The Xu (徐) Surname: From the State of Xu to the Wuyi Tanka and Overseas Diaspora

The Xu (徐) Surname: From the State of Xu to the Wuyi Tanka and Overseas Diaspora Two Surnames, One Pronunciation Ask where the Xu surname origin lies and the answer runs to a state rather than a dynasty. The Xu surname (徐, Xú) descends, in its own lineage tradition, from the lower Huai river —…

September 24, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Xiao (萧/肖) Surname: One Name, Two Characters, Many Spellings

The Xiao (萧/肖) Surname: One Name, Two Characters, Many Spellings The Chinese surname Xiao is registered under two characters — Xiao (萧, Xiāo), the older form, and Xiao (肖, Xiào, also read Xiāo as a surname), the substitute the mainland registers carry — and the difference is neither ancient nor genealogical: it is the residue…

September 21, 20260Comments

BySteven

Woodblock-printed portrait of Lu Xiufu (陆秀夫), the Song chancellor who drowned with the child emperor at Yamen in 1279

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Lu (陆) Surname: From Yamen’s Loyal Minister to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Lu (陆) Surname: From Yamen's Loyal Minister to the Wuyi Diaspora Lu (陆, Lù) is a top-hundred Chinese surname: 57th to 60th on the 2018 household-registry counts, about 4.2 to 4.4 million mainland bearers — Yuan Yida's Contemporary Hundred Surnames (2005) gives 60th at 0.31 per cent, other compilations 61st at 4.8 million, an…

September 20, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Genealogy How-To Guides

How to Read a Chinese Zupu: The 10 Parts, Explained Simply

How to Read a Chinese Zupu: A Diaspora Descendant's Guide The Book That Was Written for You Every few years, someone inherits a book they cannot read. Thread-bound, paper soft with age, characters printed vertically in a classical Chinese no one in the family studied. It is a zupu (族谱 zúpǔ) — a clan genealogy,…

August 12, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The He (贺) Surname: From Wu State Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora

The He (贺) Surname: From Wu State Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora Not every Chinese surname begins with a murder. This one does. If your surname is He — written 贺, not 何 — you carry a name born from one of the most dramatic assassinations in Chinese history. In 514 BCE, in the state…

July 30, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Guo (郭) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Guo (郭) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora The Guo (郭) surname carries one of the longest continuously documented lineages in Chinese history — three thousand years from the Zhou dynasty’s founding brothers to the diaspora communities of the Wuyi (四邑) region (trace your own surname origins with our Surname Compass).…

July 28, 20260Comments

BySteven

Statue of the Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming Dynasty — the only Chinese imperial dynasty named for a commoner's surname.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

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…

July 22, 20260Comments

BySteven

The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, a site of pilgrimage for Sun clan descendants worldwide and a symbol of the surname's revolutionary legacy and diaspora pride.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

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…

July 16, 20260Comments

BySteven

The Yunhuan Lou diaolou in Zili Village, Kaiping — one of the fortified towers built with remittance money from overseas Chinese, now a UNESCO World Heritage site and key stop on Yang roots tours.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

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…

July 15, 20260Comments

BySteven

Ancestral hall interior in a Taishan village, where generations of the Lei clan have honored their ancestors since Fu Gong's arrival in 1273

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

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…

July 13, 20260Comments

BySteven

Taishan Energy Economy: What...

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Tag: Chinese genealogy

Taishan Energy Economy: What...

The Dual Corridor Era: What T...

JUNO: The World’s Large...

Taishanese Phrases: 30 Things...

Duanfen, Taishan: The Emigran...

The Xu (徐) Surname: From the State of Xu to the Wuyi Tanka and Overseas Diaspora

The Xiao (萧/肖) Surname: One Name, Two Characters, Many Spellings

The Lu (陆) Surname: From Yamen’s Loyal Minister to the Wuyi Diaspora

How to Read a Chinese Zupu: The 10 Parts, Explained Simply

The He (贺) Surname: From Wu State Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Guo (郭) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Zhu (朱) Surname: 2,300 Years from Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Sun (孙) Surname: 3,000 Years from Ancient Le’an to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Yang （杨） Surname: 3,000 Years from Zhou Dynasty Royalty to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Lin (林) Surname: 3,100 Years from Shang Dynasty Loyalty to the Wuyi Diaspora

Taishan Energy Economy: What...

The Dual Corridor Era: What T...

JUNO: The World’s Large...

Taishanese Phrases: 30 Things...

Duanfen, Taishan: The Emigran...

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