“您贵姓？”在中国，初次见面，这一问总是少不了。

　　当你回答“我姓某”时，如若姓氏相同，问的人自然而然就会将你归到某姓氏的家族里，因为通过这个姓氏可以追根溯源。

　　千百年来，人们把祖宗的世系记录下来传给子孙，以此证明家族的存在、家族延续的血脉。这就是家谱。

　　作为姓氏宗族的档案，家谱承载了一个家族的历史和世系的脉络，也承载了这个家族的价值观和正能量。与家谱相伴的，往往有文字化的家规、家训、家风。从世族大家文字化的家训，到普通百姓父母长辈的一言一行，家规、家教虽然形式不同，传递的却都是一个家庭或家族的道德准则和价值取向。

　　家谱是传承家训的重要载体。“一时之语，可以守之百世；一家之语，可以共之天下。”家训的教化功能如此强大，人们便将其或刊印成籍，或载之于谱，期望传之后世，世代相承，兴隆家族，治平天下。

　　而家风作为一种精神层面的存在，看不见、摸不着，它的形成与延续有赖于家训、家规的传承发扬。

　　对中国人来说，有家就有家风。有句俗语：“栽什么树苗结什么果，撒什么种子开什么花”。意思是，人的成长与家庭环境、家风、家规等密切相关。

　　家是最小国，国是千万家。在这期报道里，我们寻访了浙江几个家族的故事。

　　从“江南第一家”浦江郑义门，到耕读传家的海宁查氏，再到代代践行“10字”家风的瑞安俞氏，家国情怀化成一颗颗中国心，融入一代又一代中国人的血脉之中。

　　这其中呈现的立身之道、齐家之方，为传统文化的传承提供了文化基因，也为当代浙江人提供了精神养分。

　　（本文图片提供：CFP）

Surnames are important in China. When strangers meet and ask each other politely what their respectful surnames are, they are not merely being polite or attaching a name to a face. The ritual is also meant to find about ancestors and where they originally came from. Some surnames can go back to several thousand years ago in some cases. The odds that strangers share a surname are great. After all, for example, nearly 100 million people in China are surnamed Wang. About 22 million Chinese people share the family name Wu, which ranks the last of the top ten Chinese surnames.

Chinese people not only share surnames. They share ancestors and share kinship memories documented in family and clan genealogies. Chinese genealogies not only preserve ancestral roots and history and culture, record ancestral deeds and accomplishments, but also document family mottos and ancestral instructions that carry on value, virtue, tradition, taboos, and behavioral code, etc. These written mottos and instructions may vary from family to family and from clan to clan, but they function to hold family together and guide family members through ups and downs in life.

In Chinese culture, running a family is often compared to running a state. Some go so far as to state that a family is the smallest state and that a state is nothing but an entity of families.

This issue of Cultural Dialogue presents some prominent families in history in Zhejiang. How these families thrived and became known to the public reflect precious family cultures that still nurture people of today in Zhejiang.