Introduction to Traditional Chinese Culture: The Hundred Surnames, Children's Edition

Author: Wei Xiyou (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Genealogy studies are a specialized field. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, due to the emphasis on noble clans, a specialized discipline called genealogy studies () emerged, focusing on research on surnames, social status, and clan systems. The character "" (xìng) is composed of "" (nǚ, meaning "woman") and "" (shēng, meaning "birth"), indicating that it is a product of matrilineal societies. In early times, a surname was a clan name, not a title for an individual or a family, but rather a designation for the entire clan. For example, the Yellow Emperor belonged to the Ji surname, the Flame Emperor to the Jiang surname, Shun to the Yao surname, and Yu to the Ni surname. Surnames were used externally to distinguish between clans and internally to maintain blood ties within the clan. Later, they were also used to regulate marriage, making women's surnames sometimes more significant than their given names.
"Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang, Feng, Chen, Chu, Wei, Jiang, Shen, Han, Yang" are the opening lines of the well-known "Hundred Surnames" (《》), which have become a general term for Chinese surnames. Since surnames are possessed by everyone and used daily, they are actually an important part of our lives. However, if one were to ask how many surnames there are in China, how they originated, how much cultural content is embedded in each surname, and how they are used today and what their future trends might be, it is not an easy task to answer these questions. To systematically address these issues and comprehensively present the origins and evolution of Chinese surnames over 5,000 years, as well as to gain insights into our nation's splendid and magnificent cultural development history through the lens of surname changes.