Enlarged Family Surnames Seal Album

Author: Hu Qijun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: "The Hundred Surnames" adopts a four-character structure, with each line rhyming. Although its content lacks logical coherence, it flows smoothly, making it easy to learn and remember. Paired with "The Three-Character Classic" and "The Thousand-Character Classic," it became a fixed textbook in ancient Chinese primary education. The book is highly practical, and familiarity with it is beneficial both in ancient times and today. "The Hundred Surnames" is one of the longest-lasting and most widely circulated primary education textbooks in China. Its composition and popularization preceded that of "The Three-Character Classic." According to the research of the Southern Song Dynasty scholar Wang Mingqing, the arrangement of the first few surnames in the book was deliberate: Zhao refers to the Zhao Dynasty of the Song, as it was the surname of the ruling monarch and thus should be at the top; Qian is the surname of the King of Wu-Yue during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period; Sun is the surname of the queen consort of King Qian Chu of Wu-Yue; and Li is the surname of the King of Southern Tang. He concluded that "The Hundred Surnames" was likely written by commoners during the time when the Qian family of Wu-Yue ruled. The term "having a state" refers to the period when Wu-Yue existed for a while after the founding of the Song Dynasty by Emperor Taizu, until it was fully annexed in the second year of the Xingguo era under Emperor Taizong. Thus, the book emerged in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty.