The most direct reason is that when France officially began to rule Vietnam in 1887, it was found that many low-level Vietnamese people did not have surnames.
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When we all think of Vietnamese, we reflexively think of the surname Nguyen.
Yes, there are many people with the surname Nguyen in Vietnam, such as Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Duc Hai, Nguyen Ha Dinh, former Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung, and so on.
The real name of Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Vietnam, is called "Nguyen Bi Cheng", yes, "Ho Chi Minh" is just a pseudonym used by him to make a revolution, and Ho Chi Minh's real name is Nguyen Bi Cheng.
So, what percentage of the Vietnamese population has the surname "Nguyen"?
The answer is:
40%
Yes, 40% of the Vietnamese population is surnamed Nguyen.
Old photograph of Vietnam during the French colonial period
However, we know that there are at least more than 200 surnames in Vietnam, so why is there only one surname "Nguyen", which accounts for 40%?
Is it true that the Vietnamese surname "Nguyen" is particularly fertile?
Is it that there are more than 200 other surnames that have particularly poor fertility?
Non-ya
Common sense tells us that it is not normal for a surname to account for almost half of a country's population.
When things go wrong, there must be demons
Yes, if something goes wrong, there will be a demon.
For this abnormal thing, today, Lao Feng tells you why this is happening.
To explain this matter clearly, we must first make it clear, where did the Vietnamese surname "Nguyen" come from? Is there any relationship between the Vietnamese surname Nguyen and our Chinese surname "Nguyen"?
The answer is:
Congratulations, you guessed it
The Vietnamese surname Nguyen is of Chinese origin
Old photograph of Vietnam during the French colonial period
Yes, the Vietnamese surname Nguyen was also originally derived from China.
During the Jin Dynasty, there was a man on the mainland named "Nguyen Fang" who was appointed as the "Jiaozhou Assassin Shi" and was responsible for administering places including present-day Guangxi, northern and central Vietnam.
The ancient Chinese "Jiaozhou" encompassed northern and central Vietnam
So, due to nepotism, a large group of relatives surnamed Nguyen followed, all of whom were officials in northern Vietnam.
This Nguyen Fang is actually one of the main originators of the Chinese surname Nguyen entering Vietnam and taking root in the local area (the reason why it is called one is because there is also a Chinese named Nguyen Fu, and there are also a bunch of descendants who are officials in north-central Vietnam)
In the history of Vietnam, the surname Nguyen is considered to be a noble surname, which is related to this, because starting from Nguyen Pong and Nguyen Phuo, the central and northern parts of Vietnam are the world of the Nguyen family (Henan Tran Liu Nguyen clan) emperors.
The Ruan surname brought to Vietnam by Ruan Fang and Ruan Fu came from Chenliu, Henan, so it was called "Chenliu Ruan".
Chenliu, Henan is an ancient place name, and its location is probably in the area of today's Kaifeng.
After the death of Nguyen Fang and Nguyen Fu, in central and northern Vietnam, the Nguyen family was still governed, such as Nguyen Xun, Nguyen Shi, Nguyen Chang Ren, Nguyen Khai, Nguyen Gui, etc., in short, a large number of Ruan family children from China successively governed Jiaozhou, starting from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, until the Northern Song Dynasty, northern and central Vietnam, all of which were governed by this group of descendants of the Nguyen family, for five or six hundred years.
It is worth mentioning that in the past five or six hundred years, due to the noble status of the surname Nguyen in Vietnam, there is a steady stream of people with the surname Nguyen in Chinese mainland, immigrating to northern Vietnam, defecting, defecting, climbing relatives, climbing noble, which is why, the surname Nguyen is in Vietnam, as a prestige, carry forward the vast, which is why, the surname Nguyen in Vietnam, is a noble surname.
Well, the ancestor of the Vietnamese surname Nguyen, we figured it out, it turned out to be the "Nguyen" family from our Kaifeng area of Henan.
So let's go back to the question at the beginning of this article: why is 40% of Vietnam's population surnamed Nguyen?
Could it be that they are all descendants of these Nguyen family members from China?
The answer is:
Non-ya
There is no doubt that some of the Nguyen clan, which accounts for 40% of Vietnam's population today, are descendants of our Tran Liu Nguyen clan in Henan, but not all of them are the result of the 40% of Vietnamese with the surname Nguyen, in fact, the result of "fake" surnames Nguyen.
Yes, when we look through the history of Vietnam, we find two things related to this:
Old photograph of Vietnam during the French colonial period
First things first
The change of dynasty was forced to change the surname "Nguyen"
There have been many changes of dynasty in the history of Vietnam, and almost every time there was a change of dynasty, the royal family and officials of the previous dynasty and their families chose to change their surnames to "Nguyen" in order to escape the hunt.
Why did they all choose to change their surnames to "Nguyen"?
Because of the previous explanation, "Nguyen" is the official surname of Jiaozhou Thorn History, and it is the surname of the early nobles in Vietnam, in order to escape, anyway, since you want to change your surname, the surname is the same, it is better to simply change the surname of the noble, stinky and beautiful, so, almost every time there is a change of dynasty in the history of Vietnam, the people of the previous dynasty are afraid of being liquidated and hunted down, and almost all of them change their surnames to "Nguyen", for example:
In 1225 AD, the Tran Dynasty of Vietnam replaced the Ly Dynasty, and the royal family, officials, and family members of the Tran Dynasty were forced to change their surnames to "Nguyen" in order to avoid the pursuit of the Tran Dynasty.
Therefore, changing the surname "Ruan" can survive, and this experience is remembered by future generations.
So, something like that happened in the future, kept happening.
For example, in 1407, 1592, 1802...... In Vietnam's many dynastic changes, the royal family, courtiers, and their families who were defeated and replaced, a series of people, all changed their surnames to "Nguyen" to avoid the pursuit of the victors.
Yes, the dynastic change in the history of Vietnam, it was bloody, and many people were killed every time.
Therefore, there are more and more people with the surname "Nguyen" in the history of Vietnam.
Old photograph of Vietnam during the French colonial period
The second thing
French colonizers registered surnameless people as "Nguyen"
It turned out that in 1885 the French won the Sino-French War, and in 1887, the French colonists officially began their rule in Vietnam.
So, the French began to conduct a census in Vietnam.
When France conducted a census, it found a problem:
It turned out that in Vietnam at that time, not everyone had a surname.
In Vietnam at that time, nobles, officials, middle and high social classes, those with Chinese ancestry, or those whose ancestors were deeply influenced by Han culture, generally had surnames.
However, the middle and lower classes of society, illiterate, coolies, poor, generations of Vietnamese natives, who have not been influenced by Han culture, this category of people, usually do not have surnames.
Then, the French colonists at that time pondered, without a surname, it was difficult to manage.
So, at that time the French came up with a solution:
Anything that does not have a surname
The people at the bottom of Vietnam
All of them are registered with the surname "Nguyen".
As a result, many poor Vietnamese people who originally had no surname suddenly became surnamed "Nguyen", you know, the number of people at the bottom at that time was very amazing. That's why we see today that 40% of Vietnam's population has the surname Nguyen.