"Yanmen Hall" and "Redbud Hall"
As the principal major surname of the Tujia people, the Tian clan had two ancestral hall names: one called "Yanmen Hall," the other "Redbud Hall." Why? Legend says that in the late Warring States period, after Qin Shi Huang swallowed the six states and unified the realm, to prevent great clans from rebelling, he ordered certain prominent surnames to be relocated. The Tian surname was driven to Shanxi.
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"Yanmen Hall" and "Redbud Hall"
As the principal major surname of the Tujia people, the Tian clan has two family hall names: one is "Yanmen Hall," and the other is "Redbud Hall." Why is this?
According to legend, at the end of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang swallowed up the six states and unified the realm. To prevent the great clans of the realm from rebelling, he issued an edict to relocate certain large surname clans elsewhere. Among them, the Tian surname was driven to the area of Yanmen Commandery in Shanxi to live. In the first year of Guangde of Emperor Daizong of Tang (763 AD), Tian Chengsi of Lulong was appointed by imperial edict as Commander of the five prefectures of Wei, Bo, De, Cang, and Ying, and was enfeoffed as Prince of Yanmen Commandery. His descendants, for five generations, were all Tang dynasty generals of far-reaching renown. An ancient poem praises them:
A host of peaks stands tall as Yanmen opens,
Barbarian rains and nomad winds strike the green cliffs.
One drumbeat shakes the frontier passes,
Say not the Tian clan has no generals' talents.
Because the majority of the Tian surname lived in Yanmen Commandery and belonged to a distinguished clan, in the "Hundred Family Surnames" the Tian surname uses this place as its family hall name, called "Yanmen Hall."
At the end of the Five Dynasties, Yang Jian of the Northern Zhou ended the standoff of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and unified the realm, establishing the Sui Dynasty. In the first year of Kaihuang (581 AD), the brothers Tian Zhen, Tian Qing, and Tian Guang, whose ancestors had lived in Santian Village, Lintong County, Jingzhao, Shaanxi, passed the imperial examinations. The eldest brother Tian Zhen served as an official at court, the second brother Tian Qing was magistrate of Lantian County, and the third brother Tian Guang was magistrate of Zhending County in Zhending Prefecture, Beijing. Although the brothers served as officials in different places, the ancestral estate remained, and they lived together as one household, in family harmony, with elders loving and grandchildren respecting, enjoying endless familial bliss. Outside the Tian family courtyard stood a redbud tree, a full arm-span in girth, extraordinarily lush. Every spring it bloomed with redbud flowers, red as fire, dazzlingly bright, adding boundless joy and delight to the household. The grandfather, seeing a hall full of children and grandchildren and a flourishing family, declared: henceforth the family must be like the redbud tree outside the courtyard—prosperous and thriving, red and fiery; as long as the great tree does not die, the family must not split. But there were those who did not heed the teaching. Tian Guang's wife, Madam Guo, was not virtuous; she wanted to eat alone and sought to divide the property and set up separate households. So every day she had the maidservant pour hot washing water beneath the tree. Over time, the redbud tree withered. The whole family was greatly alarmed at the sight, and when they investigated the cause, it turned out to be Madam Guo's doing. To enforce family discipline, the grandfather ordered Madam Guo to be divorced and sent away. Afterwards, the redbud tree, no longer scalded at the roots by hot water, gradually grew lush branches and leaves again, reviving as before. "The flower tree and redbud branches value brotherly love; withered then flourishing again, it revives the family's reputation." After this incident, the redbud tree's not dying became a symbol of family harmony. The grandfather took "harmony brings auspiciousness" as the family's guiding principle, and the world likened the redbud flower to the "brothers' flower." This story was later recorded by Wu Jun of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties in "Supplementary Records of Qi Xie": "The three brothers Tian Zhen of Jingzhao discussed dividing the property; all their means of livelihood were divided equally, except for a redbud tree in front of the hall, which they agreed to split into three parts and would cut down the next day. The tree immediately withered and died, as if scorched by fire. Tian Zhen went to see it, was greatly shocked, and said to his brothers: 'The tree is of one trunk; hearing it will be split and cut, it has withered—this means people are not as good as trees.' He was overcome with grief, and no longer cut the tree. The tree at once flourished again. The brothers were moved and combined their wealth, and thus became a family of filial piety." Later generations wrote a poem describing it:
A cluster of redbud flowers before the courtyard,
Joyous when together, sorrowful when apart.
Let us take the matter of brotherly love and withering and flourishing,
Left for later generations as a model.
In order to strictly observe the ancestral teachings, the Tian family also adopted the redbud tree as the name of their family hall, passing it down to later generations to hand on to their descendants, hence it was called the "Redbud Hall."