From the beginning of birth, everyone has their own surname, many people only know that the surname is handed down from generation to generation, but do not know that many surnames have a more ancient origin, the initial formation of the surname, based on the "Heavenly Dao" of the original religion, totem and ancestor worship, and later gradually evolved into a family bloodline relationship inheritance sign, so the production of the surname also marks the transformation from the group marriage system to the marriage system, is an important symbol of human progress.
Ancient texts record: "Those whose surnames are subordinate to the place of their ancestors, and those who are clans are divided by their descendants." That is to say, the surname is a racial number, and the surname is a branch of the surname. Once the surname is generated, it will be passed down from generation to generation, and the clan will change with the change of many factors such as fiefdom and official position for future generations.
This pattern, from the origin of the surname, lasted until after the Qin and Han dynasties, the surname and the surname were merged into one, no longer different, and the original branched out of the clan also became an independent surname, so there will be so many surnames in China. According to statistics, there have been more than 20,000 surnames in Chinese history, and more than 5,000 have been preserved so far.
Most of the origins of these surnames come from the eight ancient surnames: Ji, Yao, Concubine, Concubine, Jiang, 嬴, 姞, and 妘. Among them, the most distributed are the surnames of Ji and Jiang, the surname of Ji is the surname of the Yellow Emperor, and the surname of Jiang is the surname of Emperor Yan.
The "Chinese Jin Language" records: "Xi Shaodian, married to the Youyu clan, gave birth to the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor was made of Ji Shuicheng, and became a different virtue, so the Yellow Emperor was Ji. "And Emperor Yan lived next to Jiang Shui, so he took Jiang as his surname.
There are as many as 411 surnames directly performed by the Ji surname, including many large surnames such as Wang, Cao, Zhou, and Wu. The surname Jiang also played 102 surnames.
According to the statistics included in the "Dictionary of Chinese Surnames", China once had 5327 single-character surnames, 4329 two-character surnames, 1615 three-character surnames, 569 four-character surnames, 96 five-character surnames, 22 six-character surnames, 7 seven-character surnames, 3 eight-character surnames, and 1 nine-character surname.
Many people must be curious about the only "nine-character surname" included, this surname is "Cuan Shan Temple Wu Mu Yun Zhi Yan", many of which are strange characters can be said to be a very complex surname, but if the length of the surname alone, then there is a recorded but not included surname is better.
This surname is "Lu Na Lou Yu Gu Mu Shu Shu Duo Tu Mu Tu Mu Tu Tu Ah De Supplement Ah Xi", a total of 17 characters, is the longest compound surname in China, there are not many records about this surname, the origin, meaning, and celebrity of the surname are unknown, only know that it is a surname from the Yi ethnic group in Qiaojia County, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province.
One reason is that the population of this surname is not much, this surname is too long, many descendants have changed the surname is normal, generally did not change the surname in life are also directly called by the name, otherwise it will be too much trouble. Take the exam, for example, when you finish writing your last name, it is estimated that others have completed the first and second questions.
We can imagine that in addition to myself and my family relatives, this surname is only afraid that many people will not be able to read it in one breath, let alone write it down. More importantly, when applying for an ID card, the ID card may not be able to fit, so the "Hundred Family Names" does not include it. I am afraid that this last special surname will slowly disappear into the long river of history.