What is the purpose of a Chinese family name

A family name is a sign and symbol used to indicate a person's family lineage.

The original source of the ancient Chinese family name is the primitive religious worship, totem worship and ancestor worship based on the "Way of Heaven". The so-called "Way of Heaven" is the rule of all things. Primitive totem worship is the root of the ancient Chinese name.

The descendants of the same ancestor are called clans. The surname first originated as the name of a tribe or the name of a tribal leader. Its function was mainly to facilitate the identification of the descendants of different clans in the tribe and to facilitate intermarriage between different clans. Therefore, the creation of the family name marks the transition from the group marriage system to the marriage system based on blood relationship, and is an important milestone in the progress of human civilization.

After the creation of the family name, it was passed down from generation to generation, and generally did not change, and was relatively stable, while the clan changed with the change of fiefs and official positions, so there will be a person's descendants have several clans or father and son of two generations of different clans. Surname and personal name together constitute a person's name. "The family name unites the origin of one's ancestor; the clan distinguishes the origin of one's descendants." Surname is a racial code, and clan is a branch of surname. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, surnames have been merged into one.

Expanded Information

Origin of the Hundred Surnames

The Hundred Surnames is a work on Chinese surnames. According to literature, it was written in the early Northern Song Dynasty. The original collection of surnames was 411, later added to 504, including 444 single surnames and 60 compound surnames.

The Hundred Surnames adopts a four-character style, arranges the surnames, and rhymes with each sentence. Although its content is not literate, it has played a great role in the inheritance of Chinese surname culture and the understanding of Chinese characters, which is an important factor that can be passed down for thousands of years.

The Hundred Surnames, together with the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic, are known as the "Three Hundred Thousand" and were the primer for young children in ancient China. "Zhao, Qian, Sun and Li became the first four of the Hundred Family Names because the Hundred Family Names were formed in the Wuyue region of the Song Dynasty, so Zhao, the Song emperor, Qian, the king of Wuyue, Sun and Li, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, became the first four of the Hundred Family Names.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Surnames

Baidu Encyclopedia - The Hundred Family Names