Ancestor Identification Poem

认祖诗

骏马登程往异方，任从随地立纲常；
身居外境犹吾境，家住他乡则故乡；
朝夕莫忘亲命语，晨昏须荐祖宗香；
漫云富贵由天定，三七男儿当自强。

English Translation
by Ivan Yip (Canada) et al


TO MY CHILDREN

To those of you about to mount on the horses,

and leave for other parts of the country:

Look for the best places you can to settle down,

and to continue the lineage of our heritage.

Wherever you have chosen to plant your roots,

consider that as your new hometown;

For, though you are in the foreign land,

you will soon adjust to feel like home.

From morn till night,

please take to heart your old father's advice;

And do remember to burn incense to your ancestors at dawn and at dusk.

Although everyone says that wealth is elusive,

integrity and discipline are self-cultivated.

So I expect all of you especially my twenty-one sons

to uphold our ancestral pride.

This poem "Ren Zu Shi" 认祖诗 (literally means "poem to identify ancestry" is also known by other names, one of which is "Qian Zi Shi" 遣子诗, literally means "To My Children"). In AD 951, when Huang Qiaoshan (AD 872-AD953) instructed his 18 sons and their families to live separately, he composed the poem and passed them to his twenty-one sons so that future descendants could would know their ancestry. Later descendants also modified the poem in order to distinguish their respective branches. Hence, we can see at least 70 versions of the poem today but their meanings are basically the same.

The above version is the original poem by Huang Qiaoshan.