Zhou is a first-class word (commonly used word) in the Standard of General Chinese Characters. This word first appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty. The word "Zhou" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like planting crops in a field, and its original meaning is fine and complete carving. The word "Zhou" is pictographic, but its configuration is unknown. ; The meaning of "Zhou" in literature has an extended context around its evolution, from the new meaning to the intimate meaning, to the miscellaneous meaning and universal meaning, from the miscellaneous meaning to the surrounding meaning, and from the surrounding meaning to the surrounding meaning.

The meaning of the word Zhou

The word "Zhou" means cautious, rigorous, meticulous and careful in its name, which means auspiciousness and connotation.

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Zhou, the ninth surname of China, is an ancient surname with many nationalities and origins, belonging to clan and country.

According to the National Surnames Report 2020 issued by the Ministry of Public Security, Zhou ranked 10 among the 100 surnames ranked by registered population in 2020. [107] History can be traced back to the ancient times of the Yellow Emperor. Most Zhou surnames in ancient and modern times regard Houji, the great grandson of the Yellow Emperor, as the ancestor of Zhou surnames, and some Zhou surnames respect Zhou Chang, Ji Chang, Zhou Wenwang or Ji Dan, the minister of the Yellow Emperor.

Zhou's surname originated from Weihe Plain in Shaanxi Province. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, as the capital moved from Shaanxi to Henan, the surname of Zhou also moved from west to east. After Pingdong moved to Luoyang, Zhou greatly multiplied and became a giant family. Initially, Zhou's surname was mainly centered on Henan and Shaanxi. Qin destroyed the six countries, and after the war at the end of Qin Dynasty, Zhou moved to southern Henan and northern Jiangsu and became a famous family. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zhou moved south with the gentry of the Central Plains. In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, warlords scuffled, especially in the late Northern Song Dynasty and the late Southern Song Dynasty, Mongolian soldiers went south, and a large number of Zhou surnames from Henan, Shandong and other central plains moved south, mainly to Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Ji 'an Prefecture in Jiangxi Province immigrated to Shaoyang, Hunan Province. Since Ming and Qing Dynasties, the provinces with relatively concentrated Zhou surnames are Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian and other provinces. In the late Qing Dynasty after the Opium War, Zhou began to emigrate overseas.

Today, Zhou surnames are mainly distributed in the Yangtze River basin and Huaihe River basin, forming a high proportion of distribution along the Yangtze River provinces and Henan and Shandong provinces. Hunan, Jiangsu and Sichuan account for 26.7% of the total population of Zhou, followed by Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Guangdong and Jiangxi, accounting for 38% of the total population of Zhou.