Whether it is domestic or foreign, pay attention to the continuation and inheritance of a family, whether the family is prosperous or not, it needs the inheritance of blood, so in ancient times, it is said that filial piety has three no queens, since ancient times, it has paid attention to a succession, and the most reflective of this is the internal family blood relationship and the continuation of external surnames.
As early as the Xia Shang Zhou slave society began to have a surname culture, the earlier surname family inheritance meaning is small, mainly out of the worship and admiration of the honor of the ancestors, the earliest people's surnames are derived from the place of residence, just as we often say Zhangjiagou, Li Jiatun, etc., with a number of families with the same surname live here, perhaps the earliest ancestors are this surname, and then passed on from generation to generation.
Until now, we still attach great importance to surnames, when we were young, we often naively wanted to change our names at will, and then we were criticized by our families that the names were given by our parents, and the surnames were given by our ancestors, how can we change them at will, so due to the family plot of Chinese, we still attach great importance to the surname culture.
Ancient Chinese surnames are complex, about 5,000 kinds, the long river of feudal dynasties, there are booms and busts, surnames are also up and down, of which only 6 surnames have never decayed, including your name?
The reason for the rise and fall of ancient surnames
In ancient times, surnames were extremely valued, because as early as the primitive social period, it was divided by clan bloodlines to form group tribes, and in the later slave society and even feudal society, the surname of the emperor was used as the national surname, and the rest was divided by the surname.
Feudal society began to pay attention to surnames, all people with the same surname are called the same sect, which shows the importance of family surnames at that time, taking Liu Bei at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty as an example, once said that Liu Biao of Jingzhou, Liu Zhang of Yizhou, are all the same sect of my family, which shows that the imperial Miao people at that time attached more importance to the surname culture.
In the later feudal society, the surname of the ruling class was undoubtedly the peak surname of the country at that time, such as Liu Han, Li Tang and other top dynasties, the population of the national surname at that time was the largest and most honorable, but there must be prosperity and decline, and the reason for the decline of surnames was nothing more than decay, punishment, annexation, expulsion, and replacement of these.
Six surnames that have not decayed
To say that the surname that has not decayed since ancient times, the first is Li, as early as the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the celebrities surnamed Li have emerged in an endless stream, the general Li Si, the flying general Li Guang, etc., and then the Tang Dynasty, the surname of Li was set as the national surname, and the surname Li also reached an unprecedented influence.
To say that the reason for the enduring life of the Li surname is the prosperity and longevity of the Tang Dynasty, since Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, first experienced Li Shimin's Zhenguan rule, and then there was the legacy of Wu Zetian's Zhenguan and the later Kaiyuan prosperous era.
At that time, the country was unprecedentedly prosperous, the national strength was strong, naturally attracted a lot of foreign countries to come to worship, so the national surname of the Tang Dynasty, Li, even spread overseas, in addition to this generation, the Li Tang royal family often with ethnic minorities and relatives, so the surname spread widely, the tang Dynasty's peak period, and even spread to Korea and other foreign countries.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Zhu Wen usurped power, monopolized power, and even slaughtered the Li clan and the noble family members, and the Li surname still flourished. This also stems from a policy of the Li Tang royal family. As early as the time of Emperor Taizong, for the great generals who had made outstanding contributions, in addition to the knighthood and reward of the land, there was also a supreme honor, that is, the surname of Li.
Li Maozhen, the King of Qi, was one of them, and it was also the surname given by the Li Tang royal family, so that when the Tang Dynasty was wiped out, there were still a large number of people of the same sect, so that the Li surname continued. The surname Li is still more than 100 million people in the world, and most of the people with the name Li are familiar to us, the poetry immortal Li Bai, the song Saint Li Gui Nian, Li Shizhen, and even the later Bruce Lee are all famous.
The second largest surname that has endured for a long time is the surname of Wang, the ancient status, under the emperor, is the family of the generals, although the surname of Wang does not have a dynasty emperor, but it is nearly one hundred and fifty prime ministers, and those who can become prime ministers will have a general plan for governing the country and the country.
As mentioned above, one of the reasons for the great change of surnames in ancient times is the demise of the country and the change of government, that is to say, although he is the head of a country, the surname is very popular, but the sky is not two days, the country has no two kings, every time the country declines and the regime changes, the inherent surname will be purged and hanged, but as an official like a general, this will not appear.
The establishment of each new political power, out of buying people's hearts and minds, is mainly to maintain the stability of the dynasty, so it will appoint former dynasty officials, promote them and other soft policies, help the new regime to stabilize the government, because the number of prime ministers with the surname of Wang, as long as it is during the period of office, every time there is a change of dynasty, it will be rewarded more.
What followed was the increasing prosperity of the Wang surname, and the outstanding merits in the political arena, and there were many celebrities, such as Wang Anshi, Wang Wei, Wang Bo, Wang Changling, who was the prime minister and poet, and even Wang Zhaojun, one of the four beauties, who was a well-known figure with the surname Wang, and was still widely distributed in Sichuan, Zhejiang and other places in China.
The third largest surname is the Surname of Zhang, in China only called Zhang Wei there are as many as 400,000 people, both men and women, other Zhang surnames are more, the development of the Zhang surname is mainly Taoism in China, the ancestor Zhang Tianshi Zhang Daoling can be said to be a person admired by thousands of people in ancient times, so the Zhang surname developed rapidly.
Due to the limitations of ancient technology, most natural phenomena cannot be explained, so due to the theory of ghosts and gods, Zhang Daoling's surname Zhang was worshipped and inherited, Zhang Heng, Zhang Zhongjing, and later The Heavens were dead, Huang Tiandang's Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao's two brothers, were all involved in metaphysics.
The fourth is the Liu surname that flourished because of the Han Gaozu Liu Bang, the early naturally strong Han Dynasty to promote the development of the Liu surname, and secondly, there is the influence of ethnic minorities, the content of the reform of Emperor Xiaowen of northern Wei, there is a han surname, of which, all the ethnic minorities with the surname of Liu have changed their surnames to Liu, and the population of Liu surnames has been strengthened.
The fifth is the Sui Dynasty surname Yang, in fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, someone established the Yang State, and then was destroyed by the Jin, but did not die its clan, after the disaster of the Yang surname clan moved their family to Southeast Asia and other overseas countries, but also made the Yang surname has been developed.
After the establishment of the Great Sui Dynasty, the Yang surname once again flourished in China, although the duration was short but prosperous, and also promoted the spread and prosperity of the Yang surname.
The last one that lasted for a long time is the Zhao surname, the prosperity of this surname can be said to benefit from the juxtaposition of the regime at that time, whether it is the Southern Song Dynasty or the Northern Song Dynasty, it is indispensable to the juxtaposition of the regime at that time, especially after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the relatives of the imperial family fled south at home, and many of the Zhao clan members settled on the way to the south, which also promoted the continuation and development of the Zhao surname.
Surname culture
Therefore, every surname is not just a simple word, behind the surname, there are often many unknown stories and secrets, is your surname not in these six surnames? What is the history and story behind it?