Quzhou surnames
Overview of Quzhou surnames
? Source: Zhihu
There are 734 surnames in Quzhou City (including There are 8 compound surnames), all of whom moved from other places. There are 41 surnames for people with more than 10,000 people; 91 surnames for people with more than 1,000 people; and 108 surnames for people with less than 100 people. The largest number are Xu, Zheng, Wang, and Zhou, while the smallest are Shen, Hong, Zhu, Xin, etc.
After examining the origins of the surnames in Quzhou and combining several major population migrations in our country’s history, the migration of surnames in Quzhou can be roughly divided into three periods.
From the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties, the surnames that moved to Quzhou during this period include Xu, Shu, Qi, Zheng, Shen, Mao, Zhu, etc. The characteristics of the above-mentioned surnames are that they not only have a large number of people today, but also have spread to surrounding areas and even overseas for a long time with Quzhou as the center. Take the surname Xu as an example. Nowadays, there are the largest number of people in Quzhou. There are descendants of the Xu family in Lingshan in almost every city and county in the province. Another example is the surname Shen. Although there are not more than a thousand people in Quzhou today, his descendants have spread all over the Korean Peninsula. There, the number of descendants with the surname Shen in Quzhou has grown to 60,000. Another example is the Mao family, from the Keshan Mao family, to the Qingyang Mao family, to the Jishui Mao family, and finally to the Shaoshan Mao family. Although it lasted more than a thousand years, it was the same strain.
From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, it was the second historical period of the migration of Quzhou surnames. During this period, there were frequent wars in the north. Quzhou, located in the corner of Jiangnan and western Zhejiang, had a relatively stable society. Therefore, Quzhou became a refuge for northern ethnic groups to avoid chaos. Most of the people who moved here during this period were from aristocratic families and had high cultural literacy. Their naturalization changed the political structure of Quzhou's upper class society and added vitality to Quzhou's economic and cultural prosperity at that time. For example, during the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, Jiang Shiyuan was stationed in Xin'an (Qu County) as a military guard and became the ancestor of the Jiang surname in Quzhou. The Jiang family flourished in the imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty, ranking first among all surnames in the country. Zhou Yang in the Tang Dynasty and Wu You in the Five Dynasties. Their descendants emerged in large numbers, and they also have the most famous surnames today.
The Northern Song Dynasty fell, Emperor Zhao of the Southern Song Dynasty established Lin'an as the capital, and Quzhou became the capital. Famous people from the Central Plains are like crucian carp crossing the river, living in Quzhou. Kong Duanyou, the 48th generation grandson of Confucius and Duke Yansheng, crossed south and built his family temple in Quzhou. Its significance was not only the migration of a family to the south, but also the unveiling of the foundation of traditional Confucianism in Quzhou. During this period, those who moved to Quzhou successively included the descendants of Fu Sheng Yan Hui, the descendants of Lu Zhi in the Tang Dynasty, and the descendants of Fan Zhongyan in the Song Dynasty; there were Confucian preachers such as Zhao Ding, Wei Shigong, Chen Yuyi, Shao Zhirou, and Ye Yiwen; there were also the state hospital envoy Zhang Xin, Zhao Huijin, Zhao Zizhou, descendants of the Song clan, Chai Shuxia, descendants of Emperor Gong of Zhou, etc., all live in Quzhou like stars over the moon.
The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were the third period of migration of surnames in Quzhou, and also the period of greatest change in surnames in the history of Quzhou. The residence of Huizhou merchants in the Yuan Dynasty not only prospered Quzhou's commercial trade, but also gave birth to the prototype of the "Longyou Merchant Gang" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the change of dynasties and frequent wars, the original surnames disappeared and new surnames moved in. Great social turmoil led to drastic changes in surnames, the most typical of which were the "Three Feudal Rebellions" during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War during the Xian Tong reign. The population of Quzhou dropped sharply and the land was barren. As a result, civilians from Fujian and Jiangxi provinces moved in in large numbers. Today, along the Xianxialing Mountains to the Longnan Mountains, there are many descendants of the so-called "shack dwellers" who migrated during this period. The She people also immigrated during this period. Most of them are engaged in farming, and some of them are engaged in pottery making or paper trough industry.
After the founding of New China, the migration of surnames continued. At the beginning of liberation, a large number of cadres who went south were naturalized in Quzhou. During the period of socialist construction, many foreign scientific and technological cadres came to Quzhou to participate in construction. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a large number of immigrants moved to Quzhou due to the construction of the Xin'an River Reservoir. For more than half a century, they have contributed to the construction of two civilizations in Quzhou and enriched the content of Quzhou's surnames.
The surname Quzhou is also the epitome of the great unity and integration of the Chinese nation. Traces of brotherly ethnic groups can also be seen in rare surnames. In addition to the well-known surnames of Lei, Lan and Zhong of the She people, there are also surnames such as Bu, Qiao and Lan left over from the Xiongnu people in the Han Dynasty, while the surnames of Yuan, Mu, Ji, Wei and Xi are the surnames of the Xianbei tribe in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Hui people and the Han people have the surnames Li, Ma, Cheng, Bai, and Shi, while the Zhuang people have the surnames Wei, Qin, etc.
Manchu surnames include Luo (original surname Aixinjueluo), Guan (original surname Guan Erjia), Nala and other surnames. Historically, the original surname of the Jurchen people was Wanyan Aguda, and the Wan surname in Quzhou today is the descendant of the Jurchen people back then. The surname record contains 726 single surnames and 8 compound surnames (Zhuge, Ouyang, Shentu, Dongfang, Situ, Nala, Huangfu, Puyang).