For the surname how much do you know, may be common surnames are familiar with the story, and the rarer surnames also have a different history, let's systematically talk about the surname, in the hundreds of surnames we are familiar with, the first is the Zhao surname, what kind of history and story does it have, why does it rank first? Let's find out.
1. Surnames bring a sense of belonging
For the origin of surnames in Europe and the United States, most of them come from the Middle Ages, and the earliest can be traced back to the ancient Greek and Roman Empires. Chinese had a surname before the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. As early as 5,000 years ago, China formed a surname, gradually developed and grew, and continued from generation to generation. It is said that the earliest origin of the surname is related to the totemic worship of primitive peoples. The clan tribes not only worship the totem as a god, but also regard it as a unified clan name of their own clan. In primitive tribes, totems, clan names, and ancestral names often coincided. Over time, the name of the totem evolved into a symbol common to all members of the same clan - the surname.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang (627), an official, Shang Shu Gao Shilian, recorded the "surnames" of the people, wrote a book "Clan History", and promulgated the world as a basis for recommending meritocracy to be officials or to match marriages at that time.
Written during the Northern Song Dynasty (960), the "Hundred Family Names" contains a total of 408 single surnames and 30 compound surnames. Later, it was said that there were 4,000 to 6,000, but only about 1,000 were actually used. Countries around the world have three surnames.
In 1977, historian Li Dongming published a paper on "surnames", in which he pointed out that the ten largest surnames of the Chinese are: Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, Chen, Yang, Wu, Liu, Huang, and Zhou. These ten surnames account for 40% of the Chinese population, about 400 million people.
The study of surnames has formed a discipline. It is closely related to linguistics, history, archaeology, etc., and plays an extremely important role in the modern scientific management of personnel.
Each surname has a place of origin and a story. The surnames spread throughout the country from their origins and were mainly the result of population migration. There are many ways to migrate the population, such as the migration of the Zhou Wang Ji surname, which is divided into the Zhou Wang Clan and brought the Ji surname to various places; forced migration: the ruler moves the population into the designated area through administrative or military means. The migration of people is to avoid war and seek livelihoods, such as breaking into the Kanto, taking the west entrance, and going to the South China Sea.
Since the surname Zhao was the national surname of the Song Dynasty, the "Hundred Family Names" compiled by the Song Dynasty listed the Zhao surname as the first surname in the country, and in fact it was not arranged by population and wang.
In history, Zhao's surname has a very prominent history. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhao Wan assisted the Jin Dynasty in establishing hegemony, and during the Warring States period, Zhao Became One of the Seven Heroes. Zhao's descendants have always been powerful, and by the Song Dynasty, Zhao reached the peak of power.
At the end of the Fifth Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, a native of Zhuo County, Hebei, who held the power of the Later Zhou Dynasty, launched a mutiny at Chen Qiaoyi in 960, that is, the imperial throne, the state name Song, and the capital Kaifeng, known as the Northern Song Dynasty. 1126 to Song Qinzong Jing Kangyuan. Jin soldiers invaded Kaifeng and the Northern Song Dynasty fell.
The Ninth Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, except for Emperor Hui and Emperor Qin, who was imprisoned by the Jin Army, the remaining Seven Emperors were buried with Zhao Hongyin, the father of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, on the border of present-day Gongyi City, Henan, collectively known as the Song Tombs, which is a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Emperor Qinzong's brother Zhao Zhao declared himself emperor in 1127 at Nanjing (present-day Shangqiu, Henan). Later Jiandu (later Jiandu) (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), historically known as the Southern Song Dynasty, was destroyed by the Yuan dynasty in 1279. The Song Dynasty lasted for 18 emperors and ruled for 320 years.
The establishment of the Zhao and Song Dynasties put an end to the chaotic situation in the 200 years since the Anshi Rebellion, became unified, and maintained the stability of the domestic situation for a long time, so that agricultural production continued to grow, industry and commerce developed accordingly, the urban economy became increasingly prosperous, and the urban population became increasingly concentrated. In this case, the classical poetic form of words, which sprouted in the Sui and Tang dynasties, showed an extremely prosperous new situation in the Song Dynasty, becoming the most creative, the most expressive of people's true feelings and the most popular literary style. "Words are called Song", which also shows the important position of Song ci in literary history.
From the artistic point of view, it has to be said that Zhao Tuo (Song Huizong), who made outstanding contributions to the construction of the Song Dynasty Painting Academy and the development of the courtyard body painting, the advocacy and creation of the art of calligraphy and painting, and the collation and preservation of ancient art. He was known as the emperor who did not love Jiangshan and ai Danqing. The famous "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" is also related to this emperor of calligraphy and painting. After completing this long scroll of praise for the history of the Taiping Dynasty, Zhang Zeduan first presented it to Emperor Huizong of Song. As a result, Emperor Huizong of Song became the first collector of this painting. Song Huizong, as a calligrapher and painter in Chinese history, liked this painting very much, and used his famous "thin gold body" calligraphy to personally write five characters in the picture, "Qingming Upper River Map", and stamped with the double dragon small seal. In this sense, Zhao made outstanding contributions to the development and progress of Chinese poetry, calligraphy and painting culture.
The subsequent development of the Zhao surname is very complicated, because many people with the surname Zhao are not Han Chinese. Mongolians also have the surname Zhao. The Zhuang and Yao also have the surname Zhao.
In 2008, the area with the highest density per unit area of the Zhao surname was in the Shandong Peninsula and the Huai River Basin, with a population of more than 7.5 people per square kilometer, and more than 11 people in some areas; secondly, in Henan, Hebei, northeast China, northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu, central Shaanxi, and northern Sichuan, the population of Zhao surnamed Zhao was more than 6 people per square kilometer. The Zhao surname is widely distributed, but unbalanced. The Zhao surname is one of the common surnames in the north, and the provinces along the Yellow River Basin are the main areas where the Zhao surname is distributed.
After Chen Kaige's film version of "Zhao's Orphan" in 2010, the TV drama version of "Zhao's Orphan Case" once again became the focus of attention. In fact, the so-called Orphans of the Zhao clan did not exist in history, but were created by Sima Qian based on some legends of the Warring States period.
2. The name and totem of Zhao.
Zhao, rushing, transcendent righteousness. In the clan emblem with the Xuan bird swallow as the clan totem, the "Xiao" figure should represent the Xuan Bird Swallow and be enshrined on the right of the god case, and on the left is the rushing human form to show the function of the worship clan. Later, Zhao was also extended as a royal husband who drove for the emperor, so in ancient times, the three words of Zhao, Xiao, and Yu were synonymous. The place where the Zhao clan first moved was called Zhao Di, which in turn formed a castle, and later had the name of Zhao Yi, and Zhao eventually became a state and surname.
3. Origin and evolution of the Zhao surname.
The Surname Han Zhao comes from the surname Win. The distant ancestors can be traced back to the Five Emperors era more than 4,000 years ago. The Shaohao clan is a Dongyi clan with the phoenix as a totem, and its descendant Gao Tao was in charge of criminal law and justice during the reign of Yao Shun. Bo Yi, the son of Gao Tao, was in charge of fire breeding and domesticating beasts and birds, and won the surname because he helped Dayu to control the water.
Bo Yi's descendant Zuo Father was a driving master during the time of King Mu of Zhou, because he made a great contribution to quelling the rebellion of King Xu Yan, and King Mu of Zhou created his father in ZhaoCheng, which is now the northern part of Hongdong County, Shanxi. The father and grandson of the creation were named after the fengyi. Since then, the zhao surname has appeared in the land of China, and the founding father is the ancestor of the Zhao surname in the world, which has a history of 3,000 years.
4. Zhao's names include: Zhao Hao, a famous general of the State of Zhao during the Warring States period, Zhao Sheng, a famous general of the Plains, Zhao Chongguo, a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhao Yu, a magistrate, and Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue; Zhao Qi, a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty; Zhao Shuang, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms, a mathematician; Zhao Yin, a scribe of the Tang Dynasty; Zhao Kuangyin, a famous minister of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Pu, a famous minister, Zhao Chang, Zhao Lingyong, a painter, Zhao Mingcheng, a painter; Zhao Ding, a chancellor of the Southern Song Dynasty; Zhao Mengjian, a painter; Zhao Bingwen, a scholar of the Song and Yuan dynasties; Zhao Mengfu, a calligrapher and seal carver of the Yuan Dynasty; and Zhao Youqin, a scientist Zhao Nanxing, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Xianke, a physician; Zhao Zhixin, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Xuemin, a historian, Zhao Yi, a seal carver, Zhao Zhiqian, Zhao Zhichen, and so on.
Statue of Zhao Yun