Naming - The Art of Naming People

Author: Zhang Shuren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Chapter 9 - The Culture of Surnames
In ancient times, before the Zhou Dynasty, the Huaxia nation was composed of numerous clans living in the Central Plains. A clan was a primitive commune, tribe, or tribal alliance. Each clan had its own name, known as the clan designation. This designation became the "surname" of every clan member. For example, the Shang clan, which established the Shang Dynasty, originated from the Bohai coast, and their clan designation was "Zi," so they all bore the surname "Zi." After the Zhou Dynasty conquered the Shang, the descendants of the Shang clan were enfeoffed to the state of Song, so the royal family of Song also bore the surname "Zi." The Zhou clan's designation was "Ji," and thus all members of the Zhou clan bore the surname "Ji." Additionally, during the Zhou Dynasty, the royal family of Qi bore the surname "Jiang," the royal family of Qin bore the surname "Ying," the royal family of Chu bore the surname "Mi," and the royal family of Yue bore the surname "Si," and so on. Here, we can observe an interesting phenomenon: most ancient surnames contained the radical for "woman," including the character "Xing" itself. This was because clan communes had all experienced matriarchal societies, and the prestige of women at that time was reflected in the clan designations. After the decline of matriarchal societies, with the reduced social status of women, surnames rarely included the radical for "woman" anymore, and later, most women had only surnames, even without given names. After the Zhou Dynasty, only the nobility had the right to bear surnames, while commoners and slaves did not. Although the nobility had surnames, they rarely used them. In various social settings, they gradually referred to each other by their "shi" (clan name) instead of their "xing" (surname), until the two terms became mixed and, by the Han Dynasty, were finally merged into a single term called "surname" or collectively referred to as "surnames," which is what we call today. Therefore, the surnames we have today derive from the ancient "shi" far more than from the "xing." Most of our current surnames existed even by the Han Dynasty. Moreover, starting from the Han Dynasty, everyone, from the nobility to the commoners, gained the right to bear surnames. After the Han Dynasty, the number of surnames themselves did not change much, but the populations associated with each surname varied significantly. For example, the surname "Linghu" originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and was a common surname in ancient times. During the Tang Dynasty, there were prominent figures like the Minister of Personnel Linghu Chu, the Chancellor Linghu Xuan, and the Librarian Linghu Decai, all of whom held high-ranking positions. However, by modern times, the number of people with the surname Linghu had greatly decreased, and it is now extremely rare.
The "Hundred Surnames" (Baijiaxing) was compiled during the Song Dynasty. Since "Zhao" was the imperial surname, it was placed first, while the following "Qian, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, and Wang" were major surnames at the time. After several hundred years of changes in surname populations, "Li" and "Wang" remain major surnames today, while the others are now considered common surnames. In ancient times, "Pei" was also a common surname, particularly prominent during the Tang Dynasty, but by modern times, it has become much less frequent. This shows that the population changes of surnames can be quite significant.
From the above discussion, we can see that surnames are used to distinguish clans. People with the same surname share the same ancestor or belong to the same branch of a clan, or even descend from the same individual. Therefore, surnames represent a person's vertical line of bloodline. After the decline of matriarchal societies, since sons took their father's surname, surnames came to represent only a person's paternal line of bloodline. When people with the same surname meet today, they often...