Over the course of nearly 1,000 years, names of places evolve. Our village is called Bright Creek 光溪, as the title of the 1948 Genealogy indicates. However, it is also referred to as the Bailiang Qiao Cun 百梁桥忖 (Hundred-Beam Bridge Village). Over the course of history, no less than six names refer to the same village. There are also six names refer to the same creek, which is more like a river. Even the Ningbo county 宁波县 within which the village and creek situates also has six different names over the several Dynasties’ evolution.
Our original village in Ningbo county, the ancient origin of our tribe, the cities of our migration from Northern China to Southern China, and many other places are a bewilderment of names and locations. The following article attempts to clarify these myriads of names and locations.
Ted Marr, 25th Generation
Names of Key Places
There are two sets of names with which we need to be familiar. The first set are the places associated with our village and its surrounding area. The second set are the cities relating to the question: What is our origin, and how the Ancients arrived at our village.
A word of caution regarding Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese: wherever possible, in all the documents which I created, I try to keep to the Simplified Chinese script. However, in the original documents, quite often everything is in Traditional Chinese. So, the characters may look a little different. Furthermore, I will make some mistakes in my writing and unknowingly slipped into Traditional Chinese. I apologize for these un-intentional errors
Over the centuries, our village has many different names. Sometimes a different name is used by a different document, while other times, due to the vagaries of successive dynastic administrative officials, names get changed.
These days, our village’s name has been either called Bright Creek Village or Hundred Beam Bridge Village. Or, in Chinese QuangXi Cun光溪忖 and Bailiang Qiao Cun 百梁桥忖 or just shortened to Bailiang Cun. Bright Creek is a small river. Over the course of history, different documents and villagers also used different names for Bright Creek. The village sits in a larger administrative area, called Ningbo 宁波. Ningbo also has many names that changed considerably over the course of history. The following is a summary of the different names for the river, the village, and the surrounding area. The comments are important for your understanding of these names.
Depending on which document one gives credence to, we either originally descended from the Fufeng Ma family 扶风马氏 or the Gelolu of Uyghur 葛逻禄, 回鶻.
There are two possible original originating locations of our family: Fufeng 宋扶 of Shaanxi Province or Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
And, there are two possible locations in northern China from where our first-generation ancestor, Xiao Kuan 孝宽left for Southern China: Kaifeng 开封 (sometimes called Bian Jing 汴京) or Nanyang 南阳.
There are two possible locations in the Ningbo area where Xiao Kuan first established homestead: JianAo 建嶴 or Mao Shan 茅山.
The following is a summary of the location names that changed throughout history.
Geographic Locations of Key Places
The first set of maps #1 to #4 include Bright Creek, MaoShan, Jian Ao, and the Tombs. The series of screen captures essentially zoom into our village from a larger perspective.
The second set of maps #5 to #8 include Bishkek, Fufeng, Kaifeng, and Ningbo. These maps give you a perspective of how far apart these places are from each other.
