Long knowledge 丨 The change of ancient surnames

Chinese surnames, dating back to the matriarchal clan era. At that time, due to the need for inter-clan identification, each clan would have a special name of its own clan, and this name was actually the common surname of all clan members. Ancient Chinese surnames include Ji, Jiang, 姒, 妫, 姚, Hao, etc., all of which are next to the word "female", and also reflect from one aspect that the surname was originally produced in the matriarchal clan society.

According to today's concept, surname and surname are already the same meaning, but in the pre-Qin period, surname and surname are two concepts that are different from each other: surname is the name of the clan organization, and the clan is the name of the family organization within the clan. The structure of the upper and lower levels of surname and clan appears because when a clan becomes larger and larger due to the long generation and the population multiplier, the blood relations between some members of the clan will become weaker and weaker, and some members may not even be able to find blood ties with other members. At this time, some people who are closely related to the clan will form a secondary blood organization, and the secondary blood organization will also have a symbol of mutual recognition, which is "clan".

The difference between surname and surname as the names of different levels of blood organizations in the pre-Qin era is obvious, and the ancients had the so-called "above three generations, the surname is different", which is the conclusion drawn from this.

First of all, in the retrospection of the ancestors, because the surname represents the long history of the clan organization, the lineage is vague, so its true ancestors can not be clearly traced, each surname can only come from the imaginary ancestors - often half-human and half-god figures; and the clan because of the recent history of the family organization it represents, the lineage is clear, most of its ancestors can be known with certainty, such as the three sons of Lu Huangong in the Spring and Autumn Period, the family Mengsun, the uncle, the Jisun family, the Mengsun family can be traced back to the Qing father, The ancestors of the Shusun clan can be traced back to Shuya, the ancestors of the Jisun clan can be traced back to Ji You, and the ancestor of the "Ji" surname commonly owned by the three families can only be imagined as the legendary yellow emperor.

Secondly, in terms of the rules for the application of surnames, in the pre-Qin era, men called surnames and women called surnames. Gu Yanwu's "Rizhilu And Original Surname" article "Examined in the "Biography" (referring to the "Left Biography" - the author's press), between 250 years, there were men who called the surname Hu? Nothing also! That is, the argument that is based on it. Some of today's surname books for pre-Qin men also have surnames, such as calling King Wen of Zhou "Ji Chang", King Wu "Ji Fa", and Zhou Gong "Ji Dan", which are actually incorrect titles that do not conform to the actual pre-Qin. The Duke of Zhou is mentioned in the pre-Qin classics, and none of them are called "Ji Dan", and they are called "Ji Dan", which is a matter that only happened until the "Biography of Wang Hun of the Book of Jin". Probably in the Jin Dynasty, people did not know much about the application of pre-Qin surnames, so the system of the later generations was compared to the appendage, and since then it has been spread falsely.

People in the pre-Qin era had both surnames and surnames. For example, Zhou Gong, surname "Ji", surname "Zhou"; and Confucius, surname "Zi", surname "Kong". The same is true for women, the famous Su Daji, surnamed "己", clan "Su"; King Youwang of Zhou did not hesitate to laugh at the boqi and did not hesitate to play the praise of the princes, surnamed "姒", clan "praise".

In the Warring States period, with the transformation of the structural form of social blood organization from the two-level form of clan and family to the single-level individual family form, the ancient surname system also underwent great changes.

First of all, the confluence of surnames and surnames, the original surnames and surnames have become new surnames in the new surname system without distinction, and after that, whether they are called "surnames", "surnames", or collectively "surnames", they represent the names of individual families.

Secondly, the surname in the application of the rules no longer have a distinction between men and women, regardless of men and women, their personal titles appear in the form of "surname + name", people are familiar with the Qin King "Yingzheng", assassinate Yingzheng "Jingke", for Jingke to build a send-off "high gradual departure", are "surname + name" of the title form.

Third, the previous same surname meant the same ancestor and the same blood, but most of the new surnames after the confluence of surnames were transformed from the previous surnames, so the changed surnames did not necessarily have the same blood relationship. For example, several countries in the Spring and Autumn Period had the Kong clan, and the Kong clan surname of the State of Lu belonged to the Yin Shang relics (Confucius came from this branch); the Kong clan of the Zheng Kingdom was Ji, after king Li of Zhou; and the Kong surname of the Chen Kingdom was Concubine, which was said to be from Yu Shun. These three Kong clans all changed to Kong surnames after the change, but several of them did not necessarily become related to each other.

Since the establishment of the new surname system in the middle of the Warring States period, it has been used until today, during which specific surnames have increased and decreased, and there have been births and deaths, such as the surnames "Qi Yu" and "Lang Si" that were once seen in Confucius's disciples, and the surnames such as "Hu Yan" and "Wei Chi" have been extinct in later generations, and surnames such as "Hu Yan" and "Wei Chi" have joined the surname army in some eras. The surname is a cultural whole, which has always been active in political life, ethnic relations, psychological folklore and other aspects.

For example, in all chinese dynasties, there were cases where emperors gave their surnames to their favorite subjects, and Yu Shao, a Wu man, was pleased with Sun Ce and gave him the surname Sun; Wang Jie of Western Wei was given the surname Yuwen because of his outstanding military achievements; luo Yiyin of the Tang Dynasty was given the surname Li Yuan because of his outstanding military achievements. Giving a surname is actually a way for the emperor to reward his courtiers by establishing a quasi-blood relationship and forming a "same surname" in the hypothetical sense (punishing the rebellious subjects by depriving them of the surname) to motivate the courtiers to be loyal. Here, surnames are essentially identical to tangible substances such as gold, silver, jade, and so on, and become part of the political process.

For another example, in Chinese history, there have been many times in the history of ethnic minorities surnames and Han surnames ethnic minority phenomenon, into the Central Plains ethnic minorities to implement surname Sinicization, the Northern Wei Xiaowen Emperor reform is the most famous, at that time once changed one hundred and forty-four Xianbei surnames to Han surnames, Tuoba surname to Yuan, Dugu surname to Liu and so on are well known examples. In fact, it is not uncommon for Han surnames to be ethnic minorities, and during the Northern Zhou Dynasty, The Han surnames of Cai, Zhang, and Zhou were changed to Dali Ji, Ling Luo, and Che Fei, yuwen Tai gave Li Bi the surname of Tuhe, Zhao Gui gave the surname of Yifu, and Yang Shangxi was given the surname of Puliuru, all of which are examples of the minority of Han surnames. The sinicization of ethnic minority surnames and the minoritization of Han surnames enriched Chinese surnames, and surnames here have become evidence of ethnic integration.

Another example is that in ancient China, there has always been a phenomenon of monophonic polyphonic surnames, and at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ying Shao wrote "Customs and Customs", which included more than 500 common surnames at that time, of which there were more than 150 polyphonic surnames, accounting for almost one-third of all surnames; and in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Qiantang Confucian's compilation of "Hundred Family Names" also included more than 500 common surnames at that time, but there were only sixty polyphonic surnames, accounting for only a little more than one-tenth of all surnames. Polyphonic surnames are converted into monophonic surnames, or through linguistic methods such as consecutive reading, loss of sound, weakening, assimilation, abbreviation, etc., naturally compress the length of surnames; or through artificial deletion, only one syllable is retained for polyphonic surnames, in any case, it is the "economic principle" at work, that is, under the premise of ensuring the recognition and differentiation of surnames, people intentionally or unintentionally make economic arrangements for the consumption of power in language activities, so as to achieve the minimum and least effort of energy consumption.

At the same time, although in terms of function or usage, our surnames of Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Li today are basically the same as the surnames of the middle warring states, and as a system, it has not undergone major adjustments for more than two thousand years, but as a mirror image of blood relations in the social structure, the social meaning of surnames has always changed at the same time.

For example, in the pre-Qin era, because of the existence of large-scale blood organization, a two-level system of surnames and surnames was born; since the Eastern Han Dynasty, although many dynasties have reappeared in large families that have lived together for generations, the two-level surname structure has not reappeared. The reason for this is, on the one hand, related to the increasingly strengthened control of the names of the subjects by the authoritarian state in order to levy military service and taxes; on the other hand, after the establishment of the county system, although there are still strong blood colors in the grass-roots society, the management of the national dependents is mainly through the regional organizations in the counties, counties and townships, and the regional organizations have defeated the blood organizations, and the basis for the change of the surname structure has disappeared.

For example, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, surnames used to be the most important factor in determining a person's social hierarchy, but since the Song Dynasty, surnames have only existed as a blood symbol; to this day, the meaning of surnames as blood symbols is also diluted, and the role is converging with names. This is because individuals are increasingly dependent on blood organization. Wei and Jin implemented the Nine Pin Officials and Personnel Law of Taking Scholars according to the Mendi, and the surname was the first element to identify the origin of the Mendi, which naturally attracted much attention; after the Song Dynasty, the examination system became the basic way to select talents after full development, and the social status and political future of individuals mainly depended on scientific examinations and no longer depended on mendi, and the importance of surnames also decreased greatly. Today, the local society has collapsed, population mobility, away from home to earn a living has become the social norm, whether it is people's dependence on blood organizations or blood organizations can provide people with dependence are close to nothing, the blood color of the surname is naturally more and more diluted, is becoming a pure personal symbol.

In summary, the surname is not only a name, the social content it reflects is quite rich, starting from the surname, can make our observation of the entire Chinese history and culture clearer and deeper.

◎ This article was originally published in "Guangming Daily" (author Zhang Shuyi), the source network, the copyright of the picture and text belongs to the original author, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.