3. Four fundamental reasons affecting ancient Chinese people to change their surnames

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The ancient Chinese surnames evolved from the eight main surnames (REN (妊), JIANG (姜), JI (姬), YING (嬴), YUN (妘), YAO (姚), GUI (媯), SI (姒)) and developed into the current 504 surnames.  The picture below showed the surname development: Click Here

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Although the evolution was extremely complicated, the main reasons for the ancient Chinese to change their surnames were as follows:

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3.1 Using the Feudal State Name as Surname

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Before the establishment of Confucianism and in particular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (circa 771 to 476BC), it was quite common to change one’s surname.  Using the feudal state name as surname was a common practice.  For example, surname JI (姬), one of the eight surnames of the ancient times as mentioned above, was known as the mother of many surnames.  It was said that the Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, the Yellow God or the Yellow Lord, or simply by his Chinese name Huangdi (軒轅黄帝) was the first person bearing the surname JI (姬).  Huangdi (軒轅黄帝) was traditionally credited with numerous inventions and innovations, ranging from the Chinese calendar to football.  The Yellow Emperor was regarded as the initiator of Chinese culture and said to be the ancestor of all Chinese.  After the QIN dynasty defeated ZHOU dynasty, a large number of ZHOU royal families changed their surname from JI (姬) to the feudal state name such as LU (魯), HU (胡), WU (吳), WEI (魏), CAI (蔡), to name just a few.

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According to the statistics to date, about 82% of the current 504 surnames were derived from the surname JI (姬).  For example, the most common surnames like ZHOU (周), WU (吳), ZHENG (鄭), WANG (王), LU (魯), CAO (曹), WEI (魏), HAN (韓), CHEN (陳), TIAN (田), LIU (劉) were originally from the surname JI (姬).  Although the surname JI (姬) still exists today, with a population of only about 540,000, it ranks 297th among the current 504 surnames.  So it is no exaggeration to call the Yellow Emperor as the ancestor of the Chinese nation (Yellow Emperor, a Chinese mythical figure in ancient times, the first of the five emperors in "Historical Records"). A surname chart evolved from JI (姬): Click Here

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3.2 Of Taboo

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During Imperial China period, it was a peculiar phenomenon that it was forbidden to have the same name as the emperor, failing which would result in death penalty.  It would appear that changing the name was the only solution to avoid this taboo in ancient China.  Worse still, it was even not possible to directly say a name that belonged to the emperor, sage, chief or the elder.  For example, if Jacky Jill were an emperor, any writing containing the word “Jacky or Jill” had to be substituted by new words.  In this regard, our little song "Jack and Jill up the hill" would only be allowed to sing like "Jimmy Jew up the hill"!

 

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In order to avoid offending the emperor and resulting in being ransacked (a penalty imposed by the State that all your assets would be confiscated if you had committed the above “crime”), ordinary people had no alternative but to change their name that contained the same character as appeared in the emperor’s noble name.

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Furthermore, people would also change their surname merely for the sake of avoiding disasters.  The history book told us that the famed historian Qian SIMA (司馬遷) in HAN dynasty was imprisoned after writing badly about the emperor.  The SIMA family immediately changed their surname to FENG (馮) or TUNG (同) in case the emperor turned against them (a penalty namely “Family Annihilation or familicide” 誅九族).  The penalty was being enforced in Imperial China if the emperor found you not to his liking – refer to Naming Taboo in Wikipedia for details).

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3.3 By Bestowal

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It was commonly known among the Chinese people that the surname of the Imperial emperor was the national surname.  If courtiers or people who had made great contribution to the kingdom, the emperor would bestow the imperial surname on him as a gesture to express the emperor’s favour.

 

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It was also interesting to note that imperial surname would be also bestowed upon ethnic minorities, to consolidate the border and security of the kingdom or to slake invasion.  During the waning years of the TONG dynasty, for instance, Zhuye Chixin (朱邪赤心), the leader of a Turkic tribe, who heavily influenced northern Chinese politics, was bestowed the national surname LI (Guochang LI李國昌).  This would have meant that the Turkic tribe had been granted certain rights and benefits to allow China to have a trouble free border.

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On the contrary, name bestowal could also be a form of punishment.  Subsequent to her ascent to China’s first Empress and driven by her hatre and desire for vengeance, Zetian WU (武則天) had the surname of the former Queen’s family changed from WANG to HUI (虺 HUI, a name of poisonous snake).  The spark was arising out of the time when Zetian WU was chosen by the emperor as his concubine thus causing Queen WANG to render a very tough time on Zetian WU.

 

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3.4   By Sinicization

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Sinicization is a process whereby non-Chinese societies came under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly HAN Chinese culture, language, societal norms, and ethnic identity.

 

History revealed that China had been invaded by foreigners many times.  It was also true that many foreigners settled down in China during the developed period.  These people would change their surnames in the process of localization.  For example, in the SONG Dynasty, the Khitan, a nomadic people from Northeast Asia with a national surname Yelu, and Jurchen Jin people who borne the surname Wanyan, had their surnames changed to Chinese SU (蘇), YAN (顏), Fu (符), WANG (汪), WANG (王), YUAN (院), WAN (完), GU (顧), YUAN (苑).

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The best example was Xún LI (李洵), a famed poet, pharmacist, and writer during the Five Dynasties and Ten States (五代十國) was originally a Persian but changed his name to Chinese.