Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-12-11 20:40
Chinese surname - the 17th most common Chinese surname -- 林 (LIN)
LIN or two woods means: forest or grove.
The surname Lin is over 3,000 years old.
The surname Lin originated in an area referred to during the Han Dynasty
(漢朝 206BC to 220AD) as the Xihe prefecture (西河郡). The present day location
of Xihe prefecture is in Lishi county (離石縣 111.8 degree East and 37.2
degree North, on the world map) of Shanxi province (山西省).
Shang King Zhou (商紂王), reigned 1154 BC to 1122 BC, of the Shang Dynasty
(商朝1783 BC to 1122 BC) was a clever and capable king; however, he was
also capable of great cruelty. King Zhou was also very proud, refusing
to accept advice from anyone. At some point, Shang King Zhou married Su
Daji (蘇妲己) allegedly the most beautiful woman in the land. The couple
neglected the welfare of the country, building many palaces and exhausting
the resources of the nation. In reaction to his advisers suggesting financial
restraint, Shang King Zhou started torturing or killing anyone who dared
to disagree with his extravagant lifestyle.
The people of Zhou Clan (周族) lived in the Wei (渭) Valley west of the
great bend in the Yellow River. The Zhou Clan was within the domain of the
Shang. The leader of the Zhou Clan, Ji Chang (姬昌), was obliged to serve
in the Shang Court as an adviser and one of his sons Ji Kao (姬考) became
his assistant.
One day, Ji Chang urged restrain in Shang Zhou King's spending - the nation
was in dire financial trouble. Enraged, Shang Zhou King imprisoned Ji Chang
and had his son Ji Kao killed. Ji Chang was released after three years and
return to his homeland, dying soon after. His eldest son, Ji Fa (姬發)
succeeded him as the leader of the Zhou Clan, swearing he would kill the
wicked Shang King Zhou. Ji Fa began to organize a land army.
Shang King Zhou's uncle, Zi Bigan (子比干) also advised Shang King Zhou
on the deficit. Shang King Zhou could not tolerate any nagging and had his
uncle, Zi Bigan killed. Chen Shi (陳氏), Zi Bigan's wife, heard that her
husband was executed by Shang King Zhou and despite being pregnant, fled
with a few housemaids to the forest in the area of Muye (牧野 located in
the present day region of the of counties of Weihui 衛輝縣 and Qi 淇縣 of
Henan province 河南省). Fortunately, the housemaids found a cave in the
forest, which they lived in. A few months later, Chen Shi gave birth to
a baby boy and she named him Jian (堅).
Meanwhile, Ji Fa led his army and marched towards the Shang's capital, Zhaoge
(朝歌 present day Qi Xian in Henan province). Shang King Zhou also led his
army to intercept Ji Fa. A decisive battle was fought at Muye. Shang King
Zhou's army were defeated and he escaped to his summer palace where he committed
suicide ending the Shang Dynasty's 660 years reign. Ji Fa established the
Zhou Dynasty (周朝1134 BC to 256 BC) and became the first King and was
better known as Zhou King Wu (周武王).
On hearing that Shang King Zhou was dead, Chen Shi returned to Zhaoge with
her young son and housemaids. Since Chen Shi was the wife of Zi Bigan, an
aristocrat of the preceding Dynasty, Zhou King Wu welcomed her to live in
Zhaoge. Zhou King Wu bestowed upon Jian, the young son of Chen Shi, the
surname of LIN (林) which means forest, the place where he was born. The
baby boy then came to be known as Lin Jian (林堅). The descendants of Lin
Jian continued to use Lin as their surname.
The couplet of surname Lin is,
源自子姓,---Yuan2 Zi4 Zi3 xing4,
望出西河.---Wang4 chu Xihe
It was evolved from surname Zi
And it began to spread from Xihe in Shanxi province.
-------------------------------------------
Famous people produced by the Lin clan includes:
(1) 林則徐 (Lin Zexu 1785AD to 1850AD).
China, under Manzhou rule, Qing Dynasty (清朝 1644AD to 1912AD) was considered
quite prosperous and peaceful until the beginning of the nineteenth century
when opium began to flow into China. Then there was an opium war with Britain
in 1840AD and the uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國) under
the leadership of a Hakka called Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全). Opium was the biggest
evil to China.
At the end of the eighteenth century, trade between China and Britain was
much in China's favour. From 1780AD to 1790AD, China exported tea worth
about 96 million silver dollars to Britain. During the period from 1781AD
to 1793AD, the total export of British goods to China was only worth about
16 million silver dollars. The British knew that if they were to allow trade
with China to continue in this way, they would not find enough silver dollars
to pay for the Chinese tea. The British had to find a way to off set their
trade deficit with China.
The British devised a devious plan. They began to plant millions and millions
of poppies in the Assam region of India. Opium is derived from the poppies
and the British exported their opium to China. During the twenty years between
1820AD to 1840AD, China imported about 100,000,000 ounces of opium most
of which was from India, the British colony. Large amounts of silver dollars
were spent on buying opium, bringing the economy of China to the brink of
collapse. Worse yet, millions of Chinese took up the bad habit of opium
smoking.
Fortunately, the habit of opium smoking was totally eradicated after the
establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949AD.
In the mid-nineteenth century, opium smoking was forbidden in those regions
under the jurisdiction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, opium smoking
prevailed in other parts of China. There was a song entitled "The Opium
Song", which was composed by a scholar called Zhou Le (周樂). during its
time this song was very popular throughout China, including the regions
under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The opium song's lyrics
described the harm of opium, smoking but they were largely ignored by the
addicts.
Here is the opium song in Chinese.
鴉 片 煙 歌 (The Opium Song)
天地浩劫自何始, 歷劫灰滿昆明裏,
劫灰發作罌粟花, 毒遍千家與萬家.
世人不知此花毒, 種之土中等菽粟,
掬土濃熬小銀鐺, 九轉成丹寶如玉.
截竹號為槍, 周圍金玉相,
孤燈映氍毹, 高枕睡鴛鴦.
一吸香作蘭桂馥, 再吸味似醇醴熟,
三吸四吸不得足, 栩栩夢蝶互相逐.
自以為益智棕, 續命絲,
詎知肝肺腎腸精液盡,
病人膏肓不可醫.
初如藍面盧, 漸如骨立阮,
口無亞夫縱理文, 僵臥難復進餐飯.
世人詎無智且賢, 嗜此概同蟻負羶,
揶揄任有旁鬼, 到死猶誇地上仙.
吁嗟乎, 分明漢家長沙五餌術,
外荒用之益我中華疾,
拋擲黑土數十艘, 換去黃金千萬鎰.
使我壯者弱, 富者窮,
閭閻一旦困杼柚空, 緩急孰是可用人.
書生恨無補天手, 流毒眼看遍九有,
家喻戶曉亦徒然, 獨坐蕭齊但搔首.
[Note: there are many people plagiarized this song without mentioning that
they obtained it from asiawind.com. It was I who posted it several years
ago]
Lin Zexu was from the present day of Fuzhou (福州) of Fujian province (福
建省). He was a scholar. In the first month of 17th year reign of Emperor
Dao Guang (道光皇帝 1837AD) Lin Zexu was appointed the Governor of the provinces
of Hunan (湖南省) and Guangdong (廣東省). Lin Zexu reported to the Emperor
that opium was the greatest evil in China. He gave his reasons and asked
the Emperor to ban it from entering China. The Emperor agreed and appointed
him the Commissioner and was given the full authority to ban opium.
In the third Month of 1839AD, Lin Zexu arrived in the city of Guangzhou
(廣州). He banned opium from entering into China. He confiscated about 2
million kilograms of opium from the British. He destroyed them all. His
destruction of the opium led to the Opium War. His famous couplet was,
行事莫將天理錯,---Xing2 shi4 mo4 jiang tian li3 cuo4,
立身當與古人爭.---Li4 shen dang yu4 gu3 ren2 zheng.
Whatever one undertakes one should not go against the heaven,
One should be as good as the ancients.
--------------------------------------------
(2) 林紓 (Lin Shu 1852AD to 1924AD)
Lin Shu was born in Fujian province (福建省) and passed the Imperial Examinations
during the reign of Guang Xu Emperor (光緒皇帝 1875AD to 1908AD). He was
a modern scholar on ancient Chinese literature. He lectured at the Jing
Du University (京都大學堂), the progenitor of Beijing University (北京大
學). He had translated more than 170 American and English novels into Chinese.
His translation opened the door to the Chinese on Western Cultures.
-------------------------------
(3) 林逋 (Lin Bu 967AD to 1028AD)
Lin Bu was from Qiantang (錢塘 the present day city of Hangzhou 杭州市 in
Zhejiang province 浙江省). He was a poet during the Song Dynasty (宋朝 960AD
to 1279AD). Throughout his life he lived in the forest. Therefore his poems
are serenely with the quietness of the forest. People of later generations
nicknamed him Mr. He Jing ( Mr Harmonious Calm 和靖先生), after his famous
book on poetry entitled The Selected Poems by Lin He Jing (林和靖詩集) or
the Selected Poem of Lin Harmonious Calm.
His famous poem is:
秋江寫望 Qiu Jiang xie Wang
Writing in the Autumn
蒼茫沙嘴鷺鷥眠,---Cang mang2 sha zui3 lu4 si mian2,
片水無痕浸碧天.---Pian shui3 wu2 hen2 jin4 bi tian.
最愛蘆花經雨後,---Zui4 ai4 lu2 hua jing yu3 hou4,
一蓬煙火飯魚船.---Yi peng2 yan huo3 fan4 yu2 chuan2.
I see a school of egrets sleeping on the sand beach of the river,
The water in the river is so calm and blue in colour like the sky.
You see the beautiful wet flowers of the reed after the rain,
And the smoke coming out from a boat where the fisherman
is preparing his dinner.
-------------------------------------
Posted to asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
All rights reserved
|
|
The Asiawind forums are provided to you by
InTechTra Inc.