China has a domineering surname: the population is more than 20,000, and there are 20 emperors, but the descendants are busy changing their surnames
There are many surnames in China's history that were born by the emperor, and these surnames have been passed down to the present day and often become big surnames: Liu surname in the Han Dynasty, Li surname in the Tang Dynasty, and so on. However, the number of surnames is now relatively small, more than 20,000 people, and among the 20 emperors, there is reason to say that the emperor is a good thing, but his descendants are busy changing their surnames.
We are now proving whether a surname is a big surname, which is based on the number of people. But this was not the case in ancient times. They often arranged their surnames according to class, status, and fame. For example, we are familiar with the "Bai family name", the reason why it was started as the "Zhao" surname is because the "Hundred Family Names" were written in the Song Dynasty, of course, the national surname ranked first, as the first surname.
Nowadays the surname is largely populated, but there are also historical reasons, one of the main reasons is that it came from the emperor. For example, the Tang Dynasty enjoyed a long history of the country, and the surname of Li was well developed. The descendants of the imperial family were spread all over the country, and the emperor even gave their surnames to the meritorious ministers so that they could change their surnames to Li.
The surname we are going to talk about today has a small population, but its reputation in history is definitely not small. It can be called the main surname in China. Why? Because the name of the ancient ancestor of this family once destroyed the Cao Wei Jiangshan laid by Cao Cao's generation of Ouxiong people. Speaking of this, people familiar with the Three Kingdoms must know that this surname is Sima ( 司馬).
In fact, the word Sima was not a surname at first, but the name of an official position, similar to "Prime Minister" and "Taishi". Historically, such official positions included master-apprentice, sikong, and so on. "Sima " changed from a single surname to a surname, beginning in the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, a person from Sima Qian made great contributions. The King of Zhou agreed to take Sima as his surname.
The reason why Sima Qian's descendants shined during the Three Kingdoms period was because the Sima Qian family was more sinister than Cao Cao: Sima Qian. It is said that before Cao Cao died, he dreamed of eating three horses in the same water tank. At that time, how could he think that these three horses were Sima Yi and his sons Sima Shi and Sima Zhao. It was these three people who devoured the Cao family's basic industry little by little?
Later, Sima Yi's grandson Sima Yan established the Jin Dynasty, which was divided into the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty. Including Sima Yi, Emperor Xuan, Emperor Jingwen, and sima Dewen, the late emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (reigned from 419 to 420), There were 20 emperors in the Sima clan.
However, after the Jin Dynasty, many of Sima Qian's descendants were busy changing their surnames. In 420, Liu Yu imitated Sima Qian's ancestors and asked Sima Dewen to give him a Zen throne, completely destroying the Jin Dynasty. Not only that, after the establishment of Liu Song, Liu Yu also ordered the pursuit of Sima Shi, forcing Sima Shi's descendants to hide everywhere, and even changing their surnames to avoid the limelight.
It is said that some descendants of the Sima clan changed their surname to the single surname "Ma", which has been passed down to this day. By 2019, the population of Sima surname in China will reach about 28,000 people, which is incomparable with the population of Li and Liu. However, Sima Shi was once a glorious surname and can be seen as the main surname in China.