China people had surnames before the Three Emperors and Five Emperors (about 5,000 years ago). According to legend, the earliest origin of surnames is related to the totem worship of primitive people. Clan tribes not only worship totem as a god, but also regard it as the unified clan name. In primitive tribes, totem, clan name and ancestor name are often the same. Over time, the name of totem has evolved into the symbol of all members of the same clan-surname. There are many legends about the evolution of totem into surname. According to textual research, the monarch of Yelang Kingdom is the king of bamboo, and the subjects take bamboo as their totem, and their surname is bamboo. According to historical records, there were foxes and snakes in Jin, dogs in Han, wolves and deer flags in Three Kingdoms and leopards in Three Kingdoms. Through these strange names and surnames with the same names as animals and plants, such as Luo, tiger, ant, cow, sheep, bird, dragon, bamboo, dragon, tea and chrysanthemum, we can vaguely see the indelible historical imprint of totem worship on the origin of surnames.
The formation of surnames is not only closely related to totems, but also closely related to women. At that time, it was a matriarchal society, only knowing that there was a mother and no father. Therefore, "surname" is composed of "female" and "born", which means that the earliest surname is the mother's surname. Archaeological data show that there are less than 30 surnames in the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but most of them come from women, such as Jiang, Yao, Si, Ji, Wa, maid, pregnant, concubine, kindness and win. Not only ancient surnames are related to the word "female", but even the word "surname" itself comes from the female side, which is probably the characteristic product of matriarchal clan system. Women are in a dominant position in production and life, and group marriage is practiced. Brothers and sisters can marry. Under this system, children only know their mothers, not their fathers. Therefore, there are many stories circulating in the myth that "a saint without a father was born in heaven". Many ancient surnames came from the female side, which shows that our ancestors experienced the traces of matriarchal clan commune.
In Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, people had surnames and surnames. In the development of ancient clans, the title of "teacher" was derived. Legend has it that when the Yellow Emperor ruled the world, there was already a "famous soil". The generation of surnames was the largest and most frequent in the Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, in order to control the conquered vast areas, the vassals were enfeoffed on a large scale. And the descendants of these vassal States all take the country name as their surname. In addition, similarly, the vassal states enfeoffed the domestic doctors of Qing Dynasty, and the descendants of the doctors took the enfeoffed country as their surname. Since then, various forms of surnames have emerged, and the number of surnames far exceeds the number of surnames. However, only aristocrats have surnames, while the poor have no surnames, and surnames have become a unique symbol of aristocrats. As for aristocratic women, no matter how they are called, they should follow their surnames, which reflects the authority and rigor of the ancient feudal patriarchal clan system in China. By the Warring States period, earth-shaking changes had taken place in society, and the old aristocrats declined and some of them became slaves. This shows that there is no need for aristocratic families to exist.
The surname comes from the name of the village where you live or the tribe to which you belong. "Shi" comes from the monarch's fief, knighthood, official position, or the title added according to merit after death. So nobles have surnames, and famous people have surnames; Civilians have surnames, and famous people have no surnames. Men and women with the same surname can get married, but men and women with the same surname cannot get married. Because China people have long discovered this genetic law: consanguineous marriage is bad for future generations. The origin of surnames, according to historical records, is recorded in Guoyu in the pre-Qin period that "the Yellow Emperor became Ji Shui and Yan Di Cheng, so the Yellow Emperor became Ji and Jiang". Zhou Yu recorded that "I, Ji Min, fell from the sky". This shows that surnames are appellations that represent races with the same blood. One of the provisions of the marriage system in the Zhou Dynasty was that people with the same surname were not allowed to marry. "Men and women have the same surname, but they are born the same" (Zuo Zhuan was published for twenty-two years), and "The same surname is not married, and evil is not born" (Jin Opera in Mandarin). The ancients knew for a long time that marriage between close relatives would produce bad offspring. In order to distinguish the similarities and differences between male and female surnames and decide whether to get married, it is very necessary to indicate surnames in female appellations. It can be seen that the role of surnames in ancient times is mainly "heterogeneous" and "heterogeneous marriage".
The system of different surnames was used until the end of the Warring States Period. By the Qin Dynasty, the old aristocracy collapsed, the feudal patriarchal clan system in the Western Zhou Dynasty basically ended, and the old clan and surname system was also eliminated. In the Western Han Dynasty, there was little difference between surnames. When Sima Qian wrote Historical Records, he simply confused surnames. "Since Taishigong, surnames have been mixed. This record was called' Zhao' in Qin Shihuang and' Liu' in Emperor Gaozu, and the same is true." (Gu Lu) Since then, China's surname has been combined with his surname, either his surname or his surname is his surname. People use their surnames, which is simple and convenient, and there is no distinction between high and low. So civilians also have surnames from no surnames to surnames.
In the first year of Emperor Taizong (627), Gao Shilian, a senior official of the official department, recorded the folk "surnames" and wrote a book "Genealogy", which was promulgated in various places as the basis for recommending talents to serve as officials or engage in marriage at that time. Hundreds of Surnames, which was popular in the old society of China, was written in the Northern Song Dynasty (960), including 408 single surnames, 30 compound surnames and 438 single surnames. Later, it was said that there were 4,000 to 6,000, but only about 1000 was actually used.
All countries in the world have the saying of "three surnames".
Britain is: Smythe, Jones, Williams;
The United States is: Smith, Johnson, Carson;
France is: Martin, Bernard, DuPont;
Germany is: Schultz, Muller, Schmidt;
The Soviet Union is: Ivanov, Vasiliev, Detnov;
China: Zhang, Wang, Li and Zhao, the four most popular surnames, have a long history and are widely distributed, all given by the emperor. According to the latest statistics, there are 100 million people surnamed Zhang alone, which is probably the largest surname in the world.
Li Dongming, a historian from 65438 to 0977, published a paper on "surname" in Oriental Magazine, which pointed out:
The top ten surnames of China people are: Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, Chen, Yang, Wu, Liu, Huang and Zhou. These ten surnames account for 40% of China's population, about 400 million people.
The next ten surnames are: Xu, Zhu, Lin, Sun, Ma, Gao, Hu, Zheng, Guo and Xiao. It accounts for more than 10% of the population of China.
The top ten surnames are Xie, He, Xu, Song, Shen, Luo, Han, Deng, Liang and Ye. It accounts for 10% of the population of China.
The next 15 surnames are: Fang, Cui, Cheng, Pan, Cao, Feng, Wang, Cai, Yuan, Lu, Tang, Qian, Du, Peng and Lu. Add up to 10% of the total population. In other words, among China's one billion people, 700 million people have these 45 surnames.
The surnames of more than 300 million people are relatively rare, such as Mao, Jiang, Bai, Wen, Guan, Liao, Miao and Chi.
Many ethnic groups live in rural areas of China, and often a village has only one surname. Each surname develops one side, breeds one side and monopolizes the other. There were several large waves of immigrants in the Western Jin Dynasty, the early Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The ancestors of all ethnic groups gradually merged into the Han nationality. Local governments and county chronicles describe this historical phenomenon in detail. For example, Qianlong's "Fuzhou Fuzhi" contains: "In the second year of Yongjia (308), Zhongzhou flaunted, and clothes began to enter eight Fujian families: Lin, Huang, Chen, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He and Hu. Because of the chaos in the Central Plains, I was afraid of difficulties, and I went there without going back to the north. " (Qing Qianlong's "Fuzhou Prefecture Records" (Volume 75 "External Collection") At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Zheng Chen and Chen Yuanguang and his son also led the 58-name garrison in Fujian and settled in Fujian. Huang's Eight Min Tong Zhi quoted Jian as saying: "Since the Five Dynasties' Rebellion, scholars, businessmen and tycoons in the north of the Yangtze River avoided the chaos here, so the state was established to prepare for the customs of the five parties."
Since the Republic of China, the investigation data about surname families have been very rich, and textual research on the origin of surnames has frequently appeared in various places. Take Fort Gan Tang in Fuan County as an example. Dozens of local residents come from more than 20 counties in the Central Plains, and Zheng is from Qinghe County and Xingyang County. Chen is from Yingchuan County and Taiqiu County. Zhou is from runan county; Xu is from Donghai County; Qiu is from Henan county; Shi Ding is from Boling County; Wang is from Taiyuan County; Fan is a native of Gaoping County; Miao is from Donglu County; Huang is from Jiangxia County; He used to be from Tianshui County. Other surnames such as Su, Lan, Guo, Yang, Lian, Jiang, Weng, Xie, Xu, Xu, Zhan and Wei also have their own ancestral counties. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, "change one's family, change production, and the Hakka surname is not allowed to live together in his hometown." (Ming Wanli Fu 'an County Records 1 Customs) All surnames live in groups according to strict geographical scope.
Hakkas in East and South China moved from the north from the Western Jin Dynasty to the end of the Song Dynasty. Due to the differences in language and customs and conflicts of interests, they often have conflicts with local residents for living space after emigration. This "dispute between subject and object" continued until the Republic of China. Frequent contradictions and conflicts make Hakka people more dependent on and attach importance to the family relationship of blood surnames, so Hakka people's clan concept and family organization are the strongest. Hundreds of people live in Hakka earth buildings (round buildings or square buildings), all with the same surname (clan), and all details are solved by the same surname (surname).
All families attach great importance to the origin of their surnames and the glory of their ancestors. In addition to genealogical records, its externalized form is also reflected in the front door of the family gatehouse and the horizontal plaque on the head of the ancestral hall. In some aristocratic families, in order to show the nobility of their ancestors, the words "Shangshudi", "Dafudi", "Jinshi", "Shangshudi" and "Yakui Tianxia" are often engraved on the doorplate. Generally speaking, the words "Lufang" (Yan surname), "Shui Ying Shize" (Chen surname), "Jiangpai" (Huang surname) and "Mosquito House" (Ding surname) are engraved on the house number of this family to show the county's prestige and make people know the origin of its surname at a glance. The couplets engraved on the doorpost of the ancestral temple clearly express the family background of each surname. The couplets of Chen Ancestral Hall in Fort Gan Tang, Fu 'an are as follows: "Dozens of generations have lived overseas to avoid chaos, born in Guangdong, and few people are envious. They are willing to build Ken Hall, and Li Gu's family is prosperous; After 300 years of reunification, I moved to Yanqing, and I like this day. It's beautiful, Tangjiang Temple looks like reform. " The couplets of Yan's ancestral temple in Taoyuan, Houtang Village, Wuxian Township, Tongan County, describe the time and route of Yan's entry into Fujian: "From Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, it is a generation; Enter Fujian, Deyong (Spring), Jinmen (Gate) and (An).
In all parts of the country, the phenomenon of single village, one household and one surname is very common. It embodies the clan characteristics linked by blood and geography, and also branded many village names with surname clan. Such as Li Fang, Chenfang, Cai Fang, Panwu, Xiaocuo, Xucuo, Wangzhuang and Yijiaxiang. , are such villages. Shaowu's Xiaojiafang, formerly known as Li Jinquan, is even more famous because a large number of Xiao people moved in in the Ming Dynasty. Xie Fang, formerly known as Xiuxi, became a famous family because Xie Yuanming, whose ancestral home was here in the Song Dynasty, became an official. It was changed to Xie Fang in the Southern Song Dynasty. Even in villages with mixed surnames, most of them are given priority to with one surname.
Due to historical or family reasons, there are often some taboos and taboos between single surnames or surnames. For example, Zhang from Changting County, Fujian Province did not perform Xue Dongzheng in that year, because there was a plot of betrayal in the play, which was considered an insult to the same clan. In this county, Li doesn't put lanterns on the Lantern Festival, because it is said that a crown prince was kicked to death while watching the Lantern Festival, so Li thinks it is unlucky to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The surname Lu of Yongdingkan called the wind furnace an end furnace because "Lu" and "furnace" are homophonic. The local people call the pot cover "Zanpeng", but only people named Zeng call it the pot cover alone, which is also because "Zan" and "Zeng" are homophonic. The loach is called yellow loach or lake loach, while the yellow loach in the depression of Yongding Lake Pit Township is called lake loach instead of yellow loach, and the Hu in Nakagawa is called yellow loach. Cockroaches are cockroaches, commonly known as yellow thieves. The surname Huang in Fushi area is not a thief, but a cockroach. Lin and Weng in Changting avoid intermarriage. According to legend, the descendants of two surnames once brought their ancestors' ashes back to their hometown at the same time and met at the inn. The ashes of both sides were accidentally mixed together and inseparable, so they had to take half of them and take them back to their hometown for burial. From then on, in order to avoid the suspicion of marriage with the same family, the two surnames did not marry each other. Gaodong people in Guzhu Township don't marry people in Yanbei Village either, because Gaodong people think that their ancestor Jiang Dongfeng was killed by Yanbei people, so they have a feud. This taboo also exists in other parts of China and has now been broken.
Generation of surnames
At the end of primitive society, when the Yellow Emperor ruled the world, there was already a "local surname" and a surname appeared. There were also a few "teachers" in Xia and Shang Dynasties. The generation of surnames was the largest and most frequent in the Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, in order to control the conquered vast areas, the vassals were enfeoffed on a large scale. Zhou Wuwang, Zhou Gongdan and Wang Cheng successively divided the land into brothers, relatives and heroes with different surnames, and established 7 1 vassals, among which, the king of Wu brothers 16 and 40 nobles with the same surname. And the descendants of these vassal States all take the country name as their surname. According to statistics, there are 48 Zhou royal families with the same surname and about 60 with different surnames. In addition, the vassal States also enfeoffed the domestic doctors of Qing Dynasty in the same way, that is, the descendants of the doctors were named after the cities they enfeoffed, such as Tian, Bai, Bao, Fei, Fan, Qu, Han and so on. After layers of enfeoffment, the names of feudal countries and cities have mushroomed. Therefore, the Zhou Dynasty was the most important period for the development of China clan. Then, various forms of surname sources appear constantly, and the number of surnames far exceeds the number of surnames. Since the confluence of surnames, nine times out of ten surnames used by China people have evolved from surnames. It is worth noting that in ancient times, there were Chao's family, Sui's family, Fu's family, Shennong's family (), Xuanyuan's family (Huangdi), Jintian's family (), Lai's family (), Yao's family (also known as Yao's family), You's family (Shun) and Xia's family (Yu's family).
Formation of surnames
Surname research has become a discipline. It is closely related to census, linguistics, history and archaeology, and plays an extremely important role in the scientific management of personnel modernization. Surname, as a marginal subject, has always been concerned by all parties.
Most surnames in modern European and American countries come from the Middle Ages and can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
As early as 5,000 years ago, China had formed a surname, which gradually developed and passed down from generation to generation.
Before Qin Dynasty, surname and surname were two monosyllabic words with different meanings. The archaic characters of surnames consist of "ren" and "destiny", which means that people are born with their surnames because of their destiny. In the inscription "Curse Chu Wen" carved by the State of Qin, it was first seen that the surname was composed of the word "female" and the word "sheng", and this glyph was finally shaped by Xu Shen, a Han Dynasty person, and became a knowing word. The appearance of surnames already existed in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Zhu, a philologist in Qing Dynasty, explained in his masterpiece Shuo Wen Tong Xun that the original meaning of "Shi" is woody, the root of plants and hieroglyphics. Later, he changed his surname to "Shi" and took the fundamental meaning of wood.
In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the social function of surnames was to represent races with the same blood relationship, and surnames were a branch derived from surnames. As a mirror, it says, "Surnames are unified by ancestors; The surname is not divided by his descendants. " Surnames originated earlier and remained relatively stable after their formation. Its origin is late and constantly changing. "Zhou Yu in Mandarin" says: "The surname is born, and it is the ancestor. Although not as good as a fairy, this surname will not change. Family members belong to the same family, their children and grandchildren are linked by the same family, and their collateral families belong to the same family. " In short, surname is the origin of surname, and surname comes from surname. Before Shang and Zhou Dynasties, surnames were used to distinguish marriage, so there were same surnames, different surnames and common surnames. Surnames are used to distinguish between high and low. Noble people have surnames, but poor people have no surnames. With different surnames, marriage can pass; You can't get married with the same surname.
In the Western Han Dynasty, there was little difference between surnames and surnames. When Sima Qian wrote Historical Records, he simply confused surnames and became inseparable surnames. Therefore, Gu, a beginner in Qing Dynasty, said in Tian: "The names of surnames have been mixed since Taishigong, the surname of Qin Shihuang was Zhao, and the surname of Emperor Gaozu was Liu."
Surnames originated from primitive clan society. Several ethnic groups form a primitive tribe, and clans in the tribe exist independently. At the same time, there is a close marriage relationship between clans, so surnames came into being as a specific symbol to identify and distinguish clans. China's earliest surnames all had the word "female", such as Ji, Jiang, Gui and Si. It can be inferred that surnames have been formed as early as matriarchal clan period, which is determined by the status of women in matriarchal society, and its function is to facilitate intermarriage and determine the ownership of future generations. Marriage is forbidden within the same surname, and marriage is allowed between clans with different surnames. The children belong to the mother, taking the mother's surname as the surname.
Stone was first formed in the late primitive society. By the time of the Yellow Emperor, there was already a "native name". With the disintegration of clan system and the formation of class society and state system, there has been a habit of giving and giving land to name families. Thus, the origin of surnames began and formed, and various forms of surname taking appeared. At this point, the difference between surnames and people's original intentions is not obvious in essence.
The reasons for the formation of surnames mainly include the following categories:
1. It is named after people's place of residence, place and country. Such as Zhao, Simon, Zheng and Su.
2. Named after surnames, such as Ren, Feng and Zi. Take Gu as the surname.
3. Name the surname with the name or character of the ancestor. Plus Huangfu, Gao, Diao, Gong, Shi and so on.
4. Take brothers as surnames. Such as Bo, Zhong, Shu and Ji.
5. Address surnames by official names. Such as Shi, Cang, Si Tu, Zhao Shi, Tai Shi, etc.
6. Life with professional skills. Such as witchcraft, slaughter, Excellence, divination, etc.
7. Take the ancestor posthumous title as the surname. For example, wearing clothes and talking on the phone.
8. Ancient ethnic minorities merged with the Han nationality and borrowed Chinese characters as surnames. For example, Tuoba changed to Yuanshi County, bare dew changed to Zhu, two customs changed to Guan, and the road of cattle changed to buttons, and so on.
9. I changed my surname because I gave it and avoided it. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Wang Hu named the minister who made outstanding contributions as Li, while in the Wang Dynasty, he was named Zhu. The name of Emperor China was changed from constant to constant because of taboo. The ancestors of the Jin emperors were Sima Shi, and all the teachers in the world changed their surnames to Shi Shuai.
10. I changed my surname to avoid vendetta. For example, the descendants of Duanmu Zigong changed their names to Mu and Prison.
The origin of surnames has many forms and is developing constantly. The same surname comes from different sources, or different surnames have the same origin, and so on. The situation is complicated. As time goes by, new surnames keep appearing. For example, when naming a child, two monosyllabic surnames of men and women are taken to synthesize a compound surname, adding new members to the surname "family".