Why the Chinese has surname.

Chinese civilization is believed by many sinologists to be starting around 5000 – 4000

BCE near the Yellow River (Huáng Hé; 黃河). Early history of China is quite
complicated due to the lack of a written language during this period. Many historical
evidence for proto-Chinese agriculture is carbon-dated to about 7,000 BCE. Still,
there are many sites being excavated today that may reveal more about the exact data.

Written history of China is discovered with ancient Chinese pictographs written on

turtle shells and animal bones. Turtle shells from the Shang Dynasty have been
confirmed to as early as 1500 BCE. The origins of Chinese culture, literature and
philosophy, developed during the Zhou Dynasty (1045BCE – 256 BCE) that followed
the Shang. It was the longest lasting dynasty and spans the period in which the written
script evolved from ancient oracle script to the beginnings of modern Chinese writing.

The ancient China was inhabited by many small tribes, who fought each other
frequently. The tribes had their own flag, and adopted their fief or region as their
clan`s name. When a tribe won a war against another tribe, the people of losing tribe
were forced to joined the winning tribe as the lower caste. This made the winning
tribe grew bigger and bigger. In order to separate the former men with the newer men,
the leader of the tribe gave a new name for the new group. This act was surely
becoming a problem when the tribe expanded more.

Prior to the Warring States Period (5th century BC), the ancient Chinese was
matriarchal societies. The children only recognized their mother, and they hardly
knew who their father was. Only the royal family and the aristocratic elite could
generally take surnames.

Historically, it was agreed that xing (姓) and shi (氏) were of different origin. Xing
were surnames owned by the royal family, which usually came from the winning
tribe. Their surnames generally are composed of a nü (女, meaning "female") radical
which suggests that they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal
lineages. The "female" radical seems to appear at the Zhou period indicating an ethnic
group or a tribe with their female were called by their birth clan name, while the male
were designated by their title or fief.

It is also believed, many Chinese ancient philosophers were worried of the social
problems arisen due to maternal lineages. Men didn’t show any responsibilities to
raise children up. Grown-up children were then recruited as new fresh warriors to start
another war. Almost war and war happened all the time without any signs of peace.
Many believe The Yellow Emperor established the first Chinese marital status, with
polygamy as a common issue. He switched the rule of maternal lineage to paternal
lineage, so that men were now responsible to raise his own children. The children now
got their surname from their fathers. This small social revolution proved useful as
more stability achieved, and many improvements were progressed rapidly.

Prior to the Qin Dynasty (3rd century BC), China was largely a feudal decentralistic
society. As the fiefdoms were divided and subdivided among descendants, additional
sub-surnames known as shi were created to distinguish between different seniority of
lineages among the nobles, though they shared the same ancestor. After the states of
China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually devolved to the
lower classes and the difference between xing and shi blurred.

During the period of time, the surname-naming became popular that more than
thousands surnames appeared in the societies. There are a few method of surname-
naming such as :
- central lineage of the royal family;
‘Jiang (姜)’ and ‘Yao (姚)’, are surnames of ancient kings of China

- royal decree by the Emperor;

Emperor Tang Taizhong Li Shimin bestowed his surname Li (李) to many
Tang victorious generals and outstanding ministers. Famous Ming
navigator, Admiral Zheng He, was originally a Moslem of Hui tribe.
Emperor Zhu Di of Ming bestowed him Zheng (鄭/郑) surname after he
won a war against rebel in Zheng region

- state name;
Many commoners adopted their state name like : Song (宋), Wu (吴/吳),
Chen (陈/陳), Tan (譚/谭), etc.

- name of a fief or place of origin ;

Fiefdoms were often granted to collateral branches of the aristocracy. The
surname Li (李) means ‘a kind of berry wildly grown in China’; originated
from Li forest, a place where a boy survived his young age eating this ‘Li’
while he was brought into exile by his mother. They were being hunted by
a tyrant king whom was offended by his father. The tyrant king was then
removed, and the boy became one of the best judge in Chinese history.

- names of an ancestor;
Often an ancestor's style name would be used. Sometimes titles granted to
ancestors could also be taken as surnames.

- seniority within the family;

Characters of meng (孟), zhong (仲), shu (叔) and ji (季) were used to
denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family. These
were sometimes adopted as surnames. Of these, Meng is the best known,
being the surname of the philosopher Mencius

- occupation;
Sima (司马/司馬) is originally "Minister of War". Tao (陶) means "potter"
or Wu (巫) means "shaman".

- ethnic groups;
Non-Chinese peoples in China sometimes took the name of their ethnic
group as surname. The best example is Hu (胡), which originally referred
to all "barbarian" groups on the northern frontier of China

Of the thousands of surnames which have been identified from historical texts prior to
the Han Dynasty, most have either been lost or simplified. In recent centuries some
two-character surnames have often dropped a character. Since the founding of the
People's Republic of China, moreover, some surnames have been graphically
simplified.

As a result of the importance of surnames, rules and traditions regarding family and
marriage grew increasingly complex. In some places, there are additional taboos
against marriage between people of the same surname, considered to be closely
related.