取向。

家譜是傳承家訓(xùn)的重要載體。“一時之語，可以守之百世；一家之語，可以共之天下?！奔矣?xùn)的教化功能如此強大，人們便將其或刊印成籍，或載之于譜，期望傳之后世，世代相承，興隆家族，治平天下。

而家風作為一種精神層面的存在，看不見、摸不著，它的形成與延續(xù)有賴于家訓(xùn)、家規(guī)的傳承發(fā)揚。

對中國人來說，有家就有家風。有句俗語：“栽什么樹苗結(jié)什么果，撒什么種子開什么花”。意思是，人的成長與家庭環(huán)境、家風、家規(guī)等密切相關(guān)。

家是最小國，國是千萬家。在這期報道里，我們尋訪了浙江幾個家族的故事。

從“江南第一家”浦江鄭義門，到耕讀傳家的海寧查氏，再到代代踐行“10字”家風的瑞安俞氏，家國情懷化成一顆顆中國心，融入一代又一代中國人的血脈之中。

這其中呈現(xiàn)的立身之道、齊家之方，為傳統(tǒng)文化的傳承提供了文化基因，也為當代浙江人提供了精神養(yǎng)分。

家風家訓(xùn)教育是很多中國學(xué)生的“開學(xué)第一課”。Family mottos are often the first lesson school students learn at the beginning of a new semester in China.

浙江海寧金庸故居。This is a view of the former residence of Jin Yong (Louis Cha). The four words in the center read “The Zha Family of Haining.” The couplet on either side is a copy of an inscription originally written by an emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

（本文圖片提供：CFP）

Family Mottos Carry on Virtue and Value

Surnames are important in China. When strangers meet and ask each other politely what their respectful surnames are, they are not merely being polite or attaching a name to a face. The ritual is also meant to find about ancestors and where they originally came from. Some surnames can go back to several thousand years ago in some cases. The odds that strangers share a surname are great. After all, for example,nearly 100 million people in China are surnamed Wang. About 22 million Chinese people share the family name Wu, which ranks the last of the top ten Chinese surnames.

Chinese people not only share surnames. They share ancestors and share kinship memories documented in family and clan genealogies.Chinese genealogies not only preserve ancestral roots and history and culture, record ancestral deeds and accomplishments, but also document family mottos and ancestral instructions that carry on value, virtue, tradition, taboos, and behavioral code, etc. These written mottos and instructions may vary from family to family and from clan to clan, but they function to hold family together and guide family members through ups and downs in life.

In Chinese culture, running a family is often compared to running a state. Some go so far as to state that a family is the smallest state and that a state is nothing but an entity of families.

This issue of Cultural Dialogue presents some prominent families in history in Zhejiang. How these families thrived and became known to the public ref l ect precious family cultures that still nurture people of today in Zhejiang.

浦江縣鄭宅鎮(zhèn)的鄭氏后裔和來自全國各地的鄭氏同宗，集體參加文化踩街、祭祖儀式。This sacrificial ceremony in honor of ancestors at the Zheng Clan Ancestral Temple is part of a series of activities held in 2017 in Zhengzhai Town, Pujiang County. Present at the ceremony were descendents of the Zheng clan in Zhengzhai Town and from all over China.