Hundred Family Surnames
Encyclopedia
The Hundred Family Surnames is a classic Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 text composed of common surname
Chinese surname
Chinese family names have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames, family names and clan names , existed.The colloquial expressions laobaixing...

s in ancient China. The book was composed in the early Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

. It originally contained 411 surnames, but was later expanded to 504. Of these, 444 are single-character surnames, and 60 are double-character surnames
Chinese compound surname
A Chinese compound surname is a Chinese surname using more than one character. Many of these surnames derive from noble and official titles, professions, place names and other areas, to serve for a purpose. Some are originally non-Han, while others were created by joining two one-character family...

. About 800 names have been derived from the original ones.

The work is a rhyming poem in lines of eight characters.

The surnames are not listed in order of popularity. The first four surnames listed are believed to derive from the most important families in the empire at the time:
  • 1st: Zhao
    Zhao (surname)
    Zhao / Chao or Chiu is a common Chinese family name, ranking as the 7th most common surname in Mainland China. Zhao is the first surname in the famous Hundred Family Surnames – the traditional list of all Chinese surnames – because it was the royal surname of the Song Dynasty when the list was...

     (趙) is the family name of the Song Dynasty
    Song Dynasty
    The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

     emperors.
  • 2nd: Qian
    Qian (surname)
    Qian , also spelt Chien, Tsien, or rarely Zee is a prominent Chinese family name. The name literally means "money". Today, it is ranked 92nd in terms of population in mainland China. Despite the rarity of this last name among the Chinese population today, there has been a number of notable Qians in...

     (錢) is the family name of the kings of Wuyue
    Wuyue
    Kingdom of Wuyue , 907-978, was a small independent coastal kingdom founded during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms of Chinese history. It was ruled by the Qian family, which remains widespread in the kingdom's former territory.-Founding:...

    .
  • 3rd: Sun
    Sun (surname)
    Sun is a transliteration of a common Chinese surname, written 孫 or 孙 in Chinese characters, sūn in Hanyu pinyin...

     (孫) is the family name of the queen of Wuyue.
  • 4th: Li (李) is the family name of the kings of Southern Tang
    Southern Tang
    Southern Tang was one of the Ten Kingdoms in south-central China created following the Tang Dynasty from 937-975. Southern Tang replaced the Wu Kingdom when Li Bian deposed the emperor Yang Pu....

    .

Family names in the Hundred Family Surnames



See also

  • Chinese surname
    Chinese surname
    Chinese family names have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames, family names and clan names , existed.The colloquial expressions laobaixing...

  • List of common Chinese surnames
  • Seek for Surname History
    Seek for Surname History
    Seek for Surname History is a TV series broadcast by ATV in Hong Kong in 2011. Each episode is dedicated to telling some of the legendary stories that belong with the Chinese surnames in the Hundred Family Surnames ancient text.-Production:...


External links

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