The Chinese have had surnames before the era of the Three Emperors and Five Kings, that is, when recognition was granted to one parent and not his father. Therefore, the Chinese character of the family name of two different characters together —- meaning and importance of woman to give birth. In other words, the surname of a former Chinese have followed the line of the mother. Before the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou (2140-256 BC), people in China have a branded (Xing) and clan name (Shi). The names of the family name of the village where you live or the family that owned an original, and the clan name is the name of the area or the new, sometimes posthumously by the emperor to a noble for an achievement. Hence, only nobles had surnames and the clan.
A man and a woman with the same clan name may marry, but they could if the same name.
This is because the Chinese had discovered long ago that marriage between close relatives would be detrimental to future generations.
In any solemn ceremony or important celebration, the Chinese have their clan name on the lanterns are hung in a prominent position, as shown in the main entrance of the house.
How a clan name, area of origin is also engraved on a tombstone man, Hope comes back.
This lasted for 800 years until the reign of Emperor Tang Tai Zong (627 AD). Gao Shi Lian, a staff survey and found that there were 593 different surnames.
He wrote and published a book called 芦Annal of names, a reference for selecting qualified staff, senior officials and has for mediation of the marriages.
The book Family Names of hundreds of families who was popular in China during the days that were written over 1,000 years under the dynasty of the Northern Song (960 AD).
It records 438 surnames of which 408 are only words and names were 30 double-word names.
According to the latest statistics from China, with Chinese surname Zhang alone over 100 million, making it probably the name that the number of Chinese.
Another set of statistics compiled in 1977 shows that the number of Chinese in the first 10 big names up to 40% of the population of China. The 10 major Chinese surnames are:
Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, Chen, Yang, Wu, Liu, Huang and Zhou.
Below are the next 10 major surnames. The Chinese with these surnames make up over 10% of the Chinese population: Xu, Zhu, Lin, Sun, Ma, Gao, Hu, Zheng, Guo and Xiao.
The number of the Chinese in the third category of 10 major surnames make up just about 10% of the population:
Xie, He, Xu, Song, Shen, Luo, Han, Deng, Liang and Ye.
The following 15 surnames form the fouth largest group of the Chinese surnames are:
Fang, Cui, Cheng, Pan, Cao, Feng, Wang, Cai, Yuan, Lu, Tang, Qian, Du, Peng and Lu.
A total of 70% of the Chinese population have one of the surnames above. The surnames of the remaining 30% are comparatively rare. Some of these surnames are:
Mao, Jiang, Bai, Wen, Guan, Liao, Miao and Chi.
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