A Fictitious Junwang: The Formation of the Nanyang Zhang Clan in Medieval China

Abstract

“Zhang” 张 is one of the most common surnames in China, with a large population that is widely distributed. In medieval China, there were a number of active sites of the surname’s native place, or junwang 郡望, and Nanyang 南阳 was one of them. However, unlike the other Zhang clans’ junwang, the Nanyang Zhang clan was a fictitious junwang without a reliable genealogy. The Nanyang Zhang Clan emerged around the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties and became the main locus of their surname’s junwang in the Northern, Sui, and Tang dynasties, when it was widely used in epitaphs. As an influential junwang, it had a kind of competitive or symbiotic relationship with other Zhang clan’s junwang. From the mid-Tang Dynasty, however, it was on the wane. The rise and fall of the Nanyang Zhang clan’s junwang thus reflects an important aspect of aristocratic culture in the medieval period. Elites from the Zhang clan reconstructed the memory of their ancestors by putting together legends and historical figures to create a Nanyang Zhang clan and gradually complete its genealogy. The widespread forging of junwang origins and the popularization of knowledge of junwang and genealogies in the Northern, Sui, and Tang dynasties all helped in the creation of fictitious junwang. The process by which the Nanyang Zhang clan fabricated its junwang demonstrates the impact and significance of the fictitious junwang as a status symbol in the society of the medieval period.

Keywords

Nanyang Zhang clan / junwang / fictitious

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Higher Education Press