Chinese culture has a long history, everyone knows that the mainland is a populous country, and now there are more than a billion people, and the surnames are countless.
The surname is something handed down from the ancestors, it records the information of the ancestors of each of us, and it is also a person's sign and symbol.
Many people should be familiar with surnames, but they have different meanings between the two. The surname we are talking about today is completely different from the surname of the pre-Qin period.
According to the statistics of the "Chronicle of Chinese Surnames", there are 5730 surnames in the mainland.
The surname originated in the female line and is a symbol of a tribe. In the matrilineal society, everyone only knows that there is a mother but not a father, so the surname generally follows the mother.
For example, the 8 oldest surnames in China, Ji, Jiang, Yao, Win, 姒, 妘, 妫, and Gu, all of which are female characters, and the clan originates from men.
It was not until after the Qin and Han dynasties that surnames and surnames were combined, and commoners gradually began to have their own surnames, and all followed their fathers.
In Chinese history, there are many very prominent surnames, some are still honorable today, and some have disappeared, but as long as they are surnamed these 7 surnames, the ancestors must be high officials.
What is a last name
Chinese surname culture first originated from some religious worship, totem worship and ancestor worship. In ancient times, people believed in the "way of heaven", which simply means that people believe that no matter what they do, they have their own rules.
So where did the last name come from? Historically, surnames began to develop from Fuxi, and from Fuxi to have a positive surname, people ended the situation of being with beasts and even marrying randomly.
It was also at this time that China began a patriarchal society that lasted for thousands of years. From the beginning of the surname, people gradually have their own origin and sense of pedigree.
It is precisely because of the surname that there is a bloodline inheritance and the birth of the Chinese nation, a great nation that never ceases to exist.
China's surname culture has a history of more than 6,000 years, and the development of surnames has become an important cultural inheritance of the Chinese nation, and it is also a form of expression representing the traditional Concept of China, recording the history and culture of the Chinese nation.
What is the last name What is the surname
In short, the surname represents a person's bloodline, and the surname is a branch of the family that evolves and branches on the same surname.
Generally speaking, men usually only call the surname and not the surname, the most typical example of which is the pre-Qin period, when the korean royal family was generally called the Han clan, and the royal family of the Wei state was generally called the Zhao clan.
Because of the difference in surnames, everyone ignores an important issue, in fact, they are all related to Zhou Tianzi by blood.
So why are there different surnames under the same surname? This problem has to be said to be the ancient sub-sealing system. The main reason for the existence of clans in the Zhou Dynasty was fiefdoms and official positions.
Let's start with the fiefdom clan, which is the most common one. To give a very simple example, if your fief is in Xia, you can call yourself Xia.
It is very important that once your fief changes, so will your clan. The surname is different, the surname is followed by blood, if there is no very significant change, it cannot be changed casually, relative to the surname, the surname is casual.
In fact, strictly speaking, the famous emperor qin shi huang in history, Yingzheng, he should be the Zhao clan, why do you say so?
This is because the former State of Qin was relatively weak compared to the State of Zhao, and the monarch of the State of Qin and the monarch of the State of Zhao were actually brothers in their ancestors, so their clans were the same.
But later, with the development of the Qin Dynasty, coupled with the fact that Qin Shi Huang's life in the Zhao State was not satisfactory, he did not like the Zhao family, so he changed his clan to Qin.
Ancestral high-ranking officials
The merger of surnames is already after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, if the ancestors are Zhou Tianzi princes and other people, they usually choose to use the country as their surname, such as Chen, Zhou, Xu, etc., if you do not choose the country as a surname, you will generally choose the royal character as a surname. Secondly, it is more common to use the official position of one's ancestor as a surname.
The most typical surnames are Sima (司馬), Situ (司图), Sikong (司空), and Si Kou (司寇).
In ancient times, Sima was generally in charge of the military, Situ was in charge of civil affairs, Sikong was generally in charge of industry and agriculture, these three compound surnames were "Three Dukes", and finally Si Kou was in charge of the prison.
Generally speaking, the status of people with these surnames in the imperial court is relatively prominent, and the official positions are relatively high. Therefore, the ancients would use the official position of their ancestors as a surname.
This is not only a memorial to the ancestors, but also an honor. Generally speaking, as long as it is a person with the surname of these three compound surnames, there must be a high official in the ancestors.
In fact, in addition to these 4 compound surnames, there are also three single surnames that are also used as compound surnames.
The first is the surname Qian, which was enfeoffed by the family in the Western Zhou Dynasty to take charge of the coins for the imperial court.
In the process of continuous development, it took the surname before the official position. At present, most of the Qian surname is distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, and now it is also a relatively wealthy area on the mainland.
The second is the surname of Li, in the Yao period, the Li family was responsible for the punishment of the imperial court, until the last year of the Shang Dynasty, the person in charge of the criminal law because he offended the King of Lu, the entire family suffered a disaster and embarked on the road of escape!
The descendants fled to the mountains under constant pursuit, and in order to survive, they fed on Muzi, and later changed their surname to Li, until the Tang Dynasty Li surname became the surname of the imperial family.
The last one is the surname Zhang, which originated from the Yellow Emperor's grandson Zhang Hui, who was mainly in charge of the army and was responsible for making bows and arrows. Under the continuous development, the family has developed as a surname to bow Changzhang.
The development of surname culture so far not only precipitates the blood of the Chinese nation, but also accumulates the cultural context of the Chinese nation, which is a very important cultural gene of the Chinese national civilization.
The surname is not only a sign of family origin, but also a symbol of blood relations. He is not only a symbol of traditional Chinese concepts, but also embodies the ethical and moral order of today's society.
A person who wants to know his own roots, his ancestors, and explore his own surname can not only learn the excellent Chinese culture, but also understand the blood history of Chinese civilization.