Sublineage

At that time, before sublineation had become significant for the local group, banishment would have amounted to dismissing a troublesome individual and his wife and children, rather than an entire sublineage consisting of several families ...

Many Hakka on the Pingtung plain who bear the surname Ch’en and trace their origins to Chiaying chou in Kwangtung are genealogically divided into several hu, or sublineages. Most of Tatieh's Ch’en belong to a sublineage known as Nan-shan, or “South Mountain.” As in the case of Hsü, Nan-shan Ch’en living in various villages were united by the creation of two ancestral trusts with headquarters in Chutien township.

These sublineage groups typically consist of three or four generations of brothers and their sons.