Zhang, the third most populous person in China (the first two are Wang and Li), with as many as 95.4 million (2018 statistics).
In Chinese history, the surname Zhang can be said to be one of the most mysterious surnames. Zhang li did not produce an orthodox emperor, but his influence on history was the greatest. For more than two thousand years, many of the key events that have influenced the direction of Chinese history have been dominated by the character surnamed Zhang, or to open up history or to turn the tide. However, the origin of the Surname Zhang is a mystery, and it seems to have appeared suddenly in the late Western Zhou Dynasty.
Shu Han general Zhang Fei
Dozens of times have influenced the direction of Chinese history
The reason why zhang surnames are considered very mysterious is that they often play a leading role in guiding the development of history at key points in time. Therefore, there is a joke that the "Zhang family" is the establishment of the Time Administration Bureau, the director is the Jade Emperor (also surnamed Zhang), and the deputy director is zhang Tianshi of Taoism.
Let's take a look at the following examples, and these historical facts can be said to be very memorable:
First, after ending the "three families and jin" incident in the Spring and Autumn Period, the key leader behind the scenes was Zhang Mengtan, the first strategist of Zhao Xiangzi.
Zhang Mengtan is believed to be a descendant of Zhang Meng, the grand master of the Jin Dynasty. It was under the guidance of his strategy that the Zhao clan resolutely held on to Jinyang, and Zhang Mengtan infiltrated the enemy camp and persuaded the Wei and Han clans to strike a blow and destroy the indispensable Zhibo.
Second, it was Zhang Yi who pacified the Six Kingdoms for the Qin State and formulated the strategy of continuous horizontalization.
Third, in order to establish the Han Dynasty, it was Zhang Liang who made a strategic contribution.
Fourth, it was Zhang Qian who opened up the western region and opened up the economic and cultural links between the east and the west.
Fifth, the founder of Tianshi Dao and the ancestor of Chinese Taoist culture was Tianshi Zhang Daoling.
Sixth, it was Zhang Heng and Zhang Zhongjing who made the ground motion instrument and wrote the "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases".
Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions
Seventh, the founder of the Taiping Dao and the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Jiao, triggered the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Eighth, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, every major force must be assisted by famous generals or famous ministers surnamed Zhang, Cao Cao had Zhang Liao and Zhang Guo, Liu Bei had Zhang Fei, Sun Quan had Zhang Zhao, Yuan Shu had Zhang Xun, Liu Biao had Zhang Yun, and Liu Zhang had Zhang Ren.
Ninth, in the short reign of the Western Jin Dynasty, the most important famous courtier was Zhang Hua.
Tenth, the most famous prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty, there were Zhang Kamzhi and Zhang Jiuling.
Eleventh, the Anshi Rebellion, stubbornly guarding Suiyang to protect the south from infringement, there was Zhang Patrol.
Twelfth, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, he led the uprising of the thirteen states in the Hexi Corridor to the Tang Dynasty, and there was Zhang Yichao.
Thirteenth, it was Zhang Yuan who assisted the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty and advised Li Yuanhao.
Fourteenth, the Southern Song Dynasty fell into a war, the Song was destroyed by Zhang Hongfan, and the last moment of the war for the Great Song was Zhang Shijie
………………
Similar examples in history are far more than that. The surname Zhang, it can be said that there have been many people in the past and have played a very unusual role in Chinese history.
Zhou Xuanwang Qingshi Zhang Zhong
Is the surname Zhang suddenly appearing in the late Western Zhou Dynasty?
Regarding the origin of the Surname Zhang, it is a very worthwhile topic to study. It is said that the surname Zhang originated from the Yellow Emperor's grandson "Zhang Hui", but this has been confirmed to be a fabrication by later generations. Generally speaking, designating the ancestor as a descendant of the Yellow Emperor is basically unreliable. The history of the Yellow Emperor itself is not examined, and all the genealogies that attach ancestors to the Yellow Emperor are mostly fictional in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
However, the origin of the Zhang surname still has many clues in the history books. However, the earliest record of zhang's characters seems to have appeared suddenly in the late Western Zhou Dynasty.
The first person with the surname Zhang to appear was Zhang Zhong, a secretary of King Xuan of Zhou in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, as recorded in the Book of Poetry. "Poetry Classic, Xiao Ya, June": Drinking Royal Friends, Turtle Carp, Hou Who is in The Book, Zhang Zhongxiaoyou.
The Zhang Zhong mentioned here is a friend of Yin Jifu, a meritorious servant of King Xuan of Zhou, and a minister who assisted King Xuan of Zhou. However, Zhang Zhong's record is limited to this, and Zhang Zhong, who is also recognized as the ancestor of the Historical Zhang surname. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Jin Dynasty had doctors Zhang Meng, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Ji and others, and the history books had more detailed character deeds.
However, is Zhang Zhong really the first person surnamed Zhang? According to archaeological findings, the true origin of the surname Zhang may have been much earlier than Zhang Zhong.
Samurai of the Shang zhou dynasty
First, there is a key basis that was discovered through archaeological research. That is, before the Spring and Autumn Period, the surname "Zhang" was not written as "Zhang", but "Long".
The evidence is a group of unearthed Warring States weapons: in 1971, a batch of Korean bronze weapons were unearthed in the ancient city of Zhenghan in Xinzheng, Henan Province, two of which were bronze inscriptions:
"Four Years of Zheng Ming: Han Yuan, Si Kou Chang Zhu, Arsenal Engineer: 囗囗, Ye Yin Pi Zhao";
"Five Years of Zheng Ming Han Yuan, Si Kou Zhang Zhu, Right Library Engineer: Chun Gao, Ye Yin: Shu Zao"
It can be seen that Zhang Zi and Chang Zi were mutually false before the Warring States, and the Zhang surname should have been called the "Long" surname. In this way, if we re-examine the archaeological findings, we can find many clues to the origin of the "long" surname.
Bronze of the first son's mouth
The origin of the Zhang surname: the eldest son of the country and the changdi
In 1997, the famous "Changzikou" tomb was excavated at the Taiqing Palace in Luyi County, Henan Province, which shocked domestic scholars at the time.
The Changzikou Tomb has unearthed a large number of bronze ceremonial vessels from the Western Zhou Dynasty, of which 54 have inscriptions, of which 39 have inscriptions with the word "Changzikou". This shows that the owner of the tomb himself is called "the eldest son's mouth". Long is the name of the tomb owner's clan or country, the son is the title, and the mouth is the name. That is to say, Henan Luyi once had a Western Zhou Viscount Princely State called "Changguo". Most likely, this is the fiefdom to which Zhang Zhong, the secretary of the Zhou Xuan Dynasty, belongs.
In addition, in Huangpi Lutai Mountain, Hubei Province, a piece of Yuanding with the inscription "Eldest Son Dog Cha Father Yi Zun Yi" was unearthed, and the tomb is dated to the late Kang Wang or Zhao Wang. This is also a proof of the existence of the Long Kingdom.
The eldest son, the dog, Copper Ding
Not only in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but also in the oracle bone three period card words, there is a record of "his eldest son, Wei Gui, to Wang Zhiyou". This is to say that the Shang Dynasty also had a Fang kingdom called "Chang", which was regularly dedicated to the Shang King.
At the same time, place names are also important historical evidence. In the Three Jins region of the Spring and Autumn Warring States, there were eldest sons, changshe, changzhi, and changping, and there were also long hills in the Spring and Autumn history books, which may be related to the surname of Chang or Changguo.
In addition, in the Spring and Autumn Period, there was also a strange Di tribe- Changdi, which once posed a serious threat to the State of Qi, the State of Song, the State of Jin, and the State of Wei, and even destroyed the State of Xing and attacked the State of Wei. In the "Zuo Biography", it is recorded that "in the life of the Duke Wu of Song, the Song Dynasty was concealed from the Song Dynasty... Defeat Di at Changqiu and gain Changdi Yuansi". Changdi is located in the Changqiu area, and then all the clues are linked, we can think that Changdi is "Di with a long surname", or simply "Di with a surname of Zhang".
The most interesting thing is that Changdi's territory is the recognized ancestral source of the Zhang surname - Qinghe County, Hebei, that is, "the world under the Zhang surname out of the Qinghe".
According to records, in 661 BC, the Di people broke the Xing, and the following year, the Di people destroyed the guard. Today's Qinghe County, under the jurisdiction of Xingtai City (the seat of the ancient Xingguo), is located only 200 miles east of the capital of the Xingguo and 400 miles northeast of the Weiguo capital. Qinghe County is the base camp of Changdi.
It can be seen from this that the Changdi of the Spring and Autumn Period was probably produced after the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was a product of the Changguo began to "disobey the king" and embarked on the Rongdi. This situation is very similar to the State of Chu, which is called Jingman, and the State of Chang is called Changdi. In fact, both the Chu state and the Chang kingdom are branches of Chinese civilization, not foreign peoples.
King Ping of Zhou moved east
The origin of the Zhang surname after the re-sorting
By studying the history books, coupled with archaeological findings, we can summarize the true source of the Zhang surname:
The surname Zhang, which appeared at least in the Shang Dynasty, was one of the many Fang states located in the Central Plains. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhang was the surname of the ruler of the Chang state, and was made a viscount by the King of Zhou, looking at the area of Henan, Shanxi, or Hebei, and possibly even more than one Changguo. During the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, famous courtiers such as Zhang Zhong and Zhang Xiang emerged.
However, in the later period of King You of Zhou, the crown prince Yi Usu (King of Zhou Ping) attracted forces such as Shen Guo and Inu Rong, killed King You, overthrew Western Zhou, causing great chaos in the world, and the state had two kings (Zhou Ping Wang, Zhou Ping Wang, Zhou Ping Wang At this time, it was likely that the Changguo was on the side of the anti-Eastern Zhou camp (in favor of the King of Zhou) and was falsely accused of being RongDi, or that the collapse of the ruling class in the country led to rongdiization.
In the following Spring and Autumn history, Chang Di, as a member of the melee, was gradually annexed by other countries, and the chang family was gradually dispersed and integrated into various countries, and a number of outstanding figures emerged - Zhang Meng, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Jiao of the Jin Dynasty, Zhang Zao of the Song Dynasty, and Zhang Mengtan of the Zhao Military Division, and from then on, the Zhang surname began to develop.
Because the rise of the Zhang surname was long before the Spring and Autumn Period, when Zhang Meng and others became famous in the Jin Dynasty, the Zhang surname was already branching out in the north based on Changguo and Changdi, so it can become the third largest surname in China today. (Author: Tao Mujian)