Author: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (---.uwa.edu.au)
Date: 12-21-01 23:18
19. About Chinese Surnames
關 於 華 人 的 姓 氏
Long ago, before Huang Di (黃帝) or the Yellow Emperor, people living in
the land of what we now call China already had surnames to identify
themselves. At that time it was a maternal society (母系公社). People knew
only their mothers and they did not whom their fathers were.
Surname is called Xing (姓) in Chinese. Xing is a combination of two radicles:
Nu (女 female) and Sheng (生 produce), that is females produce children.
Children followed their mothers' surnames because they did not know their fathers. Legend has it that, only after Fu Xi Shi (伏羲氏), whose surname name was Feng
(風 or wind), had established rules of marriages that children knew their fathers and they began to follow their surnames.
During the Dynasties of Xia (夏朝 2205BC to 1766BC), Shang (商朝 1783BC to 1122BC) and Zhou (周朝 1134BC to 256BC) people already had Xing
(姓 surnames) and Shi (氏 family name). Xing derived from the village where a person lived or his particular tribe. Shi could be a title bestowed upon a person by the ruler, the official position a person was holding or a posthumous title given by
a ruler.
For a commoner he had Xing and Ming (名 name) but he had no Shi. For an
aristocrat he had a surname, Shi and a name. A female and a male having
the same Shi were allowed to get marry. However, traditionally, if they
shared the same surname they were forbidden to intermarry because they
were supposedly shared the same ancestor. It was, and even nowadays,
considered mildly incestuous for a couple sharing the same surname to
marry. Evidences had showed that a same surname couple could produce
inferior offspring.
During the reign of Li Shi Min (李世民 627AD to 649AD) of Tang Dynasty
(618AD to 907AD) an official by the name of Gao Shi Lian (高士廉) compiled
all the surnames he could find at that time into a book entiled "Shi Zu Zhi
氏族志 or The Annal of the Clans". The administration of Li Shi Min used this
book as a guide for marriages and for admittance to government offices.
Bai Jia Xing (百家姓) written by an anonym during the Song Dynasty (960AD
to 1279AD) was the most common book on surnames ever written. It has 408
single chracter surnames and 30 double character surnames. Nowadays there
are more than 5,000 Chinese surnames. My book "The Origin of Chinese Surnames 華人姓的來源" contains the most common 550 of them.
Many countries have the most three common surnames. In Britain the three
most common surnames are: Smith, Jones and Williams. The three most common
surnmames in U.S.A are: Smith, Johnson and Carson; in France: the Martin,
Bernard and Dupont; in Germany: Schultz, Mueller, and Shmidt and in
Russia: the Ivanov, Vasiliev, Deternov. What about China? Well, there are
four most common surnames in China: the Zhang (張), Wang (王), Li (李) and
Zhao (趙). There are more than 100 millions Chinese with the surname Zhang
and another 100 millions with surname Wang. Surnames Zhang and Wang
could be the most common surnames in the whole world.
It was estimasted that;
forty percent of the Chinese or 400 million are with these ten surnames:
Zhang (張), Wang (王), Li (李), Zhao (趙), Chen (陳), Yang (楊),
Wu (吳), Liu (劉), Huang (黃), and Zhou (周).
More than ten percent or 100 million Chinese are with these surnames:
Xu (徐), Zhu (朱), Lin (林), Sun (孫), Ma (馬), Gao (高), Hu (胡), Zheng
(鄭), Guo (郭) and Xiao (蕭).
About ten percent of the Chinese share these ten surnames: Xie (謝), He
(何), Xu (許), Song (宋), Shen (沈), Luo (羅), Han (韓), Deng (鄧), Liang
(梁) and Ye (葉).
The following fifteen surnames are also being shared by about ten percent
Chinese: Fang (方), Cui (崔), Cheng (程), Pan (潘), Cao (曹), Feng (馮),
Wang (汪), Cai (蔡), Yuan (袁), Lu (盧), Tang (唐), Qian (錢), Du (杜),
Peng (彭) and Lu (陸).
In other words, more than seventy percent or 700 million of the Chinese in
the world are sharing the above forty five surnames. On the contrary, only
about thirty percent of the Chinese sharing the rare 4,900 surnames like:
Miao (苗), Mai (麥), Yue (岳), Si-Ma (司-馬), Ou-Yang (歐-陽), Mao (毛)
etc etc.
.
The Relocation Of Eight Surnames
八 姓 南 遷 入 閩
During the Jin Dynasty (晉朝 265AD to 420AD) the five, non-Han Chinese,
semi-nomadic tribes ravaged and overran Northern China. They were the Turkic Xiong Nu (匈奴), the Jie (羯), the Xian Bei (鮮卑), the Di (氐) and the Qiang (羌).
This was the period the historians called Wu Fu Shi Liu Guo (五胡十六國) or the
five non-Han Chinese semi-nomadic tribes and the sixteen Kingdoms or the Dynasties of the North and the South.
Unwilling to live under the oppression of these foreign tribes many big and
powerful families as well as the upper classes followed the Jin Court (晉室)
migrating to the south to Southern China.
The Jin Shu ( 晉書 or the historical recordes of the Jin Dynasty) said,
"When Luo Jing (落京 present day Louyang 洛陽 city) was overrun, 60 to
70 per cent of the Government officials in the Zhong Zhou (中州 the alias
of Henan province 河南省) found refuge near the Yangtze River."
According to the book called Jin Book written by Wang Dau (王導):
"Some of these exodus moved to Qun Yang (尋陽) , Wu Hu (蕪湖) and
Jing Yi (京邑 in the present day southern Anhui province 安徽省, and
others to the regions of present day southern provinces of Jiangsu 江蘇省,
Jiangxi 江西省 and Zhejiang 浙江省). Qiao Zhi Mu Si (僑置牧司)
administrations were installed by the Jin Court (Eastern Jin 東晉
was not established until March 317AD in Jian Kang 建康 in present day
Jiang Ning county 江寧縣 in Jiangsu province) to care of these new settlers
(Liu Wang Ke Ren 流亡客人) in the regions of:
(1) Huai Nan (淮南 present day south of Huai Shui River 淮水);
north of Yangtze River in Hubei province (湖北省);
east of Han Shui 漢水 River and northern regions of the
Yangtze River in the provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui)
(2) Song Zi prefecture (松滋郡 present day in northern Hubei province)
(3) Tang Yi county (堂邑縣) in Shandong province (山東省)
(4) Wei Jun in Jingxi province (魏郡江西省)
(5) Shang Dang in Jiangsu province (上黨江蘇省)
(6) Yang Zhou (揚州 in Jiangsu province"
The recorded eight wealthy, powerful and upper class clans who relocated to
the above regions were the:
(1) Lin (林), (2) Huang (黃), (3) Chen (陳), (4) Zheng (鄭), (5) Zhan (詹),
(6) Qiu (丘), (7) He (何) and (8) Hu (胡).
They settled down in these region permanently and multiplied. Many, many
clans of much lesser wealthy were not recorded at that time. However they
were recorded in the later census.
From the history of Jun Dynasty (晉書)
The Ruler Forcefully Created A Surname
堅 強 的 創 一 個 姓
During the Sui Dynasty (隋朝 518AD to 617AD) Li Yuan (李淵), the general responsible for the defence of Jin Yang (晉陽) and Tai Yuan (太原 present day Tai Yuan city in Shanxi province 山西省) against the nomads from the north, rebelled against the Sui Court. Li Yuan founded the Tang Dynasty (618AD to 907AD.
However, the Tang Dynasty started to decline in around 760AD. It was mainly
due to the breakdown of the tax systems, the military defense and the
extravagant in governmental expenditures.
In 907AD, Zhu Wen (朱溫) the imperial military commissioner usurped the throne and founded his own dynasty, the Later Liang Dynasty (後梁朝 907AD to 923AD). That was the end of the Tang Dynasty after 290 years in existence.
After the collapse of the Tang Dynasty the land entered the period of Five
Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The five dynasties that followed one another
in quick succession were in North China. The ten kingdoms were in South
China.
In the same year in 907AD Wang Shen Zhi (王審知) the military governor of Chang Le Jun (長樂郡) founded the Min Kingdom (閩國王). He established his capital at Chang Le (長樂 present day Fu Zhou 福州 city in Fujian province 福建省). Wang Shen Zhi titled himself the King of the Min Kingdom. He decreed that no one should share the same name with him. He ordered the surname of Shen (沈) to be changed since the pronunciation of Shen was the same as Shen (審) one of the character of his name Wang Shen Zhi. He decided that the radical three dots which means water on the left side of surname Shen should be deleted and one dot should be added to the top on the right hand corner of the modified character which ultimately became YOU (尤).
Luckily Wang Shen Zhi controlled only a small part of China (present day
Fujian province). If he had conquered the whole of China surname Shen would
have disappeared from history.
Eventually, in 945AD the Kingdom of Min was conquered by the Kingdom of Southern Tang (南唐). Many people with the new surname You did not bother to revert to their old surname Shen. Therefor surnames Shen and You came from the same ancestor Ji Dai (姬戴)
An Unusual Surname - Qiang
一個稀有的姓 - 牆
In 1280AD, the Mongols came from northern China and destroyed the Song
Dynasty ( 宋朝 960AD to 1280AD). They established the Yuan Dynasty (元朝
1280AD to1368AD). The Mongols treated the northern Han-Chinese as
3rd class citizens and the southern Han-Chinese, 4th class citizens.
Han-Chinese were oppressed, suppressed, maltreated, persecuted, generally
ill-treated and regarded as nothing more than slaves.
The Han-Chinese had had enough of hardship under the Mongols. During the
years between 1348AD to 1353AD many groups of people were organized
throughout the country for the sole of fostering rebellion against the Mongols: Fang Guo Zhen (方國珍), Guo Zi Xing (郭子興) and Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋) in Zhejiang province (浙江省); Liu Fu Tong (劉福通) in Anhui province (安徽省); Li Er (李二)
and Zhang Shi Cheng (張士成) in Jiangsu province (江蘇省); and many others in other parts of the country.
The progenitor of surname Qiang was Ming Yu Zhen who was from Sui Zhou (隨州present day Sui county 隨縣 in Hubei province 湖北省). In 1351AD Min Yu Zhen organized an armed band in Qing Shan (青山 present day in the northeast of Dang Tu county 東南當塗縣 in Anhui province 安徽省). Later Ming Yu Zhun and his armed band joined the Red Scarf Army and he became its commander-in-chief. In 1357AD the Red Scarf Army captured the eastern part of present day province of Sichuan
(四川省). In 1360AD, Ming Yu Zhen, proclaimed the formation of the Kingdom of Shu (蜀王國) and established his caiptal in Zhong Qing (重慶). Ming Yu Zhen entitled himself the King of Zhu (蜀王).
The Mongolian army arrived to attack the Kingdom of Shu. The city wall of Zhong
Qing was very strong and thick that protected the capital. Ming Yu Zhen managed to drive the Mongolian away.
Two years later, Ming Yu Zhen changed the name of his kingdom from the Kingdom of Shu to Xia Dynasty (夏朝 1362AD to 1371AD). Ming Yu Zhen called himself the first Emperor of Xia Dynasty. However, he died in 1366AD and his eldest son
Ming Sheng (明昇) succeeded him as the Emperor of Xia Dynasty. A few of his sons adopted QIANG (牆) as their surname in order to remember the wall of
Zhong Qing that had saved their lives. Nowadays, there are many people with this surname living in the cities of Shaanghai (上海), Beijing (北京) and the provinces
of Sichuan (四川省) and Hubei (湖北省).
History of Ming Dynasty (明書).
The Emperor Changed A Surname
皇 帝 換 姓
According to Shi Ji (史記) or historical records by Si-Ma Qian (司-馬遷),
Gong-Sun Xuan Yuan (公孫軒轅) was born in a place called Shou Qiu ( 壽丘 in
the present day northeast of Qu Fu county 曲阜縣 of Shandong province 山東省) and grew up near a river called Ji (姬). He became the leader of the Xia clan (夏族) and changed his surname from Gong-Sun to Ji, the name of the river near which he spent his childhood. He defeated the Jiang clan (姜族) and later formed an
alliance with the clans of Jiang and Yi (夷族).
In 2698BC Ji Xuan Yuan, with the helps from the clans of Jiang and Yi, defeated the belligerent clan of Li (黎族) at Zhuo Lu (涿 鹿 (present day Huai Lai county
懷來縣 in Hebei province 河北省). After the victory over the Lis, the people elected Ji Xuan Yuan as the leader of the united clans. The people gave him the title of Huang Di or the Yellow Emperor which was named after the colour of the earth which was and still is in yellow colour.
Huang Di encouraged exogamy as he wanted to create a melting pot of mixed blood people in his domain. This vision made him highly respected throughout the
course of Chinese history. He was and still is regarded as the ancestor of
the present day Chinese.
Huang Di had twenty five sons and he established fourteen settlements in
different regions of the land of what we now call China. He appointed 14 of his capable sons to rule the 14 settlements. The 14 new feudal lords took on new surnames after the geographical locations which are given by their father. Therefore they did not use their father's surname Ji as their surnames.
A descendant of Huang Di called Ji Fa (姬發) founded the Zhou Dynasty (周朝1134BC to 256BC) and he gave authority to his children, relatives, ofiicials and generals to rule on his behalf other parts of his empire. There were fifty three vassals States with the surname of Ji. However, most of them, in fact none of
them used Ji as thier surname but adopted the names of their vassal states as
their surnames. That was the reason why there were so few people with the surname of Ji.
In 713AD Li Long Ji (李隆基) became the Emperor of Tang Dynasty (唐朝 619AD
to 907AD). Emperor Li Long Ji issued a decree forcing people with the surname
of Ji (姬) change to Zhou (周) as Zhou Dynasty. Emperor Li Long Ji argued that since Ji was the surname of all the rulers of Zhou Dynasty it was appropriate for them to use Zhou as heir surname. Besides Ji (基) and Ji (姬) had the same pronounciation and Li Long Ji did not want them to use their surname which sounded like his name.
A New Surname Was Created (一 個 姓 的 誕 生)
After the collapse of the Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618AD to 907AD) China entered
into the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (五代十國). The five
Dynasties that followed one another in quick succession were in North China.
The ten Kingdoms were in South China.
In 907AD Wang Shen Zhi (王審知), the military governor of Chang Le Prefecture,
(長樂郡) founded the Min Kingdom (閩國 907AD to 945AD). Wang Shen Zhi established his capital at Chang Le (present day Fu Zhou city 福州 in Fujian province 福建省) and titled himself the King of Min (閩王).
Wang Shen Zhi decreed that no one should share the same name with him. He ordered that the surname of Shen (沈) to be changed because the pronounciation
of Shen was the same as one of the words of his full name, Wang Shen Zhi. He decided that the radicle 3 dots (water) in the left side of the Chinese word bearing
the surname Shen should be deleted. One dot should be added to the top on the right hand corner of the modified word which ultimately became YOU (尤) which means "extraordinarily").
Fortunately, Wang Shen Zhi controlled only a small part of China, only the present
day province of Fujian. If he had conquered the whole of China, according to the historians, the surname Shen would have disappeared from history.
In 945AD his Kingdom of Min was conquered by the Kingdom of Southern Tang
(南唐 937AD to 975AD in present day Jiangsu province 江蘇省). Many people
with the new surname You (尤) did not change it back to their old surname Shen
(沈). So the surname You was the offspring of Shen. People with the surnames Shen and You descended from the same ancestor, Ji Dai (姬戴).
The Japanese Changed A Chinese Surname
日 本 軍 閥 改 華 人 姓
In the State of Yue (越國 present day Zhu Ji Xian 諸暨縣 in Zhejiang province
浙江省) there was a huge pavilion built on a mountain called Ou Yu (歐餘). It
faced south and received sunlight throughout the year. People living around the area near the mountain called it Ou Yang Ting (歐陽亭 or "the sunshine pavilion")
It is located in present day Wu Jin Xian (吳進縣) in Jiangsu province (江蘇省).
Yue and Chu (楚 present day Jiang Ling Xian 江陵縣 in Hubei province 湖北省)
were neighbouring and rival States which fought a war in 334BC. Yue State was
defeated and annexed by Chu.
Si Ti (姒蹄), the second son of the last ruler, Si Wu Jiang (姒無疆) of Yue was delegated to administer the district of Ou Yang Ting. He was titled Ou Yang Ting Hou (歐陽亭侯) which was inheritable by his descendants after his death.
By the end of the period of Warring States (戰國時代 453BC to 221BC) there
were only seven States left in the land. The State of Qin (秦國 present day Feng Xiang Xian 鳳翔縣 in Shaanxi province 陜西省) was the strongest and in 221BC
it conquered and subjugated the other six States and united China.
In 223BC the State of Qin conquered Chu. The title Ou Yang Ting Hou was
abolished. Ti the first Ou Yang Ting Hou had many descendants. Some of them
adopted Ou Yang (歐陽) as their surname and left out the words Ting and Hou
(pavilion and Marquis).
The island of Taiwan (台灣) was occupied by Japan from 1894 to 1945. During
the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan (1894 to 1945) the Japanese forced those people with the surname Ou-Yang to delete the character Yang (陽). Within a few days all those with this surname had them shortened from Ou-Yang to Ou (歐).
The Japanese have double-characters for their surnames and they forbade the Taiwanese to have double-character surnames like them. However, after the Japanese surrender in 1945, many Ous did not have their surnames reverted
to Ou-Yang. However they are still considered Ou-Yang ancestors.
See My Book Entitled "The Origin Of Chinese Surnames"
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
All rights reserved 2001
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