Hundred Family Surnames
Classic composition of common surnames in China's Song Dynasty
| Hundred Family Surnames | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Bǎijiā Xìng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Bách gia tính | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chữ Hán | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 백가성 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 百家姓 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 Each text was available in many versions, printed cheaply and available to all since they did not become superseded.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]
Form
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]
- 1st: Zhao (趙) is the surname of the Song dynasty emperors.
- 2nd: Qian (錢) is the surname of the kings of Wuyue.
- 3rd: Sun (孫) is the surname of the queen Sun Taizhen of Wuyue king Qian Chu.
- 4th: Li (李) is the surname of the kings of Southern Tang.
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]
Complete text
This text is written in Traditional Chinese. Note that several of these characters may link to the same article.
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Prevalence in modern times
In 2013 the Fuxi Institution compiled a ranking of the 400 most common surnames in China.[9]
Under 300th most common
According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 300 most common surnames:[9]
- Yōng 雍 – 339th
- Píng 平 – 315th
- Mǐ 米 – 316th
- Zhàn 湛 – 369th
Under 400th most common
According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 400 most common surnames:[9]
- Bèi (贝/貝)
- Shuǐ (水)
- Wū (邬/鄔)
- Háng (杭)
- Zhú (竺)
- Bǐng (邴)
- Fú (扶)
- Dǔ (堵)
- Zǎi (宰)
- Lì (郦/酈)
- Xì (郤)
- Pú (濮)
- Shòu (寿/壽)
- Tōng (通)
- Jia (郏/郟)
- Bié (别/別)
- Chōng (充)
- Xí (习/習)
- Hóng (红/紅)
- Huàn (宦)
- Ài (艾)
- Shèn (慎)
- Yǔ (庾)
- Zhōng (终/終)
- Jì (暨)
- Bù (步)
- Hóng (弘)
- Lù (禄/祿)
- Shū (殳)
- Wò (沃)
- Wèi (蔚)
- Yuè (越)
- Kuí (夔)
- Mù (牧)
- Shè (厍/厙)
- Zī (訾)
- Kōng (空)
- Kuí (隗)
- Shān (山)
- Wú (毋)
- Niè (乜)
- Yang (养/養)
- Xū (须/須)
- Xún (荀)
- Sháo (韶)
- Bēn (賁/贲)
- Every two syllable name (except for Ōuyáng (欧阳/歐陽))
See also
- Chinese surnames
- List of common Chinese surnames
- Seek for Surname History
- Three Character Classic
- Thousand Character Classic
Explanatory notes
- ^ The last four-character line means "thus ends the Hundred Family Surnames." It is not intended to contain surnames.
References
Citations
- ^ Ting Hui Lee (2011). Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia: The Struggle for Survival. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 249–. ISBN 978-981-4279-21-5.
- ^ Patrick Hanks; Richard Coates; Peter McClure (November 17, 2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. OUP Oxford. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-0-19-252747-9.
- ^ a b c K. S. Tom. [1989] (1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom p. 12. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1285-9.
- ^ Chen, Janey. [1992] (1992). A Practical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-1877-0
- ^ "Taking Stock of Classic Early Childhood Readers". China Times. June 26, 2014.
- ^ Rawski (1979), pp. 46–48.
- ^ Zhang, Jiansong; Shen, Haixiong (March 5, 2006). ""百家姓"排列终有序。姓氏文化有何内涵？" [The "Hundred Family Surnames" are finally arranged in order. What is the cultural meaning of the surnames?]. Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014.
- ^ Chen Danning (September 3, 2014). 钱氏修"百家姓"将钱姓排第2位 钱王妃子姓氏靠前 (in Chinese). China News. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
- ^ a b c Yuan Yida (袁义达), Qiu Jiaru, 邱家儒. 中国四百大姓. Beijing Book Co. Inc., 1 January 2013
Sources
- Rawski, Evelyn Sakakida (1979). Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08753-3.
External links
Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Hundred Family Surnames
Hundred Family Surnames public domain audiobook at LibriVox in mandarin
- v
- t
- e
100 most common family names in Mainland China (2020)
- Hundred Family Surnames
- List of common Chinese surnames
- 101-200 Most Common Family Names in Mainland China
