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…
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…