1. The surnames in ancient China originated from matriarchal clan society and totem worship. So what are totem and totem worship? What is the relationship between surnames and totems? Totem is an American Indian language, and the earliest word is ototemam, which means "his kin". The root oto means the blood relationship between half-brothers and sisters who are forbidden to get married. 179 1 year, a British businessman translated "ottoman" into "totem", and later the totem worship of "totemism" was derived and became an international term. Modern scholar Yan Fu first introduced the concept of "totem" to China. He explained: "Totem is a symbol of barbarians, which is used to distinguish themselves from others." Here, we can define totem, which is an animal, plant or other object, marking or symbolizing a certain group or individual.

Regarding totem worship, The Concise Encyclopedia of Britain explains: "I believe that people are related to a totem; Or the belief that a group or individual has a mysterious relationship with a totem is called totem worship. " Totem worship has the following characteristics: (1) Totem is regarded as a companion, relative, protector, ancestor or helper with superhuman ability; People respect, worship and even fear totems; (2) using special names and emblems to express totems; (3) Admirers are integrated with totems to some extent, or assimilated with totems through symbolic means; (4) It is forbidden to slaughter, eat or touch totems, and even it is stipulated to avoid totems; (5) Hold a special totem worship ceremony.

2. In primitive society, people's understanding of themselves and nature is very limited, and they don't understand the relationship between man and nature. They believe that each clan has mysterious kinship and other special relationships with some animals, plants, inanimate objects or natural phenomena, and that these "gods" are their ancestors and protectors, and their clans are bred from these gods. Therefore, every clan takes some kind of worship as the god and symbol of its own clan, which is called "totem".

According to historical records, at the end of clan society in China, each tribe had its own totem. In the southeast coastal areas, most tribes are birds, which is called "birds are barbarians" in history. For example, the Shao Hao tribe took the phoenix bird as the totem, and the ancestors of Yin Shang Dynasty took the mysterious bird (swallow) as the totem; Among the primitive tribes in China, the Chiyou nationality takes loach as the first; The northwest high principle takes wild animals as totems. The history of Emperor Yan shows that the tribe of Emperor Yan has the totem of cattle. Then there is "the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di fought in the wild of Hanquan, with handsome bears, donkeys, raccoons, raccoons and tigers as pioneers". The bears, donkeys, donkeys and tigers here should be six of the Yellow Emperor tribe.

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.