Clan stelae and some aspects of clan culture in Vietnam

Abstract

Family stelae has a valuable meaning for each Vietnamese clan. Before 1945, most of the clans owned this type of stelae, which was often erected on the occasion of big events such as the construction of clan worshipping house or the election of people to be worshipped in the presence of their members. Nowadays, a large number of these stelae still exist which accounts for a signifi cant proportion of the stone stelae in Vietnam. The study of these stelae shall be greatly useful to understand clan regulations, genealogies or family members who achieved high results in academic exams. Based on documents and data about the stelae inscriptions available at the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), the article analyzes the characteristics of the Vietnamese clan culture through stelae inscriptions following the main themes including clan worshipping house, clan genealogy, clan descendants, clan conventions, and clan members who passed the confucian exams.

(Received 10 January 2022; published 15 September 2022)