ABSTRACT
Tracking lineage in the tabular format, and building halls to house ancestral spirits, were practiced not only by common-surname groups, but also by Buddhist, Daoists, and shamans. The compilations of written genealogies, and together with that, celebrations of their compilations in written prefaces, not only gathered together information about objects of worship (gods and spirits), but also made them predictable (“tamed them”). Common-surname lineage genealogies came out of a much broader tradition that resulted from the increasing use of writing and texts.
