Hundred Family Surnames Explained

C:百家姓
Poj:Pah-ka-seⁿ
J:baak3 gaa1 sing3
Y:Baakgā Sing
P:Bǎijiā Xìng
Showflag:p
Gr:Baejia Shinq
W:Pai3 Chia1 Hsing4
Myr:Bǎijyā Syìng
Bpmf:ㄅㄞˇ   ㄐㄧㄚ   ㄒㄧㄥˋ
Qn:Bách gia tính
Chuhan:百家姓
Hangul:백가성
Hanja:百家姓
Rr:Baekgaseong
Kanji:百家姓
Kana:ひゃっかせい
Romaji:Hyakkasei

The Hundred Family Surnames, commonly known as Bai Jia Xing,[1] also translated as Hundreds of Chinese Surnames,[2] is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dynasty (960–1279).[3] The book lists 507 surnames. Of these, 441 are single-character surnames and 66 are double-character surnames. About 800 names have been derived from the original ones.[4]

In the dynasties following the Song, the 13th-century Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, and the 6th-century Thousand Character Classic came to be known as San Bai Qian (Three, Hundred, Thousand), from the first character in their titles. They served as instructional books for children,[5] becoming the almost universal introductory literary texts for students (almost exclusively boys) from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers. Each text was available in many versions, printed cheaply and available to all since they did not become superseded. When a student had memorized all three, he had a knowledge of roughly 2,000 characters. Since Chinese did not use an alphabet, this was an effective, though time-consuming, way of giving a crash course in character-recognition before going on to understanding texts and writing characters.

Form

The work is a rhyming poem in lines of eight characters. The surnames are not listed in order of commonality. According to Song dynasty scholar Wang Mingqing (王明清), the first four surnames listed represent the most important families in the empire at the time:[6]

The next four, Zhou 周, Wu 吳, Zheng 鄭, and Wang 王, were the surnames of the other wives of Qian Chu, the last king of Wuyue.[7]

Complete text

This text is written in Traditional Chinese. Note that several of these characters may link to the same article.

Prevalence in modern times

In 2013 the Fuxi Institution compiled a ranking of the 400 most common surnames in China.

Under 300th most common

According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 300 most common surnames:

Under 400th most common

According to the study, the following surnames are not among the 400 most common surnames:[8]

See also

References

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Ting Hui Lee. Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia: The Struggle for Survival. 2011. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 978-981-4279-21-5. 249–.
  2. Book: Patrick Hanks . Richard Coates. Peter McClure. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. 17 November 2016. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-252747-9. 43–.
  3. K. S. Tom. [1989] (1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom p. 12. University of Hawaii Press. .
  4. Chen, Janey. [1992] (1992). A Practical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary. Tuttle Publishing.
  5. Web site: Taking Stock of Classic Early Childhood Readers. China Times. Jun 26, 2014.
  6. News: Zhang . Jiansong . Shen . Haixiong . "百家姓"排列终有序。姓氏文化有何内涵? . https://web.archive.org/web/20141108214042/http://news.xinhuanet.com/focus/2006-03/05/content_4232963.htm. The "Hundred Family Surnames" are finally arranged in order. What is the cultural meaning of the surnames?. dead. Mar 5, 2006 . 2014-11-08. Xinhua News Agency.
  7. Web site: http://www.chinanews.com/cul/2014/09-03/6556695.shtml . zh:钱氏修"百家姓"将钱姓排第2位 钱王妃子姓氏靠前 . 2014-09-03 . Chen Danning . China News . zh . 2014-11-07.
  8. [Yuan Yida]