At the end of primitive society, when the Yellow Emperor ruled the world, there was already a "local surname" and a surname appeared. There were also a few "teachers" in Xia and Shang Dynasties. The generation of surnames was the largest and most frequent in the Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, in order to control the conquered vast areas, the vassals were enfeoffed on a large scale. Zhou Wuwang, Zhou Gongdan and Wang Cheng successively divided the land into brothers, relatives and heroes with different surnames, and established 7 1 vassals, among which, the king of Wu brothers 16 and 40 nobles with the same surname. And the descendants of these vassal States all take the country name as their surname. According to statistics, there are 48 Zhou royal families with the same surname and about 60 with different surnames. In addition, the vassal States also enfeoffed the domestic doctors of Qing Dynasty in the same way, that is, the descendants of the doctors were named after the cities they enfeoffed, such as Tian, Bai, Bao, Fei, Fan, Qu, Han and so on. After layers of enfeoffment, the names of feudal countries and cities have mushroomed. Therefore, the Zhou Dynasty was the most important period for the development of China clan. Then, various forms of surname sources appear constantly, and the number of surnames far exceeds the number of surnames. Since the confluence of surnames, nine times out of ten surnames used by China people have evolved from surnames. It is worth noting that in ancient times, there were Chao's family, Sui's family, Fu's family, Shennong's family (), Xuanyuan's family (Huangdi), Jintian's family (), Lai's family (), Yao's family (also known as Yao's family), You's family (Shun) and Xia's family (Yu's family).
Second, the source of the surname of later generations is as follows:
1, with last name as last name. From the late clan society to the Xia and Shang dynasties, the labels of some branch clans also became the surnames of later generations, such as Ji, Jiang, Yi, Feng, Ji, Zi, Ren, Yi, Yuan and Yao.
2. Take the country name as the surname. The Xia and Shang Dynasties were all feudal, and the feudal system was implemented in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The vassal states, large and small, were all over Kyushu, and these names became the descendants of their countries. Such as Cheng, Fang, Du, Ge, Lei, Song, Zheng, Wu and Qin. Zhou Wenwang gave his youngest son to De, and his descendants were named De. A branch of Bai Di established a drum kingdom in Wuji County, Hebei Province, and its descendants took drum as their surname. Some surnames were brought by foreigners after Qin and Han Dynasties. For example, the secret surname comes from the western regions, and An surname comes from rest.
3. Take the city name as the surname. For example, when he was in office, Scott got angry and bought a fief in Su Sheng, so his descendants were surnamed Su.
4. Take township and pavilion as surnames. For example, the grandson of Fei Zi, the ancestor of Qin State who won the surname, was sealed in a foreign country and obtained the surname of Yi; In the sixth generation, the grandson was named the Emperor Hou of Zhou Xi, who knew about the state.
5. Take the place of residence as the surname. For example, doctors in Qi Huangong live in East China, South China, West China and North China respectively, and these four countries become surnames.
6. Take the words or names of ancestors as surnames. For example, the illegitimate child, his descendants are surnamed Lin. Another example is the grandson of Dr. Tong Diao of the State of Qi, who was handed down by Diao.
7. Take ranking as the surname. For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were teachers and uncles.
8. Take the official position as the surname. For example, in the official lawsuit of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Sima and Sikong later became surnames. For another example, there was a surname Su in the Han Dynasty, and all descendants were surnamed Su.
9. Take technology as the surname. There was a Wu family in Shang Dynasty, who was the founder of divination, and later generations thought it was Wu. Another example is Bu, Tao, Zhen and Tu, whose surnames are based on skills.
10, the surname brought by the integration of ancient ethnic minorities into the Han nationality. Such as Murong, Yuwen, Huyan, etc.
1 1. Take posthumous title as the surname. For example, hou zhuang was originally Kang's younger brother Kang Shu.
12, avoid changing one's surname because of giving. For example, the name of the emperor in China was changed from constant to constant.
13, ethnic minorities changed their surnames. In ancient times, the original surnames of the northern, western and southwestern minorities such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, Qiang, Di and Jie were compound surnames, three-character surnames and four-character surnames, and some of them were changed to the single surnames of the Han nationality after ethnic integration. Wait a minute.