光溪马氏重修谱序 Title: Bright Creek Ma Clan Revised Edition Preface
- 世间万物本源于天，人类本源于祖先, 不能不尊重祖先。 The root of all things is heaven, the root of man are his ancestors. Therefore, it is not possible not to respect our ancestors. (The first line is derived from Confucius’s writing.)
- 如果不尊重祖先，家族就不能团聚。 If we do not respect our ancestors, the clan will not be united.
- 古代世家望族建立祠堂用来排列辈分。 Ancient clans set up ancestral temples in order to clearly define each generation and generational order. (The last two words 邵穆 in the original Classical Chinese is a very difficult term. Literary, they mean “left” and “right.” Conceptually, it means the right order of things. Ancestors are arranged with the oldest person in the middle and the next oldest to his left (looking from his perspective), and the next one to his right (or to our left). The fourth oldest will be placed next to the left of the second oldest, and so forth. This order of things also means doing things the proper way. In family plots, this is the placement order of the graves.)
- 定会为了辨别嫡庶而写家谱。 The reason for creating the Genealogy is clearly to define the delineation of the family relationship of those children from the first wife and those from the concubines.
- 这不就是所说的尊敬祖先团聚族人的做法吗。 Is this not the reason and method to unite the clan?
- 我家乡光溪的马氏一族存在很久了， 家族盛大， 族人众多， 居南越之首。 。 Our Bright Creek Ma Clan has a long history. We have a large and prosperous clan. We are the top clan of the Southern Yue Territories.
- 先前最早的祖先厚洪公宋季为了躲避金乱从汴京（开封）搬迁到浙江的明州（宁 波）。 A long time ago, our ancestor Elder Houhong of the Song Dynasty, in order to escape from the Jin tribe invasion, migrated from Bianjing to Zhejiang Mingzhou. (Houhong is the school name of our progenitor, XiaoGuan. Bianjing is the ancient city name of Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty. And Mingzhou is the ancient traditional name of Ningbo.)
- 传承五代到了顺公的三个儿子。 When it reached the fifth generation, Elder Shun has three sons. (Now, the fifth-Generation ancestor is YuanCheng, whose school name is a single word Shun.)
- 长子大贞住在茅山， 次子大有和弟弟大显选择居住在光溪的镇江桥成家。 The oldest son, DaiZhen, stayed at Maoshan, second son, Daiyou, took his brother, Daixian, and migrated to Bright Creek Zhenjiang Bridge and established a home there. (Zhenjiang Bridge is another name for Eight Hundred Beam Bridge.)
- 那之后的子孙分散居住的很多。 近的住在郡城、湓浦（江西九江）、穿山、定海 Thereafter, the clan scattered to many parts including nearby cities of Jun Cheng, Penpu of Jiujiang in Jiangsi , Chuanshan, Dinghai.
- 远的到了台州、杭州、金华、樊城（湖北襄阳）等地。 Others went far away to Taizhou, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Fancheng in Hubei, etc.
- 天各一方， 不能一一列举， 重要的是都是光溪的子孙后代。 Many went to different places. It is difficult to list everyone who has gone to their selected locations. These are all descendants of the Ma Clan of Bright Creek.
- 今年春， 宝甫君、蘅泉君、兆磻君打算作传， 后来文献散失， 急着想要修治， 以 使同姓后代得以联结延续，。 This Spring, because much of the earlier material has been lost, several people, including Baofu, Hengquan, Zhaofan, decided to compile an extension of the Clan Genealogy so all future generations could be connected. (I have not had a chance to look up who these individuals are. Presumably, they are in the genealogy)
- 便来和我商议， 我说王谢家族已经结束， 古代的仕宦之人、名门望族到现在都分 散到四面八方， 声名断绝， 而居住在这里的马氏家族， 经历了二十四代， 六百多 年， 它的子孙孝敬父母、敬爱兄长， 努力耕作， 饱读诗书， 执守礼制， 前后相传延续没有停止过， 不就是祖上积累的功德才得以这样么。 现在委托我记录， 我没 有推辞， 沿袭旧谱继续修正， 它的起源、嫡亲、旁系， 每一方面都分析的非常清 楚， 对于尊敬祖先团结族人这个道理希望有小小补益， 而依样画葫芦免不了会被 有识之人取笑 了。 So I came to discuss with me. I said that the Wang Xie family is over. The ancient officials and famous families are now scattered in all directions, and their reputations are cut off. The Ma family living here has gone through 24 generations, 600 For many years, its children and grandchildren respected their parents and loved their elder brothers, worked hard, read poetry and books, and maintained the ritual system. Now entrust me to record, I have no excuses, continue to amend the old spectrum, its origin, sister-in-law, and sideline are analyzed very clearly in every aspect. I hope that there is a small supplement to the principle of respecting the ancestors and uniting the tribes. Copier of a gourde will inevitably be teased by people of insight.
光绪十年(1884年)甲申年十一月十六 溪上后学芝园周康祺拜谨 Tenth years of Guangxu (1884) Year of JiaShen Eleventh Moon and 16 th day Zhou Kangqi, at Xishangho school