After the surname is produced, it is passed down from generation to generation, and it is generally not changed, it is relatively stable, and the clan changes with the change of the fief and official position, so there will be several clans or two generations of different clans of father and son. The surname, together with the person's name, constitutes a person's name. "Those whose surnames are subordinate to the places of their ancestors, and those whose clans are divided by their descendants." A surname is a racial number, and a surname is a branch of a surname. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, surnames have been merged into one.
Because China has long been in a patriarchal society and has a different ancestral belief, Chinese has always attached importance to surnames. After all, surnames are blood symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation since thousands of years ago. Therefore, in recent years, many families have begun to trace their roots, and they want to find out where their family names originate and what kind of glorious deeds their ancestors have done. However, the process of tracing the source is not as simple as people think.
Most of the surnames in our country have the characteristics of multi-origin and multi-ethnicity. In the process of development, each surname will inevitably be intertwined with each other, forming a complex "surname history".
The earliest modern people came into contact with the concept of "surname" should be attributed to the enlightenment book "Hundred Family Names". When He Zeng, the author believed that there were only a few hundred surnames in China. It wasn't until I grew up, came into contact with many strange surnames, and after doing relevant investigations, I found that the surnames used in Chinese were not only hundreds or thousands?
According to the research of philologists, since the birth of the script, Chinese has used a total of 22,000 surnames, including the single surname and compound surname of Han compatriots, as well as the surnames of five or six characters or even eight or nine characters among ethnic minorities.
It can be seen that the single surname included in the "Sixty Strange Surnames" article on the Internet a few years ago is only a small part of the strange surnames. It can be said that eighty percent of the texts we have seen have appeared in the form of surnames.
The surname we are going to talk about today is quite unique, it is considered to be the simplest surname in our country except for the three surnames of "one, two and three", and its composition only needs three strokes. If you are a friend who has less contact with words, when you see this surname, you will inevitably mistake it for a partial head, which is "彡".
In many texts, we can see the "彡" as a partial head, such as: color color, fir wood, etc. However, very few articles use the word alone, let alone apply it to last names.
In Old Chinese, "彡" stands for feathers used as decorations. Obviously, the word is formed in pictograms. In this usage, it is pronounced "shan", a sound. However, if "彡" is used for surnames, it is pronounced "xian" three times and "shan" three sounds.
Yan , surnamed Jiang , is a descendant of Emperor Yan in "Yan Huang". Scholars generally believe that during the Qin and Han dynasties, this tribe of People with the surname of Jiang came to the Shaanxi region, established the "Yan and Clan" tribe, and changed the surname of "Yan". This kind of situation of using the name of the tribe as a surname was quite common in ancient times.
After the Ming Dynasty, many people with the surname "Yan" were forced to change their surnames because of an edict from the emperor.
In the folk, there is such a small story about the change of the surname "Yan" to "Shaanxi surname". At that time, there was a reader named Yan Mao in Hubei Province, who had studied hard for ten years and became a jinshi on the list. In the following temple examination, Yan Mao's performance was very outstanding, attracting the attention of Ming Yingzong.
Yingzong was very talented, and Yingzong deliberately arranged for him to hold an important position, but when he got his examination papers, Yingzong was a little embarrassed--this man's surname looked strange and could not be read at all. Yingzong was stunned for half a day, and did not say a word for a long time, and could only whisper to the little eunuch next to him to help him recognize words.
Although the eunuchs of the Yingzong period were no longer restricted by the "eunuch prohibition of literacy", their literacy was quite limited, and they did not know how to read "彡". There was no way, Zhu Qizhen could only shout loudly to the university scholar to come closer and help him recognize words. The university scholar was well-informed, and he immediately gave the answer: "Your Majesty, this is Yan, pronounced Shaanxi or Xian." ”
Emperor Yingzong was big-headed for a while, and felt that Yan Mao's surname was too troublesome, and it was inevitable that he would cause chaos in his future work. Ming Yingzong was a good emperor, and he did not want Toi Mao to be buried, so he changed Yan Mao's surname to "Shaanxi". The present-day Shaanxi family may be descendants of the Yan surname.
Of course, the origin of the "Shaanxi" surname has been a long time, so not every friend of the "Shaanxi" surname is a branch of the Yan surname, but this possibility exists.
Fourteen years ago, there were many residents with the surname Yan in the Peony District of Heze City, Shandong Province, China, because this surname was too remote, so it brought many inconveniences to their daily lives. In the last century, when computers were popularized in China, the entry of strange characters was a rather troublesome problem, so there was a time when residents with the surname had to go to great trouble whether they went to the hukou or went to school.
After the implementation of the second-generation identity card, more than 200 residents with the surname of Gaozhuang in Mudan District got together to discuss and simply change their surnames, so that they could avoid a lot of trouble in the future. At that time, the police station staff proposed that the residents change the "Xian" to "Xian", which is homophonous with "彡", and the residents unanimously approved the proposal.
To this day, there are still many strange surnames like "Yan" in our country, and these surnames make these compatriots very distressed. In the face of this situation, people from all walks of life have different views on whether to change the surname or inherit a unique surname culture.
Resources:
【Dictionary of Chinese Surnames" and "Compilation of Ancient Characters"]