The origin of Chinese family name culture

The original source of 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 that everything has. On the totem, there are currently three views in the academic community: the name of the totem is a group **** the same name; the totem is the ancestor of the group, the members are reproduced from the totem; the totem is the group's protective deity.

The origin of surnames can be traced back to the period of matriarchal clan system in primitive human society, so many ancient Chinese surnames are female characters or bottom. Surnames were used as specific sign symbols to distinguish clans, such as the name of a tribe or the name of a tribal leader.?

The famous eight surnames in ancient China: Ji, Yao, Gui, Si, Jiang, Ying, Ji, and Food.

Extended information:

. p>Some of the naming methods of the family name:

1, to the family name for the clan

Surname as a clan communal period of the clan tribal symbols and the creation of the clan, and some of its descendants will be directly inherited for the clan. Matrilineal clan society to the mother as the last name, so then many of the last name is a female character side. For example, Ji, Jiang, Si, Yao and so on.

2, the country for the clan

such as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of the vassal states: Qi, Lu, Jin, Song, Zheng, Wu, Yue, Qin, Chu, Wei, Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, Chen, Cai, Cao, Hu, Xu, etc., have become a common surname.

3, Yi for the clan

Eup is the cognate, is the emperor and the vassal state ruler to the same surname or different surnames of the feudal lord. Some of their descendants or people who live in these cognacs are called "Yi" (邑), which means they are surnamed "Yi" (邑). For example, in the Spring and Autumn period, the brother of Xunlin father of the Jin state had an armory in Zhi (present-day Yongji City, Shanxi Province), and his descendants became the Zhi clan. According to the statistics, there are nearly 200 surnames with the name of Eup as their family name. Such as Yin, Wei, Han and so on.

4, Xiangting's clan

This type of situation is not much, today's common surnames are Pei, Lu, Yan, Hao, Ouyang and so on.

5, residence for the clan

Legendary ancient times Yu Shun out of the Yao Hui, Yao as a family name. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the officials of Qi lived in Dongguo, Nanguo, Xiguo and Beiguo, so they took Dongguo and Nanguo as their surnames. When the great officials of the state of Zheng lived in Ximen, they took Ximen as their family name. Duke Sui of Luzhuang lived at the east gate of Lu and was called Dongmen Sui. In this type of family name, there are more compound surnames, usually with the words Qiu, Men, Xiang, Lv, Li, Ye, Guan, etc., indicating different environments of the place of residence.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Surname Culture

Baidu Encyclopedia - Chinese Surname Culture