A while ago, there was a very famous meme circulating on the Internet, foreigners wondered why there were no nobles in the mainland, and the replies given by netizens included this article: The 5,000-year history of China, going back up, who has not produced several royal relatives, state relatives, officials and nobles. It's just that with the rise and fall of each imperial dynasty, the former royal and nobles have long been "disappeared".
During the Xia Dynasty, the most noble in the world was the surname Ji, the most noble after the Shang Tang Dynasty became the surname Zi, and the most noble after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty became the surname Ji... Every change of dynasty is bound to bring about the decline of the aristocracy of the previous dynasty. So the words of netizens are not wrong at all, each surname once had its own glory period.
So, there have been so many surnames in history, have there ever declined? The answer is naturally yes, among the more than 5,000 surnames on the mainland, at least 6 have never declined, come and see if there is a surname for you. The history of the development of the surname
The surnames of the mainland can be traced back to ancient times, and there have been sayings of "eight surnames in antiquity" and "twenty-four surnames in antiquity" in history.
In the earliest days, surnames and names, although they both pointed to blood relations, they each had different meanings. Taking the names of people in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods as an example, Qin Shihuang Huan Zheng was surnamed Zhao, Confucius was surnamed Kong, and Qi Huan Gong was Jiang surnamed Qi.
The relationship between these surnames and names, simply put, is that the name is a branch of the surname, the family is huge, there will be different branches, the branches are used to distinguish between the name, some will be based on the place of residence, some will be based on the official position, and some are named after the name of the country, occupation, etc., so there is a certain surname. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the surnames were united, and this phenomenon changed accordingly.
Since then, the surname has been passed down as a blood symbol, but there will also be cases of changing surnames in the middle: Zhang Liao, a famous general during the Three Kingdoms period, is a descendant of Nie Yi, and the family changed his surname to Zhang to avoid grievances; The famous general Li Wei of the Great Tang Dynasty, formerly known as Xu Shiwei, was given the surname Li by the emperor for meritorious service; Emperor Yuanhong of Northern Wei Xiaowen, originally surnamed Tuoba, simplified his surname in the Sinicization reform and changed it to the surname Yuan... Several large families with surnames in history
In addition to the royal family and royal relatives, there were often famous families in successive dynasties, some of which rose and fell in a short period of time, and some of which could survive several dynasties.
For example, the Hongnong Yang clan, which originated in the Western Han Dynasty, was the son-in-law of the Duke of Taishi and the prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, Yang Chang, as a high-ranking family in the Two Han Dynasty, the glory continued until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, not only the royal family of the Sui Dynasty came from the Hongnong Yang clan, the mother of a generation of empress Wu Zetian was also from this family, and Yang Yuhuan, one of the four beauties, was also from this family.
Another example is the Taiyuan Wang clan, which originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which also continued from the Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and there was Wang Rou, the general of the Eastern Han Dynasty to protect the Xiongnu, and Wang Yun, who conspired to get rid of Dong Zhuo, and the Tang Dynasty was already a famous family that the royal capital wanted to woo, and the famous great poets of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei, Wang Zhiluo, etc., were also from this family.
Another example is the Lanling Xiao clan, the representative of the top wealthy family in ancient China, Su Shi once wrote that "if you want to be a clothing watch, you should succeed the eight Xiaos in the end", which is the eight prime ministers of the Lanling Xiao clan. The ancestors of the Xiao clan of Lanling can be traced back to Xiao He, the prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, and after crossing the south with the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it gradually rose in the Southern Dynasty, and also produced emperors of the Qi and Liang dynasties.
In addition, there are Chen Jun Xie clan, Qinghe Cui clan, Hedong Liu clan, Fanyang Lu clan, Langya Wang clan, etc., or quickly grew into wealthy families in a period, or went through multiple dynasties without decline. These wealthy families not only have talented descendants, but also have great prestige in the imperial court and society, and some can even influence the rise and fall of the imperial dynasty. 6 surnames that have never declined
There are at least tens of thousands of surnames that have appeared in the history of the mainland and exist, and some of them can only be full of glory for a period of time because they are too deeply bound to the imperial family, and then they will decline rapidly. But there are also some surnames that have not declined for thousands of years and can be well developed no matter how dynasties change.
Speaking of surnames that have never declined, the first is the surname Kong, which has not declined for two thousand years, the family of the sage Confucius. The ancestor of the Kong family is from the royal family of the Shang Dynasty, and the surname is derived from Confucius's sixth ancestor, Kong Father Jia, so Confucius is the surname Kong.
The prosperity of the Kong clan is directly related to Confucius and the Confucian doctrine founded by Confucius.
Since Confucianism was revered in the Han Dynasty and then officially recognized by the feudal dynasty, for more than 2,000 years, successive dynastic rulers continued to give Confucius the title of "Dacheng Most Holy Master", from hou to gong to wang, and even to the Republic of China period.
The descendants of Confucius were thus protected by the rulers of successive dynasties, and Confucius's eldest descendants also received hereditary titles from the beginning of Han Gaozu.
The second is the surname Qian, which has not declined for thousands of years since the Tang and Song dynasties. The origin of the surname Qian can be traced back to Qian Keng, the great-grandson of Zhuan Yi, that is, Peng Zu, who has lived for more than 800 years in history, and is also the ancestor of the surname Peng, so there is a saying that "Peng Qian does not divide families". Although the surname Qian appeared during the Western Zhou Dynasty, it developed only slowly until the Tang and Song dynasties.
Since Qian Yun established the Wuyue Kingdom during the Tang and Song Dynasties, the surname Qian also entered a period of heyday and development.
Because Qian Yun left the famous "Ten Testaments" to future generations, since then, the descendants of the surname Qian have adhered to the ancestral training, continued the family style of scholarly fragrance, created a prosperous family appearance, and has not declined for thousands of years, Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty once gave the "Qingfen Shishou" plaque to praise the Qian family's education.
The third is the surname Wang, whose ancestor can be traced back to Ji Jin in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The surname Wang is the first surname in the mainland, and it is also the first surname in the country in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, and there have not only been many wealthy families in history, but also many emperors (Wang Mang of the new dynasty, Wang Yan of the former Shu, etc.), and even the situation of "king and horse sharing the world" occurred during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The fourth is the surname Li, the second largest surname in the mainland, and there are more than a dozen regimes founded by the Li family in history, including the Central Plains regime and ethnic minority regimes, and more than 60 emperors have been produced, including Li Yuan, who created the glory of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Yuanhao, who gave Zhao Song a headache, and Li Zicheng, who laid off the employees of the post station and launched a peasant uprising to overthrow the Ming regime.
The fifth is the surname Zhang, the surname of the Jade Emperor in myths and legends, and it is also the surname of the powerful subjects of successive dynasties, including Zhang Yi, the founder of the "Lianheng" strategy during the Warring States period; Zhang Liang, the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty who had the "Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty"; Zhang Juzheng, a reformer of the Ming Dynasty and the initiator of the "Wanli New Deal"; There is also "Zhang Zhidong", one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty.
The sixth surname is the surname Liu, which is currently the fourth largest surname in the mainland. Since Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty, the Liu clan has been greatly expanded, and because of the implementation of the Han Dynasty's "peace and affinity" policy, a large number of royal nephews with the surname "Liu" have also emerged in the Xiongnu. Also because the surname Liu was once the emperor of the two Han dynasties, the descendants of the surname Liu are almost all over the country. epilogue
The surname, one end is connected to the ancestors, the other is led by the descendants, and the same characters are used to continue the bloodline inheritance. Some scholars say that each surname is a totem, derived from ancient totem worship and ancestor worship. But in fact, the surname is also a kind of roots, digging into the family origin and development process hidden in the genes. Do you know your last name, where are your roots?
References: "History", "History of the Old Five Dynasties"