My surname is Zhang. I would like to know where the surname Zhang comes from.

The origin of the surname Zhang

Author: song|song@991cn.com Reposted from: Xinjiang Tourism|.com Number of clicks: 65

Zhang Wangli Zhao is everywhere Liu┅When people talk about Chinese surnames, they often like to use this sentence to summarize, and list Zhang as the first among all surnames. According to research results, the population of Zhang surname is slightly less than that of Li and Wang, making it the third most common surname in China today.

The origin of the surname Zhang can be traced back to the ancient legend era.

The Yellow Emperor is the legendary common ancestor of all ethnic groups in the Central Plains. His wife Leizu was the creator of the legendary method of raising silkworms and curing silk, and was worshiped as the Silkworm God by later generations. They gave birth to a son named Zhi. Because he practiced Taiyang's method, he was named Shao. He was the leader of the Dongyi tribe who succeeded Taiyang.

The fifth son was named Hui, and his official was Gongzheng (the official who supervised the manufacture of bows and arrows). He looked at the Arc Star at night and saw the Nine Arc Stars in the southeast of Sirius, shaped like a giant bow in the sky, with the arrow pointed directly at Sirius. He was inspired to create a bow and arrow, and was given the surname Zhang. The original meaning of the word Zhang is to string the bow, which is extended to the word "open bow" or "long bow". It is closely related to the official name Gongzheng and the ancient star name Hu.

There is also a branch of the Zhang family whose surname is based on the name of their ancestors. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was Jie Zhang in the Jin State, with the courtesy name Zhanghou. Later, he took his grandfather's surname as his surname. From then on, the Jin State had the surname Zhang for generations. In 403 BC, after the three families of Zhao, Han, and Wei divided the Jin Kingdom, the population of Zhang surnamed was also dispersed among the three vassal states.

Both of these statements explain the origin, reproduction and even the third most common surname of Zhang today. First, the surname Zhang has a long history. It is one of the earliest surnames in China and is highly valued. In primitive clan society, hunting was an extremely important means for people to make a living. The status and role of bows and arrows can be imagined. Moreover, at that time, the few Dongyi tribes flourished and spread throughout the vast area between today's Shandong Peninsula, northern Jiangsu and Jianghuai; it is said that the Shang Dynasty tribes were their direct descendants.

Second, the surname Zhang is widely distributed. It existed in the Jin Dynasty. As the three families were divided into Jin, it spread throughout the three countries of Zhao, Han and Wei, which is now the vast area of ??North China and Central Plains.

There are also many people who were given the surname and changed their surname to Zhang; for example, during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang gave Long Youna the surname of Zhang; Cao Wei general Zhang Liao was born Nie and later changed his surname to Zhang. There are also many non-Han people who changed their surname to Zhang. The Tejia family of the Jin Dynasty took Zhang as their surname because they had lived in Zhanghuang Fort for generations. In the Yuan Dynasty, many Mongolian and Semu people changed their surnames to Han surnames. They often chose Han surnames and changed them to them, which also expanded the population of Zhang surnames.

According to records, in the Jin Dynasty, the Zhang family from the Central Plains moved to Fujian; during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Chen Zheng and Chen Yuanguang and their sons were ordered to enter Fujian, followed by the military academy surnamed Zhang from the Central Plains; later Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi entered Fujian. Zhang Mu, a native of Gushi, Henan, accompanied him and lived in Meixi, Gutian. He was later named Liang Guogong. The Zhang family in Fujian is roughly divided into Jianhu, Jinpo, Banjie and other sects based on their place of residence. After that, some of them moved to Guangdong, and they all said that their ancestors came from Gushi, Guangzhou, Henan. Since the early Qing Dynasty, people from the Zhang family in Fujian and Guangdong have successively immigrated to Taiwan, and many more people have gone overseas to make a living.

Most of the Zhang family are northerners, mainly Han, but many people have also integrated into ethnic minorities during many ethnic integrations. The Zhang family who have immigrated overseas are now mainly distributed in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Panama and other countries and Hong Kong.