Hundred Family Surnames | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Bǎijiā Xìng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese alphabet | Bách gia tính | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ChữHán | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 백가성 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanja | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kanji | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kana | ひゃっかせい | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Hundred Family Surnames (Chinese :百家姓),commonly known as Bai Jia Xing, [1] also translated as Hundreds of Chinese Surnames, [2] is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dynasty (960–1279). [3] The book lists 507 surnames. [3] Of these,441 are single-character surnames and 66 are double-character surnames. [3] About 800 names have been derived from the original ones. [4]
In the dynasties following the Song,the 13th-century Three Character Classic ,the Hundred Family Surnames,and the 6th-century Thousand Character Classic came to be known as San Bai Qian (Three,Hundred,Thousand),from the first character in their titles. They served as instructional books for children, [5] becoming the almost universal introductory literary texts for students (almost exclusively boys) from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers. Each text was available in many versions,printed cheaply and available to all since they did not become superseded. When a student had memorized all three,he had a knowledge of roughly 2,000 characters. Since Chinese did not use an alphabet,this was an effective,though time-consuming,way of giving a crash course in character-recognition before going on to understanding texts and writing characters. [6]
The work is a rhyming poem in lines of eight characters. The surnames are not listed in order of commonality. According to Song dynasty scholar Wang Mingqing (王明清),the first four surnames listed represent the most important families in the empire at the time: [7]
The next four,Zhou 周,Wu 吳,Zheng 鄭,and Wang 王,were the surnames of the other wives of Qian Chu,the last king of Wuyue. [8]
This text is written in Traditional Chinese. Note that several of these characters may link to the same article.
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In 2013 the Fuxi Institution compiled a ranking of the 400 most common surnames in China. [9]
According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 300 most common surnames: [9]
According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 400 most common surnames: [9]
劉 / 刘 is an East Asian surname. pinyin: Liú in Mandarin Chinese, Lau4 in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character 劉 originally meant 'battle axe', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text Hundred Family Surnames. Today, it is the 4th most common surname in mainland China as well as one of the most common surnames in the world.
The Three Character Classic, commonly known as San Zi Jing, also translated as Trimetric Classic, is one of the Chinese classic texts. It was probably written in the 13th century and is mainly attributed to Wang Yinglin during the Song dynasty. It is also attributed to Ou Shizi (1234–1324).
The Thousand Character Classic, also known as the Thousand Character Text, is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand characters, each used only once, arranged into 250 lines of four characters apiece and grouped into four line rhyming stanzas to make it easy to memorize. It is sung, much as children learning the Latin alphabet sing an "alphabet song." Along with the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, it formed the basis of traditional literacy training in the Sinosphere.
Wuyue was a dynastic state of China and one of the Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It was ruled by the Qian clan of Haiyan (海鹽錢氏), whose family name remains widespread in the kingdom's former territory.
Ye is a Chinese-language surname. It is listed 257th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames, and is the 43rd most common surname in China, with a population of 5.8 million as of 2008 and 2019.
Qian Chu, courtesy name Wende, known as Qian Hongchu before 960, also known by his posthumous name as the King Zhongyi of Wuyue, was the last king of Wuyue during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China. He reigned from 947 until 978, when he surrendered his kingdom to the Northern Song dynasty.
Zhuang is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 庄 in simplified character and 莊 in traditional character. It is usually romanized as "Chuang" in Taiwan based in Wade-Giles. It is spoken in the first tone: Zhuāng.
Ou is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surnames 區 and 歐, which share a common origin with the compound surname Ouyang (歐陽), from the ruling family of the State of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. They are commonly romanized as Au or Ao in Cantonese.
Lü is the pinyin and Wade–Giles romanisation of a Chinese surname, most commonly 吕 and 呂.
Qian, also spelt Chin, Chien, Tsien, or Zee in Wu Chinese, is a common Chinese family name. The name literally means "money". Qian is listed at the second place in the Song Dynasty text Hundred Family Surnames, in the line 趙錢孫李. As the royal surname of the kingdom of Wuyue, Qian was regarded as second only to Zhao, the imperial surname of the Song. As of 2008, Qian is the 96th most common surname in China, shared by 2.2 million people, with the province with the most people sharing the name being Jiangsu, an area formerly within the Wuyue kingdom.
Baixing or lao baixing is a traditional Chinese term, meaning "the people" or "commoners." The word "lao" is often added as a prefix before "baixing".
The Wu Chinese people, also known as Wuyue people, Jiang-Zhe people (江浙民系) or San Kiang (三江), are a major subgroup of the Han Chinese. They are a Wu Chinese-speaking people who hail from southern Jiangsu Province, the entirety of the city of Shanghai and all of Zhejiang Province, as well as smaller populations in Xuancheng prefecture-level city in southern Anhui Province, Shangrao, Guangfeng and Yushan counties of northeastern Jiangxi Province and some parts of Pucheng County in northern Fujian Province.
Shenyin Shu or Shenyin Xu was a general of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. He was a great-grandson of King Zhuang of Chu.
Shěn is the Mandarin Hanyu pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 沈.
The Chinese surname 魯 is listed 49th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, 魯 is the 115th most common surname in China.
Lu is the pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese surname written 陆 in simplified character and 陸 in traditional character. It is also spelled Luk or Loke according to the Hong Kong Cantonese pronunciation. Lu 陆 is the 61st most common surname in China, shared by 4.2 million people. Most people with the surname live in southern China; 44% live in just two provinces: Jiangsu and Guangxi. Lu 陸 is listed 198th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.
Jì is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 暨 in Chinese character. It is romanized as Chi in Wade–Giles and Kei in Cantonese. Ji is listed 345th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. It is not among the 300 most common surnames in China.
Jǐ is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 己 in Chinese character. It is romanized as Chi in Wade–Giles. One of the ancient ancestral names, Ji is an uncommon surname today. It is not listed in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.
Wan is the Mandarin pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese surname written 万 in simplified Chinese and 萬 in traditional Chinese. It is romanized as Man in Cantonese. It is listed 162nd in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, it is the 88th most common surname in China, shared by 2.4 million people. The province with the most people having the surname is Anhui. In 2011, of the top 30 cities in China it was the only the top ten surnames of Nanchang, where it is the fourth-most common name.
Zha is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 查 in Chinese character. It is romanized as Cha in Wade–Giles. Zha is listed 397th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, it is the 176th most common surname in China, shared by 680,000 people. It was originated as a branch of the Jiang (姜) surname. Zha was originally the name of a district in modern-day Shandong province.