4. Taiyuantong

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Taiyuan (太原) was the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in China.  TONG (堂) meant hall.  The name of the TONG referred to the exclusive name of the Hakka surname temple.  There were two types of TONG.  One was the place name, that is, the birthplace of the family name.  The second was the name of the ancestral hall associated with the ancestor’s honors bestowed by the emperor, or based on either his well versed article(s) or poem(s) which were highly praised by the populace.  Taiyuantong was the former as per the following historical records:

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According to the Chinese history, Guy WAN (温疥) was a hero and a combat commander under Emperor Bang LIU (劉邦), the first emperor of HAN Dynasty.  On the 6th day of the 10th Moon in 199BC (2,218 years ago), Emperor Bang LIU bestowed a fief on General Guy WAN (温疥), a fief which included the land plus 1,900 households.  This would show that Emperor Bang LIU was rather warm-hearted as a fief with 1,900 households to tax as personal income was an excellent reward (in 1962, there were only 40 households in our home village Yung Shue Au).  Subsequently, Guy WAN was even more awesome after being appointed as the prime minister of the YAN State.  Guy WAN’s grandson Ho WAN later moved to Tai Yuan where he became rich and famous, and a prominent family.  Thereafter, the descendants of Ho WAN, or technically speaking the descendants of Guy WAN, adopted the symbol Taiyuantong as the birthplace of the family name WAN.