Ever heard of it -- Liu and Wang don't get married?

[Ian_Lee]

I read the Reader's Opinion in the current (Or last month's issue) National Geographic Magazine which a Chinese reader commented on the Han Dynasty article that was published months earlier.

This reader -- Mr. Liu -- claimed that in their hometown there has been such tradition that the sons and daughters of his clan never get married with the sons and daughters of the Wang clan. The reason is that Wang Meng had toppled the Western Han Dynasty.

Has anybody ever heard of such tradition? Since Liu and Wang are both popular last names with at least tens of millions people, it would severely restrict the number of potential spouses for each group respectively.

[holyman]

back in my grandad's hometown people from his village never marry people with surname 'lin' in the past, cos they had a feud during the qing dynasty. his village consist mainly of family with the same surname as my family, while the lins are the one of the larger families in the next village. they had a clan war in the end and the lins were almost wiped out. 2 yrs ago i visited my grandad's hometown, and i saw this funny roundabout in the middle of the village with a little 土地庙 in the center. i asked my dad and he told me according to grandad that was the place where the slaughtered lins were buried. the little temple was there to calm their souls. i also remembered my dad told me he ended a relationship with a 'lin' lady in his younger days because of this too, althou he was born outside china. it no real 'romeo and juliet' ending...