"Zhao Qiansun Li, Zhou Wu Zhengwang, Feng Chen Chuwei, Jiang Shen Han Yang", when we let go of the "Hundred Family Names" can often read a lot of surnames, China is a surname country, but also the world's earliest use of surnames, surname culture is also the oldest in Chinese culture is also closely related to everyone a culture, then do you know what the earliest origin of Chinese surnames is?
The origin of Chinese surnames, the original source is based on the form of "Tiandao", the worship of primitive religions and totems, and then gradually evolved into a symbol of tribal relations and bloodline relations, so the surname was originally the name of the tribe or tribal leader, and the main purpose was to distinguish the descendants of different clans in the tribe.
Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the surname and surname were separated, there was only one surname, and once it was passed down from generation to generation, the general situation would not change. The surname is different, the clan will change with the change of fiefdom and official position, so before the merger of surnames, there are few surnames but many surnames, and the oldest surname in China is the "Ancient Eight Surnames".
The eight surnames of the ancients are Ji, Jiang, 姒, 嬴, 妘, 妫, 姚, 姞, these surnames have been hereditary and evolved for a long time, and many surnames have been differentiated, of which the Ji surname and the Jiang surname have the most differentiation.
Historia. The Book of the Five Emperors says: "The Yellow Emperor has twenty-five sons, and fourteen of them have the surname." Those who did not have their surnames were divided into different clans, and these clans all became surnames after the Qin and Han Dynasties, so many surnames were born in Chinese history, according to incomplete statistics, as many as 20,000 surnames have appeared in Chinese history.
Although there are many Chinese surnames, they are actually divided into large surnames and small surnames, that is, surnames with large populations and sparse populations, of which the number of high-ranking surnames such as Wang and Li is even as many as hundreds of millions, and the number of rare surnames is even heard of by many people, such as the three ancient surnames mentioned today, which obviously have a long history, but are often mistaken for Japanese surnames.
First surname: Higashino
In Japan, there is a very famous detective novel named Keigo Higashino, and in Japan, the Higashino surname is also a relatively common surname, but the surname Higashino is really not from Japan, as early as the early Western Zhou Dynasty, China already had the Higashino surname, when the first generation of Japanese emperors were not yet born, and life was almost primitive. According to the "Higashino Chronicle", the original origin of the surname Higashino was the Ji surname, that is, it was differentiated from the surname of the Yellow Emperor.
Second surname: Niigaki
When it comes to the surname Ofigaki, many people will still mistakenly think that it is derived from a Japanese surname, but in fact, this surname is also very long, "Customs" Yun: "Wei general Xinyuan Yan, after Bi Gonggao", Xinyuan Yan was a general of the State of Wei in the Warring States period, which shows that the new Yuan surname already existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, and it is also a long history.
Third surname: Wooden Gate
I am afraid that many people have heard of this surname for the first time, and now the population of this surname is too rare, and even it has not arrived, but it is still recorded in some ancient books, and there is a saying that the Song princes in the Spring and Autumn Period settled and lived in a place called Mumen, and they have since taken the place name of the surname. Although sparsely populated, it is a surname that originated in China and should not be misunderstood as a Japanese surname.