The Feng (冯) Surname: From Northern Yan Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora
Three thousand years ago, a Zhou Dynasty prince received a fiefdom in the northern plains of what is now Hebei Province. The territory was called Fengcheng (冯城) — Feng City — and when Bi Gong Gao (毕公高), the fifteenth son of King Wen of Zhou (周文王), took up residence there, his descendants adopted the place
The Zheng (郑) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Feudal State to the Wuyi Diaspora
In 806 BCE, in the waning years of the Western Zhou dynasty, King Xuan of Zhou granted his younger brother a fiefdom in the Yellow River valley. That fiefdom — the State of Zheng (郑国, Zhèng Guó) — would outlast the dynasty that created it, give its name to one of China’s great surnames, and
The Zhu (朱) Surname: 2,300 Years from Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism to the Wuyi Diaspora
In 1313, the Mongol Yuan dynasty made a decision that would shape education across East Asia for the next six centuries: it declared one man’s commentaries on the Confucian classics the official standard for China’s civil service examinations. That man was Zhu Xi (朱熹), a 12th-century philosopher from Fujian whose synthesis of Neo-Confucianism — his
The Deng Surname: 3,000 Years from the State of Deng （邓） to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Name That Was a Kingdom n In the eleventh century before the Common Era, a man named Man Gong (曼) knelt before the Shang king and received a fiefdom in the fertile Nanyang basin of present-day Henan province. The territory was called Deng (邓). For nearly four centuries, the State of Deng (邓) navigated
The Xu (许) Surname: 3,100 Years from the State of Xu to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Name That Carried 3,100 Years In the eleventh century before the Common Era, a man named Wen Shu (文叔) knelt before King Wu of Zhou and received a fiefdom in the fertile plains of what is now Henan province. The new territory was called Xu (许). Wen Shu traced his lineage to the legendary
The Wang Surname: 3,100 Years from Zhou Dynasty Royalty to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Name That Means “King” The Wang surname — 王 (Wáng), simply the Chinese character for “king” — is the second most common surname in the world. One hundred and one million people in China carry it, and an estimated six to eight million more overseas trace their ancestry through it. It is not an
The He（何） Surname: 3,000 Years from Ancient Han State to the Wuyi Diaspora
In 230 BCE, the armies of Qin entered the capital of the state of Han (韩国). Han, smallest and most vulnerable of the seven Warring States, was the first to fall in the Qin unification campaign. Most royal houses that resisted Qin were exterminated. But members of the Han royal family escaped. Fleeing south from
The Ma （马） Surname: From Fubo General to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Ma surname (马, “horse”) is one of the rare Chinese surnames derived not from a place or a clan but from an official military title — and the martial character encoded in that single character has shaped one of China’s most resilient lineages for over two thousand years. During the Warring States period (475–221
The Sun (孙) Surname: 3,000 Years from Ancient Le’an to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Sun surname (孙) traces its roots to three ancient Chinese noble lineages — the Ji (姬) clan of the Zhou dynasty, the Mi (芈) clan of Chu, and the Gui (妫) clan of Qi — converging over three millennia into a single name now carried by 18 million people worldwide. Among Chinese surnames, Sun
The Yang （杨） Surname: 3,000 Years from Zhou Dynasty Royalty to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Name That Carried Across the Pacific The Yang surname (杨, Yáng) is the 6th most common surname in China, carried by approximately 40 million people worldwide. It traces its origin to the court of King Wu of Zhou (周武王, Zhōu Wǔ Wáng) in the 11th century BCE, making it one of the oldest continuously
The Zhao (赵) Surname: 3,100 Years from Imperial China to the Wuyi Diaspora
Every Chinese person who has ever learned to read has memorized the same four characters: 赵钱孙李 — Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li. These are the opening words of the Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓, Bǎijiāxìng), the most famous roster of Chinese names in history, compiled during the Song Dynasty (宋朝, Sòng Cháo, 960-1279 CE). For a millennium,
The Lin (林) Surname: 3,100 Years from Shang Dynasty Loyalty to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Heart Cut Open: The Birth of the Lin Surname In the final years of the Shang dynasty, around 1100 BCE, a minister named Bi Gan (比干) walked into the palace of King Zhou (纣王) knowing he would not walk out. King Zhou was a tyrant — the last ruler of a dying dynasty, notorious