Cultural Analysis of Chinese Surnames

Author: Wang Quangen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-09-01
Features: According to new statistics, there are 11,969 surnames in China, both ancient and modern. Surnames are symbols of life, as well as a cultural phenomenon that transcends time and space. Every Chinese person living today can trace their surname back to a famous historical figure, and even to the primal worship of ancient ancestors. Qu Yuan's "Encountering Sorrow" begins with the line, "I am a descendant of the Emperor Gao Yang." Tracing the surname "Qu" back to Qu Yuan, and then further back to "Emperor Gao Yang," we see that the surnames of Chinese people reveal such a long, mysterious, and moving time tunnel! The distant history has become a dark sky. What allows each of us to directly "see" history are not the surnames, which are like living fossils accumulated over time, and the names of historical figures that twinkle like stars in the night sky?