Historically, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries around China have been deeply influenced by Chinese civilization in terms of writing, clothing, architecture and other aspects. Nowadays, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries are regarded as part of the East Asian Chinese character cultural circle internationally, but Japan is a relatively special alternative among the East Asian Chinese character cultural circle countries. North Korea and Vietnam, which border China, have been more deeply influenced by Chinese culture in history, while Japan, which faces across the sea, is more limited to the surface of the influence of Chinese civilization.
One of the more emblematic differences between Chinese and Japanese cultures is the surname culture of the two countries. The surnames of Koreans and Vietnamese are basically the same as our Chinese: Kim Il-sung, Moon Jae-in, Park Chung-hee, Ho Chi Minh, Wu Won-ko... The surnames of these people can also be found in China. In contrast, many Japanese surnames often make Chinese feel weird. In the past, I watched Zhen Zidan's "Jingwumen" starring in Cai Xuefu change his name to Inuyasha Xuefu after he became a traitor. At that time, I thought that the surname "Inuyasha" was made up by the director to satirize Cai Xuefu's traitorous role.
As I gradually learned about the history and culture of Japan, I learned that there was really such a surname in Japan. If we think according to our Chinese we are likely to feel that "dog breeding" is cursing people and dogs. In fact, the japanese word order is the opposite of Chinese: the real meaning of "dog breeding" is "dog breeding". The use of dog breeding as a surname actually means that the ancestors were dog owners. The 29th Prime Minister in Japanese history was named Inuyasha. Of course, the Japanese surname that makes us feel weird and strange Chinese is by no means the only one that is "inuyasha".
At the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, a Japanese athlete named "My Grandson Chimi" appeared in the women's pole vault competition. In fact, the Japanese pronunciation of "my grandson" is "あびこ" (abiko). The surname "My Grandson" was originally derived from an ancient official position. There is also a city in Chiba Prefecture in Japan called "My Grandson City". If you've seen Naruto, you know there's a character in it called Mitsuru. In fact, the surname "Mitsuru" is also real in Japan: the CEO of Canon is called Mitsubashi Fujio.
The term "Otobashi" is used in Japan as well as a shrine temple handwashing place in addition to being used as a surname. A few years ago, some tourists in the mainland in Japan saw the room with the "Ote wash" door number and thought it was a washroom, but they did not know that it was actually the family's surname is Mitsuru. In addition to Inuyasha, my grandson, and Mitsuru, there are many Japanese surnames that seem to us to be quite happy Chinese: Pig Hand, Five Ghosts, Ghost Head, Glans, Pig Stock, Pig Mouth, Pig Nose, Cow Ball, Cow Intestine, My Wife, New Wife, Bed, Nose Hair, Jiri Hair, Anus, Cow Dung House...
Why do we have so many surnames in Japan that seem to us Chinese to be quite comedic? This is actually related to the formation of Japanese surname culture. Surnames are invented by people according to the needs of social development, rather than being born in human society. Russians had no surname until the 14th century, and from the 14th century russian nobility began to imitate the use of surnames by other peoples. At that time, surnames were regarded as a symbol of aristocratic status in Russian society, so the Russian common people at that time did not have surnames. It was not until the 19th century that the Russian plebeian class began to have their own surnames.
The early English were also nameless, and it was not until after the Norman Conquest in 1066 AD that the surname culture of the European continent was introduced to Britain. Thailand did not enact a decree on names until 1913. The Burmese, who make up about 70 percent of the country's population in Myanmar, still have no surname. In the era of serfdom, only nobles on the mainland had surnames, and after the democratic reform in Tibet, some Tibetan commoners who received higher education gave themselves surnames, but so far a considerable number of Tibetan compatriots did not have the so-called surnames of the Han People.
Do you think this situation exists only for foreigners and ethnic minorities? In fact, the surname of the Han nationality is not innate, but the surname culture of the Han nationality was formed relatively early. Many people may think that our Chinese follow the father's surname, but why is the "surname" in Chinese characters next to the female character? In fact, the names of the ancients were composed of four parts: surname, surname, first name, and word. For example, Cao Cao character Meng De, Liu Bei character Xuan De, Guan Yu character Yun Chang, Zhou Yu character Gong Jin, Zhuge Liang character Kong Ming... It can be seen that in ancient times, names were names and words were words.
It's just that we now combine names and words together as names. In fact, we Chinese surname and first name have also undergone such a process of change: originally the first surname was a surname and a surname, but we have now merged these two concepts into a surname. Surnames first originated in the matrilineal clan era, so we Chinese actually follow the mother's surname. Many of the oldest surnames in China, such as Ji, Yao, Jiang, 嬴, 姒, 妘, and 姞, have female edges. But now what we call a "surname" is a clan.
After entering the patrilineal clan society, the clan inherited from the paternal line gradually replaced the surname inherited from the matrilineal line. What we call our surname today is actually a surname, not the original surname of the ancients. Of course, the Chinese ancestors at that time, like other ethnic groups in the world, only nobles had surnames. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China established a system of sub-feudalism and patriarchy: the family's fiefdoms and wealth were inherited by the eldest son, and the ancestral temple sacrifices were also carried out by the eldest son. Sons other than the eldest son would often divide a small plot of land for them to settle down.
These sons, who were divided from their own clans, often gave their descendants a new clan name: some took the fief as the clan, and some took the title of official as the clan. For example, Xiang Yu's family took "Xiang" as a clan because their ancestors came from the Xiang Kingdom; after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, some people in the Ji family took the ancestral feudal state "Zhou" as their clan; after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, some of the children with the surname of "Qin" also took the national name "Qin" as their clan. The three compound surnames of Situ, Sikong, and Sikou were named after the official titles of their ancestors. Some people may feel that the surnames in the pre-Qin period are very different from those of today when watching TV dramas.
The surnames "Ji" of Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Wu, the "嬴" of Qin Shi Huang, and the "芈" of Empress Dowager Xuanyue now seem to be rare. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the descendants of these families have changed their surnames according to their ancestors' fiefs and official titles. In the pre-Qin period, this phenomenon of changing surnames according to ancestral fiefdoms and officials was actually relatively common, and after the Qin and Han Dynasties, China's surname culture had actually developed more maturely. Since the Qin and Han dynasties Chinese generally will not easily change their surnames, so there is a saying that "do not change their names, sit and do not change their surnames".
When China transitioned from a vassalage system to a unified empire, many commoners who had no surname began to imitate the nobles and gave themselves surnames. Commoners often took the surname in imitation of the nobility. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the names of qi, Lu, Song, Deng, Han, Zhao, Wu, Chen and other states have now become surnames. In addition to using place names as surnames, there are also people who use occupation as surnames: the craftsmen who make pottery are surnamed Tao, and the clerks at checkpoint intersections are surnamed Guan... Since commoners and nobles had surnames, surnames lost their original role in distinguishing social status.
Therefore, since Qin Shi Huang unified China, surnames and surnames have gradually merged into one to form Chinese unique surname culture. When Chinese formed its own stable and mature surname culture, Japan was still in a primitive clan tribal society. At the end of the fourth century AD, the Yamato court unified the Japanese archipelago. A blood-related group gradually formed between the nobles of the central government of the Yamato Court and the small vassal states subordinate to the imperial court (this group was called the clan, that is, the title of the aristocratic family). The title "clan" comes from an official position, from a place of residence or rule, or from a god or skill.
The Izumo clan that lived in Izumo Province was called the "Izumo clan", and those who made sacrifices were called the "Matsube clan", and the Daino clan, which held the highest power in Yamato, was the most powerful clan at that time. Later, King Yamato gave "surnames" to many clans that were subordinate to the imperial court according to their estrangement from their relatives and the merits of their power. This surname is only a title of status, position, etc. (similar to the title in ancient China). At that time, there were only about 30 japanese surnames. Later, with the continuous reproduction of the population, many aristocratic families gradually evolved more and more family branches.
Branches of the aristocratic family in the pre-Qin era of China would give themselves new surnames. The branches of the Japanese aristocratic family also gave themselves new surnames. The surnames of the branch families are called "Miaozi" in Japan (meaning that the reproduction of large families is like a branch of the seedlings). For example, the branch of the Fujiwara clan, the most famous noble family in Japanese history, is called Kondo, those who live in Awaye Country are called Endo, those who live in Ise Country are called Ito, and those who live in Kaga Country are called Kato. The Fujiwara family, who live in Kyoto, are also surnamed "Konoe", "Eagle Division", "Kujo", and "Ichijo" according to their place of residence.
At this time, the Japanese surname only indicates the status of the family, so the surname, surname, and Miao characters belong only to the aristocratic class. Until the 19th century, the surnames that existed in Japanese society were still exclusive to the nobles, samurai, rich merchants and other groups, while the majority of the population was still nameless. After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government felt that it was inconvenient for ordinary people to have no surnames, such as conscription, taxation, and establishment of household registration. At that time, some Japanese families not only did not have a surname, but even their names were quite arbitrary: the eldest was called Taro, the second was called Jiro, and the third was called Sanro...
In this case, it is likely that there is a Taro in the East Village and a Taro in the West Village. When the government wants to conscript and collect taxes, it is not clear which Taro it is looking for. In this historical context, the Japanese government issued the "Civilian Miao Character Permit Order" to allow ordinary people to have their own surnames. This may seem likely to some of us to be a major social advance, but it is another matter in a country that lacks a cultural basis for surnames. For thousands of years, the common people of Japan have never had a surname and have always lived.
Therefore, at that time, most ordinary Japanese people did not realize the use of a surname. Several years after the promulgation of the government's decree, not many ordinary people still gave themselves surnames. In the eighth year of Meiji (1875), the Japanese government promulgated the mandatory "Hmong Characters Must Be Called Order". The transition from permission to necessity means that one's own surname has become a mandatory legal obligation. It is said that the level of education of ordinary Japanese people in that era was not very high, so it was generally impossible to figure out what elegant and profound surnames were.
At that time, most Japanese people liked to use things that they often came into contact with in their daily lives as surnames. Some people use their place of residence as a surname: living under a pine tree is called Matsushita, living in the middle of the field is called Tanaka, living next to the ferry port is called Watanabe... Therefore, a large number of surnames similar to place names came into being: Yamamoto, Yamaguchi, Tanabe, Hanoi, Takahashi, Uehara, Kobayashi, Nakamura... Others take their profession as their surname: for example, the dog breed mentioned above is called dog breeding. Some people can't even get such a simple surname.
On the one hand, the people do not know how to start, and on the other hand, the government has issued a mandatory order that must be raised. As a result, many ordinary people with low education level had to ask village officials for advice to give themselves surnames. Yanagida Kunio mentioned in "The Topic of Names" that some village officials will prank with bad intentions: for example, the above-mentioned pig hands, glans, pig stocks, pig mouths, pig noses, cow balls, cattle intestines, nose hairs, Jiri hair, anus, these surnames used as human or animal organs came out. At one time, from the sun, moon, stars to flowers, birds, insects and fish, various surnames were overwhelming.
At that time, fishermen on the Iyu coast often used the names of various fish as their surnames, while neighboring villages generally used the names of various vegetables as surnames. Therefore, almost all the words you can think of can be found in Japanese surnames. For example, there are Ichidan, Nijo, Miki, Shishima, Hexagon, Seven, Eight Horses, Nine Ghosts, Ten Stones, Hyayo, Chiyo, Senkaku, Banzai... The reason why Japanese surnames seem strange to us is mainly because of the relatively late development of Japanese surname culture.
China has formed a relatively stable and mature surname culture since at least since the Qin and Han dynasties. In the past two thousand years Chinese has developed the habit of "not changing the name and not changing the surname", so many surnames in the mainland have an ancient history of thousands of years. In contrast, many Japanese surnames were hurriedly developed after the Meiji Restoration, and the cultural level of ordinary Japanese people at that time was really limited, so it is not surprising that there will be a large number of surnames in Japan that seem to us to be quite comedic.
Because Japanese surname culture developed in such a context, there are many Japanese surnames in addition to being quite comedic. We can find a variety of surnames that seem strange to us in Japan. The Great Dictionary of Japanese Surnames collects a total of 290,000 surnames. Of course, some of these are ancient surnames that are no longer commonly used today. In 1983, an old man in Gunma Prefecture used the most direct method to investigate and count the telephone books across the country one by one to find 139163 surnames.
If these surnames are spread equally among more than 100 million Japanese people, it is equivalent to an average of about 1,000 people with one surname. In contrast, China, with a population of 1.4 billion, uses about 3,000 Han surnames (of which only about 500 are commonly used). There are about 230 common surnames in North and South Korea that use Chinese surnames, and only about 200 surnames in Vietnam. Nowadays, the surnames of China, North Korea, Korea, Vietnam and other countries can almost all be found in the "Hundred Family Names". In contrast, the number of Japanese surnames is indeed unparalleled among the countries in the Kanji cultural circle.