The Ming Dynasty's "Wan LiYe Zhi" records such an interesting thing, during the Reign of Emperor Ming Yingzong Tianshun (1457-1464), when Zhu Qizhen had just ascended the throne for the second time to become emperor after the change of the door, just as the imperial examination had entered the most important step, the temple examination, according to the custom, Ming Yingzong had to look first so that the life age of the new Dengke jinshi still had a place of origin.
As a result, Ming Yingzong's eyes were swept away, and he found that there was a young man named "Yan Mao" in Hubei Public Security, and he did not even know his name.
Zhu Qizhen quickly asked the minister Next to him, Li Xian, who had seen a lot of things in the end, and replied: "This word is pronounced Shaanxi, but the rhyme book has not yet seen it!" The implication is that the word was so unpopular that many books at the time did not record it.
When Emperor Ming Yingzong heard this, he also thought it was deeply satisfied, and when he summoned JinShi the next day, Zhu Qizhen said to Yan Mao, "Your surname is really too remote, so give you the surname of 'Shaanxi'!" After listening to it, Yan Mao hurriedly thanked him, and the vignette of this temple examination ended here, and the "Gong'an County Chronicle" in Hubei also mentioned this matter, "The Mao family has a heavenly dynasty to give the surname. ”
Of course, this does not mean that Yingzong has no culture, the word "彡" is indeed pronounced as the third "shan" sound, or "xian", but don't look at the strokes only three simple strokes, put in today, but few people know, in fact, this surname has been passed down for 2,000 years, and the story of the Ming Dynasty is the best explanation of the embarrassing situation encountered by the "Yan" family for thousands of years.
The early surnames are derived from the totem symbols of various tribes in the Central Plains, but the "Yan surname" is the earliest imported product, during the Zhou Dynasty, the nomadic Qiang people located in the western part of the Central Plains, have been in close contact with the interior, and at the end of the Warring States period, a Qiang tribe called "Yan Jie" appeared in the Longxi region, which successively depended on the Qin Dynasty and the Xiongnu, and with Liu Bang unifying the world, Xiangwu County was established here, and The Yan Sister then fell under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty.
According to the "Shuowen" record, "Yan, the wool ornament painting text also." Pictographic. In fact, this should be the use of shellfish ornaments that the Qiang people like to use as a symbol of their tribe, but according to the policy of the han wudi emperor Liu Che's reign, the law of unified writing was promoted, so the Yanjie people began to use Chinese characters and named themselves "Yan" surname.
With the complete defeat of the Xiongnu, a large number of People with the Surname of Yan moved inland, and they were integrated with the various ethnic groups in the Central Plains.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Yan surname, like most of the residents of the Central Plains, crossed the Yangtze River south to escape the war, and Hubei Public Security and other places became the main settlement of the Yan people.
In 2003, Gaozhuang Village, Gaozhuang Town, Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong Province, more than 3500 households, there are more than 200 households with the surname Of Yan, but this also caused unnecessary trouble when the second-generation ID card was upgraded, because the system could not be entered, many children in the village gradually changed their surnames, saving unnecessary trouble, in 2006, most of the residents in the village also chose the "Xian" surname or "Xian" surname as their new surname under the advice of the police at the police station.
Up to now, the population of the surname is less than 10,000 people, but as an ancient surname, it has also witnessed the changes of history over thousands of years, and it is an important member of the Chinese family today.