Surname is a sign and symbol indicating a person's family blood relationship. The original source of ancient surnames in China is primitive religious worship, totem worship and ancestor worship based on "Heaven". The so-called "heaven" is the law that everything has. Primitive totem worship is the root of China's ancient surnames. A large number of ancient documents support this view.
Descendants from the same ancestor are called clans. Surnames originate from the names of tribes or tribal leaders. Its main function is to distinguish the descendants of different clans in the tribe and facilitate intermarriage between different clans. Therefore, the appearance of surnames marks the change from group marriage system to consanguineous marriage system, which is an important milestone in the progress of human civilization.
Surnames are passed down from generation to generation, which is generally stable, while surnames change with the changes of feudal cities and official positions, so there will be several surnames in one's descendants or different surnames between father and son. Last name and first name together constitute a person's first name. "Surname, unified his ancestors from the exam; The surname is not divided by his descendants. " The surname is a racial number, and the surname is a branch of the surname. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, surnames began to merge.
origin
The origin of surnames can be traced back to the matriarchal clan system in primitive human society, so many ancient surnames in China are beside or at the bottom of female characters. Surname is a specific symbol to distinguish clans, such as the name of a tribe or the name of a tribal leader.
Surnames are two stages of human progress and the product of civilization. China is the earliest country with surnames, with a history of more than 5,000 years. In other countries, surnames did not appear until after AD 1000. For example, British surnames appeared in17th century, and Japanese surnames appeared in 1875. First of all, China is one of the few countries with the earliest surnames. Today, there are still more than 3,500 surnames in China. Secondly, China has a large population, which also means that the surnames of China people are highly stable.
Refer to the above? Baidu encyclopedia-surname