The surname Mù has seven origins: it was after the father of Kong Jin, a doctor of the Song Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, and took the surname of his ancestor. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a doctor named Kong Jinfu of the Song Dynasty, named Zimu. Some of his descendants took the ancestral character "Mu" as their surname and were called the Mu family.
In the late Shang Dynasty, there was Muhou, Zimu, a descendant of the Shang king. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Duanmu, a disciple of Confucius, bestowed it on the ninth generation Sun Duanmu Zhao. This was changed to avoid the disaster of Qin Shihuang's burning of books and entrapment of Confucian scholars. According to the "Compilation of Yuanhe Surnames", the surname Duanmu is the descendant of Duanmu Ci, a disciple of Confucius. Duanmu gave him the courtesy name Zigong, a native of Wei State. Among Confucius' many disciples, he was eloquent and able to predict events, and was good at making money. Therefore, his family was rich in wealth. In the political arena of the Spring and Autumn Period, Duanmu Ci was also an important figure. He served successively as prime minister of the states of Lu and Wei. He once lobbied the state of Wu and sent troops to the enemy Qi to save Lu. Duanmu Ci was a native of the Wei state at that time. According to historical research, he was the ancestor of the Duanmu family. His descendants "took the surname of Wang's father" and their surname was Duanmu. Later, Zeng Shengwen became the Duan clan; or he changed his name to the Mu clan to avoid Qin Qiu, forming another branch of the Mu clan.
Born from Ajia Ade, a nobleman of the Naxi ethnic group in Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty
The surname Mu was given by Zhu Yuanzhang. Before the Ming Dynasty, the Naxi people did not have surnames, and their names were jointly named by father and son. In the 16th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the Naxi leader Ajia'ade surrendered to Queen Zhu Ming. During the pilgrimage, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him what surname he wanted. Ajia'ade bluntly said that he wanted to have the same surname as the emperor. The official next to him winked. He hurriedly changed his mind and asked the emperor for a favor. Zhu Yuanzhang did not care about it: "I understand what you mean. Separating a wood from the character Zhu shows that you are the backbone of the Zhu family. Adding the character "human" to the character "wood" means Zhu, which shows that you are a member of the Zhu family. I will give you the surname "Mu". ". From then on, the Naxi people had their first Han surname Mu. The descendants of Ajia Ade passed down the surname Mu and were called the Mu family. The Mu family believed that the surname Mu was given by the emperor and could only be used exclusively by the nobles of the Mu family, so the common people Mu family was given the surname "He" in imitation of Zhu Yuanzhang. "He" means adding a stroke on the wood to put on the Mujia straw hat, and adding a mouth next to it means putting the Mujia basket on the back. "He" means slaves and laborers. Therefore, the Naxi people have a saying that "the official surname is Mu and the people's surname is He". After Mu returned to the Ming Dynasty, he gradually accepted Chinese culture and developed the taboo of Chinese characters. When the Mu family built the ancient city, if they imitated the high walls built around Seoul, the character wood would become the character "trap", so the Mu family was naturally unwilling to build city walls. Among the ethnic minorities in the south, there is the Mu family.
The descendants of the Bai and Mongolian Muhuali have the surname Mu, and the Dongxiang, Lisu and Jingpo people have the Mu surname.