The Pedigree Of The Chio-ssu-lo Family

Abstract:In northwest China, there were a large number of ethnic great clans that were influential in the locality and even the whole northwest. Unfortunately, it was almost blank in the study of them in the ethnic history. This dissertation studied the Chio-ssu-lo family, one of them which has had a long history of almost one thousand years.It made full use of historical documents based on the methods of comparison and comprehensive approaches, meanwhile the macro and the micro, the historical and the actual, the theoretical and the practical perspectives were synthesized to explain and analyze, and compare the history and the actuality applying the ethnological theories in order to unfold entirely and objectively the surging history of the northwest China from the evolvement of a single clan, the genealogy of the Chio-ssu-los serving as the main line and the ethnic policies as the subsidiary.There are fourteen chapters in this dissertation. The conclusion is the reflections on the study of the family, and it is also a theoretical consideration of the research of ethnic clans. The other thirteen chapters are divided into two parts. The first part is a critical biography on Chio-ssu-lo himself, mainly on his life from the disintegrating time of turmoil in Kansu-Tsinghai Tibetan regions when he was born after the collapse of the Tibetan regime in ninth century to the hard time of pioneering an enterprise with arduous efforts in his youth. The history of northwest China in Sung dynasty could be reanalyzed from his striving military life and the relationships between diverse minorities could also be reexamined.The second part is a study on his descendants. After Chio-ssu-lo died, his progeny were still active in the northwest and maintained the surviving local regime founded by their ancestors, which finally died out with the decline of the family and the rise of other powers. Since then, his posterity remained functioning on the historical stage in the development of the region. In Yuan dynasty, they submitted to the Yuan central regime and made war exploits in the unification of China. The clan reached its greatest glory when Chao Ruli was conferred one of the outstanding founding fathers. In Ming dynasty, Chao Tsi, one of the Chio-ssu-los rapidly to submit to the Ming central dynasty and played his role in the northwest. Unfortunately, with Chao Tsi's implication in the "Lanyu Case", the entire clan was executed and thrown into the darkest period in its history.Later on, when Chao An returned to his power and was conferred Huichuan Earl by the emperor Yingdzong (1436-1448) and granted the'Iron Vouch of Exemption from Death', the Chio-ssu-los rose again and Chao An was made the first chieftain of the Chaos and inherited by his progeny until Chao Tianyi in the Republic of China (1911-1949) when the heredity ended. From rising up to the central regime as an equal to the chieftain, Chio-ssu-lo's scions successfully adapted to their roles, seized the right time and opportunities in the long process of history and consequently created their glories one after another.To sum up, the dissertation focused on the history of northwest China from a fresh perspective of the genealogy of the Chio-ssu-los, the interaction between ethnic clans and the imperial dynasties and the complicated relationships among themselves in the long history.