The sons and daughters of China have always paid attention to the same lineage, in the countless confrontations between ancient and modern, they have been eliminated and buried, and there are always countless civilizations in the upheavals of history, but for the descendants of Yanhuang, the most able to witness the development of our generations is the surname.
The surname originated from the ancient Chinese clan badge, and the worship of the totem made the surname represent the blood of a family and was passed down. In the process of interpersonal interaction, your surname and first name are the first intuitive impression left on the other party. As a symbol of a family, the surname plays a pivotal role in the development of the family.
In the "Dictionary of Chinese Surnames", a total of 6931 single surnames, 9012 compound surnames, in addition to 4850 three-character surnames, 2276 four-character surnames, etc., these tens of thousands of surnames also represent the continuous progress of human civilization. However, tracing back to the source, do you know the origin and development of these surnames?
The eight most famous surnames in ancient China were: Ji, Yao, Concubine, 姒, Jiang, Win, 姞, 妘. It is not difficult to find that most of these famous surnames have female characters, which is very closely related to the matriarchal clan system of primitive society, and most of the surnames today have evolved from them.
(1) Ji, "ancestor of all surnames"
The Surname Ji originated from the ancestor of the humanities - "Yellow Emperor", has a very long history in China, although the surname Ji is only ranked 297 in the current hundred family surnames, and there are only 540,000 people in the country, but the four surnames of Zhou, Wu, Zheng and Wang are directly evolved from the Surname of Ji, in addition to the surnames of Feng, Zhu, Cao, Wei and other people also originated from the Surname of Ji. According to research, there are 411 surnames in the "Hundred Family Names" that have been directly evolved through the Ji surname, and at the same time, these more than four hundred surnames have been derived as the basis for countless surnames.
It is recorded in the "Chinese Jin Language" that the Yellow Emperor was made of Ji Shui and became different, so the Yellow Emperor was Ji. Also known as Regulus Ji. Therefore, the descendants of the Yellow Emperor were also surnamed Ji, such as one of the five emperors, Such as One of the Five Emperors, Hou Ji, the ancestor of the Zhou Dynasty, Ji Fa, the founding monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Wu Wang Lu, and bian Que, the divine doctor.
(2) Yao, "a long history"
The Yao surname has a history of about 5,000 years, and its ancestor is Yu Shun, one of the Five Emperors, who is the eighth grandson of the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan, born in Yao Ruins, so his descendants will take this surname. Nowadays, the Yao surname ranks 51st among the hundred family names, and in the process of generations, the original Yao surname has evolved into more than 60 surnames such as Yu, Chen, Hu, Tian, Sun, and Wang, so these surnames can be regarded as a family with the same root. During the Ming Dynasty, the Yao surname was the most powerful, and the Area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang was the area where the Yao surname was most concentrated.
The original totem of the Yao surname is the common peach tree appearance, in the primitive tribal period, the peach tree symbolizes the art of prophecy and divination, this mysterious and unique ability seems to have shaped the people of the Yao tribe into a clan representing wisdom, but compared to the later generations of the Ji family, the Yao surname is relatively declining, and there are not many famous people. Probably the most well-known to contemporary people is the star Yao Ming.
(3) Ginger, "widely distributed"
Among these ancient surnames, the most widely distributed is the Jiang surname, under the influence of population migration, the current Jiang surname is distributed in China, North Korea, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and many other regions. It ranks 60th in the population ranking of surnames.
When mentioning the surname of Jiang, many people first think of Jiang Taigong, who is willing to be hooked, but in fact, the origin of the Jiang surname is also a well-known leader, he is the Yan Emperor, and he is also the Shennong clan who has tasted hundreds of herbs.
Emperor Yan was born in Jiang Shui, so his descendants continued to use the surname of Jiang. Earlier, the Jiang surname was widely distributed in the Shandong region, and with the migration of the Jiang surname tribe gradually developed to Gansu Tianshui, in the process, many surname branches were also bred along the way, such as 64 surnames such as Qi, Fang, Ding, Lian, and Nie in the single surname, and a total of 102 surnames such as Dongguo and Chunyu in the compound surname. From the beginning of the Yan Emperor to the present, a total of 247 surnames are derived from the surname of Jiang.
(4) Win, "One Emperor through the Ages"
To say that the most well-known of the Winning surname is Yingzheng, the "founder" of China's more than two thousand years of feudal autocracy is undoubtedly the best spokesperson for the Ying surname family. Win is the surname of the State of Qin and the State of Zhao during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, but its production can also be traced back to the Yao and Shun periods, and the "Historical Records" once recorded: "'Boyi' Zuo Shun trained birds and beasts, birds and beasts were more tamed, and Shun gave the surname of Win." "Therefore, we can regard Boyi as the ancestor of the winning surname."
The Ying clan flourished most during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, that is, the Qin Dynasty, with the former Qin Mu Gong reusing the Sages and the Qin Filial Gong Shang Martingale Transformation Law, and then the Yingzheng annexing the Six Kingdoms to unify the world. In later generations, according to the Ying surname, the fourteen clans of the Ying surname were developed, namely Lian, Xu, Jiang, Qin, Zhao, Huang, Liang, Ma, Ge, Gu, Miao, Zhong, Fei, Huo and other Han groups.
(5) 姒, "Loyal Guardian"
In any case, under the changes of history, the surname is becoming more and more rare, but many surnames changed from the surname of Ji have become big surnames today, such as Xia, Tan, Xin, Liao, Ouyang and so on.
In Old Chinese, 姒 is often referred to as the husband's sister-in-law or the elder concubine, or the title of the sister, so this word is also used by women as a surname, such as one of the four demons.
(vi) 姞, "direct descendant"
More than 5,000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor unified the Huaxia tribes and conquered Dongyi and other places, after which the Yellow Emperor was crowned with 12 basic surnames, and the surname Ofe was one of them. It is the symbol of the direct descendants of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan clan, and now the Ji surname in the surname is the original Evolution of The Jiao, in addition to removing the "female" character that symbolizes the matrilineal clan, the descendants of the Huan surname are mostly changed to Yan, Yang, Kong, Yin, Cai, Lu and other surnames to continue to carry forward the glory of the ancestors.
(vii) Concubine, concubine, "little known"
The surname Is actually split in the development of the Yao surname, but it is also listed as one of the eight surnames in ancient times because of its ancient historical origins.
The surname 妘 is one of the eight surnames of Zhu Rong, and also the ancestor of the eight surnames of Zhu Rong, which are: 己, Dong, Peng, Bald, Concubine, Cao, Huo, and 芈. The surnames of Guan, Luo and others were born under the historical changes of the yu surname.
So far, there is relatively little information about the surnames of Concubine and Concubine, which must have a lot to do with the change of surnames of later generations, but in any case, they have also made great contributions to the development and progress of society in the primitive social period.
The surname is just a simple word, but on this small Chinese character, there are too many family ups and downs, and what they have persistently passed down is the unique blood charm of Chinese culture for thousands of years!