Chinese clan generation poem (字辈/字派) lookup. 30 major surnames + branches — Confucius (孔), Mencius, Zhu, Wang, Li, Zhang, Chen and more. Essential for root-tracing, naming, and genealogy work.
Chinese Clan Generation Poem Lookup (字辈查询)
How to use
Enter surname
Pinyin (Kong, Zhu) or Chinese character (孔, 朱) both work. This tool covers 30 major surnames' main branches.
Match the branch
Many surnames have multiple branches (e.g. Wang has Taiyuan branch + Langya branch). Generation poems differ — pick based on family history.
Read the poem
A 字辈 is a 4-/5-/7-character verse. Each character corresponds to one generation and appears as the middle character in that generation's given name.
Browse all
Below the search, all 30 branches are listed with origin region, founding dynasty, and full text.
Zibei (字辈) — 1000+ years of Chinese generational naming
Zibei (字辈), also called zipai or hangbei zipai, is a uniquely Chinese system of lineage-encoded naming. A clan adopts a 4-, 5-, or 7-character poem; each character corresponds to one generation and appears as a character (usually the middle one) in that generation's given names. At the first glance you can tell which generation someone belongs to — essential at family gatherings, ancestral hall ceremonies, and clan meetings.
Origins
The roots trace to the Zhou dynasty (1046 BC) zhāomù system (alternating generations on either side of the ancestral hall). It spread to scholar-officials and common households in the Northern Song (960-1127), peaked in the Ming — nearly every major Han clan adopted one.
"The eight characters 公彥承弘聞貞尚胤 were granted to the Kong family by the Jianwen Emperor in 1400, not by the founder of the Ming; 希 and 言 were added in front later."
Four Sages share one zibei
By imperial decree (Ming + Qing), the four "Sage lineages" — Confucius (孔), Mencius (孟), Yan Hui (顏), Zengzi (曾) — share the same zibei. This is China's unique cross-surname zibei phenomenon: a Confucius 75th-gen descendant and a Mencius 75th-gen descendant are generational peers.
Practical use cases
(1) Root-tracing — overseas Chinese (esp. SG/MY/Indo/VN/TH) compare zibei to identify ancestral branch; (2) Naming — elders use the corresponding character to mark lineage continuity; (3) Genealogy work — zibei is the only generational marker in a lineage chart; without it generations get muddled.
SG/MY overseas Chinese zibei
Among 3-5 generation SG/MY Chinese, zibei use has faded in some families (particularly after English names replaced Chinese ones). But Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew communities retain it more strictly. Clan halls and clan associations still order seniority by zibei.
Kong, Meng and Zeng share one poem; Yan does not
The Kong family's eight characters 公彥承弘聞貞尚胤 were granted by the Jianwen Emperor in 1400; 希 and 言 were added in front later. Three further extensions bring the sequence to fifty characters.
Kong, Meng and Zeng share one set of characters; Yan does not. From its 61st generation the Yan family uses its own poem, 公重從嗣胤,伯光紹懋崇…
The Zeng family's blocks begin at the 63rd generation, two ahead of Kong, so the same character does not mark the same generation in both.
We compared thirty-three separately sourced generation poems across four dynasties: no two share a single four-character line. Three or four consecutive characters usually identify a branch.
The twenty-four Ming princely houses each had a twenty-character poem, recorded in the History of the Ming; across all 480 characters only three repeat.
The Ming imperial house added a second rule: the third character of a name took its radical from the cycle fire, earth, metal, water, wood. Across the fourteen emperors of the Yan line, 1425 to 1644, there is no exception.
Across thirty-four generations of the Kong dukes a generation averages about 29.6 years, but individual steps run from 16 to 48 years, so a generation character dates a birth only to a window of about thirty years.
In many overseas Chinese families the genealogy stayed behind and only a few characters are remembered. Three or four consecutive characters, with the surname and home county, are the most useful thing to bring to an archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
A zibei (字辈) is a poem where each character represents one generation and appears as a character in that generation's given names (usually the middle one). A clan uses the same poem to name many generations in sequence.
30 major branches — covers the most common surnames (Kong, Meng, Zhu, Wang, Li, Zhang, Chen, Lin, Huang, Liu, etc.) and their main lineages. Full zibei data requires the original family genealogy (族谱).
Major surnames have multiple branches (e.g. Wang has Taiyuan Wang + Langya Wang) — each branch was founded by a different ancestor and has its own zibei.
(1) Ask family elders; (2) Look at grandparent generation names (the middle character should be a zibei character); (3) Find the original family genealogy; (4) Contact a clan association (many in SG/MY).
Kong, Meng and Zeng do; Yan does not. From its 61st generation the Yan family has used its own poem (公重從嗣胤,伯光紹懋崇…) — the families are affines, since Confucius's mother was a Yan. And the Zeng blocks start at the 63rd generation, so the same character marks a different generation there.
Traditionally no. But modern progressive families increasingly use zibei for daughters too — treating it as equal lineage continuity.
The clan elder convenes a committee to compose a new one — typically thematically continuing the old zibei to express the clan's ethos.
Partially. Among 3-4 generation overseas Chinese, Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew families preserve them best. Many other families have let them fade as English names replaced Chinese ones.
Public genealogies, clan association publications, local gazetteers — all content from Ming/Qing/Republican era, public domain.
Yes. All RECATOOLS tools are 100% free, ad-supported.
Method & sources
How it computes
A lookup, not a calculation: thirty clan 字輩 poems, each a sequence in which one character marks one generation and is used as the middle name of everyone born into it. Enter a surname and the tool returns the poem for that clan or branch, with its region and the era it was fixed. Nothing is computed and nothing is fetched.
What this tool implements
- Thirty clans and branches only — the major lines. A surname outside the set returns nothing rather than a guess, and the page says that a full clan poem needs the original 族譜.
- The 孔 / 孟 / 顏 / 曾 lineages are shown sharing the same generation characters, which they do by Ming and Qing imperial decree rather than by coincidence.
- Branch matters more than surname. Two 王 lines — 太原王氏 and 琅琊王氏 — carry different poems, and the tool distinguishes them rather than returning one poem per surname.
- Poems are given in traditional characters as the genealogies record them. The Qing-era taboo substitutions in the Kong sequence (弘 → 宏, 胤 → 衍) are part of that record, not errors.
Sources
- 《孔子世家譜》, the Kong clan genealogy — the primary record for the Confucian sequence. Only five major revisions exist: 明天啟, 清康熙, 清乾隆, the 1930s, and the fifth completed 24 September 2009 under 孔德墉 of the 77th generation — eighty volumes recording over two million people, and the first revision to enter women and minority-nationality descendants.
- The Kong 字輩 as granted: eight characters from 明太祖 朱元璋 in the early Ming; 希 and 言 prepended in 洪武元年 (1368) on the succession of the 56th-generation 孔希學 as 衍聖公; ten more under 崇禎 at the request of the 65th duke 孔胤植; ten more imperially ratified in 乾隆九年 (1744); and a final twenty drafted by the 76th duke 孔令貽 in 民國八年 (1919) and ratified in 1920 after his death. Fifty characters covering generations 56 to 105.
What can make this go out of date
- Clan poems get extended. The Kong sequence has been added to four times in six centuries and the current characters run out at the 105th generation; other clans revise more often, and nothing on this page refetches anything.
- A branch attribution is an editorial judgement, not a computation. Where a surname has several historic lines, which poem belongs to which branch is the part most worth checking against your own genealogy.
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