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Zhou

The surname Zhou, the ninth largest in China, is a multi-ethnic, multi-source and ancient surname. It takes the name of clan and country as its surname.

As of December 31, 2020, the surname of Zhou ranks the 10th in the Hundred Surnames. The history can be traced back to the ancient times of the Yellow Emperor. In ancient and modern times, most people of the surname of Zhou regard Houji, the great grandson of the Yellow Emperor, as the ancestor of the surname of Zhou. Some people of the surname of Zhou respect Zhouchang, the Minister of the Yellow Emperor, Jichang, King Wen of Zhou, or Jidan, Duke of Zhou as the ancestor of the surname.

The surname Zhou originated in the Weihe plain of Shaanxi Province. In the early Zhou Dynasty, with the capital of the king of Zhou moving eastward from Shaanxi to Henan, the Zhou family also moved eastward from west to East. After the king of Ping moved eastward to Luoyang, the Zhou family got a large-scale reproduction and became a giant family. The Zhou surname used to be mainly centered in Henan and Shaanxi. After the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six states and the war in the late Qin Dynasty, the Zhou family moved to the present Southern Henan and Northern Jiangsu, and formed a famous family there. During the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, the Zhou family moved southward with the Central Plains gentry. The warlords in the late Tang and Five Dynasties were in chaos, especially the Jin soldiers in the late Northern Song Dynasty and the Mongolian soldiers in the late Southern Song Dynasty. A large number of Zhou surnames in Henan and Shandong moved southward, mainly to Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the Zhou family of Ji'an Prefecture in Jiangxi Province immigrated to Shaoyang area in Hunan Province. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Zhou surnames have been concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian and other provinces. In the late Qing Dynasty after the Opium War, the Zhou family began to emigrate.

Nowadays, the surnames of Zhou are mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin and the Huaihe River Basin, forming a high proportion of distribution in the provinces along the Yangtze River, Henan and Shandong. Hunan, Jiangsu and Sichuan account for 26.7% of the total population of Zhou, followed by Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Guangdong and Jiangxi, accounting for 38% of the total population of Zhou.

Historical development

Origin and development of surnames

1、 From the ancient Zhou state. The earliest appearance of the Zhou surname can be traced back to the time of the Yellow Emperor in ancient times. There were Zhou tribes in the era of the Yellow Emperor 5000 years ago. Zhou Chang and Zhou Shu, the ministers of the Yellow Emperor, belonged to Zhou tribes (ancient Zhou state). According to the research on surnames, it is said that there was a general named Zhou Chang in the time of the Yellow Emperor, and there was a Taishi named Zhou Ren in the Shang Dynasty. The descendants of these two people all took Zhou as their surname. According to the Hetu Yunlu method, the Xuanyuan family of the Yellow Emperor in ancient times had Zhou Chang, the great general, and Zhou Ren, the supreme historian of the Shang Dynasty. The descendants of the two took Zhou as their surname and scattered in the ancient Runan (now Henan and Anhui), Lujiang (now Anhui and Hubei), Xunyang (now Jiangxi), Linchuan (now Jiangxi), Chenliu (now Henan), peiguo (now Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu), and Taishan (now belongs to Shandong), Henan (now belongs to Henan), etc.

2、 It comes from the surname Ji.

1. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ancestors of the Zhou family regarded Houji as the ancestor of the Zhou people. The father of Gugong, the descendant of Houji, was forced by Di and led the people to move from Tai to xiazhouyuan in Qishan, Shaanxi Province. From then on, they were called the Zhou people. When he arrived at Jichang, King Wen, he took the state as his surname.

2. From the descendants of Zhou GongDan. The second son of Duke of Zhou Jidan continued to assist the royal family in the Zhou Dynasty and inherited the title of "Duke of Zhou" from generation to generation. Zhou GongDan's great grandson, Zhou gonghei Jian (Duke Huan of Zhou), led the army to assist King Huan of Zhou to attack the state of Zheng. In the Later Zhou Dynasty, civil strife occurred due to the succession of the throne. Duke Zhou Heijian was involved in the civil strife and killed. In his later life, sun you changed his surname to Zhou because of "Duke Zhou".

3. From the descendants of King Nan of Zhou Dynasty. After King Ping moved to the East and settled his capital in Luoyi, the hegemony moved back and forth among the princes. In 256 BC, the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by the Qin Dynasty. The last king of Zhou Nan was demoted as a civilian, and then moved to Pangu (now the northwest of Ruzhou city in Henan Province). The descendants of Zhou Nan took "Zhou" as their surname.

4. From the descendants of King Ping of Zhou. A son of King Ping of Zhou was granted to Ru's tomb and passed to Ji Yong of the 18th generation. Zhou was destroyed by Qin Dynasty. Because he was still called "Zhou family", Ji Yong changed his surname to Zhou. In the early Han Dynasty, Zhou Ren, the grandson of Zhou Yong, was granted the title of "Ru tomb Marquis" by the imperial court, and was granted the title of "Zhenggong" to continue the Zhou family incense. Zhou Ren later moved to Ancheng County, Runan County (the junction of Runan, Pingyu, Queshan and Zhengyang counties in Zhumadian County, Henan Province). This surname of Zhou developed and multiplied in the local area. It became the famous Zhou surname of Runan in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and then spread continuously, which constitutes the main source of Zhou surname today.

3、 In the Xianxian and Kaiyuan years of the Tang Dynasty, the Ji surname was changed to Zhou surname to avoid the taboo of Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.

4、 From other surnames.

1. After the Five Dynasties of Liang Dynasty, Cheng you was given the surname Zhou by Zhu Wen, the Taizu of Liang Dynasty.

2. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the surname of Su was changed to Zhou in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and moved to Hsinchu, Taiwan. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Su Yi, a native of Fujian Province, settled in Tong'an and was born to sun Changsheng. Su Yi's six generations of grandchildren lived in xinkangli, Zhuoyuan Township, Quanzhou, Fujian Province. Because of the burden of food, their property was not official, and their clansmen were besieged by the Yuan Dynasty officials and soldiers, so they fled. Su Kean, his nephew, changed his surname to Zhou. Since then, the Zhou clan has multiplied and moved to Hsinchu County, Taiwan.

3. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the descendants of King Ji, a fan of Changsha, fled to the Zhou family in Ningxiang after the Ming Dynasty, and changed their surname to Zhou to avoid disaster. Zhu Jianjun, the first king of the Ming Dynasty, was the seventh son of emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty. He was a vassal of Changsha in 1477. The fourth generation of King jiduan was called King jiduan. His second son, Xifeng, died without an heir. After the fall of Ming Dynasty, Ji Wang fled to Guangdong and died in Myanmar. The third son of King jiduan, Zhu Yilian (Yanyan), was granted the title of Changsha. Zhu Wanshi, the commoner son of Zhu Yiqin, fled to the Zhou family in Ningxiang after the Ming Dynasty. In order to avoid disaster, he changed his surname to Zhou. His descendants have always been surnamed Zhou.

5、 It comes from ethnic minorities.

1. In the northern and Southern Dynasties, the second elder brother of Emperor Xian in the Northern Wei Dynasty was originally named Pu, but later changed his surname to Zhou. According to the official records in the book of Wei, Emperor Xian took his elder brother as the family of Hegu, and later changed to the family of Hu. The second brother was the Pu family, and later changed to the Zhou family. " At the time of Emperor Xian, the Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty was divided into seven parts, and was led by seven brothers. Therefore, it can be seen that not only the second elder brother of Xianwen emperor, but also the part of the Chinese under the command of the second elder brother, changed the surname of Tuoba to Zhou. The Zhou family is one of the seven prosperous families in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Zhou Yao, a famous general of Sui Dynasty, is the descendant of Zhou who changed his surname from Tuoba. Zhou Yao (about 507-590), whose name is Shi'an, is a descendant of the second elder brother of Emperor Xian in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

2. In the Shang Yuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the surname of the ethnic minorities with the three characters "Ji Zuo Shi" was changed to the surname of Zhou.

3. In DaiBei (today's northeast of Shanxi Province), the compound surname "Helu" was changed to the Zhou surname, and the Helu surname was changed from "Yi" (minority) to the Zhou surname.

The ancestor of the surname de

There are four versions of the ancestor of the Zhou family name: Houji, Zhouchang, Jichang, King Wen of Zhou, and Jidan, Duke of Zhou.

The ancestor of the Zhou family was Houji. Houji's mother was Jiang newt and his father was DIHE. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ancestors of the Zhou family regarded Houji as the ancestor of the Zhou people. The father of Gugong, the descendant of Houji, who was forced by Di, led the people to move from Tai to xiazhouyuan in Qishan, Shaanxi Province. From then on, they were called the Zhou people. When he arrived at Jichang, King Wen, he took the state as his surname. There is another saying about the origin of the Zhou surname, that is, in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Duke Hei Jian (Duke Huan of Zhou) led the army to assist King Huan of Zhou to seek the capture of Zheng. In the Later Zhou Dynasty, civil strife occurred due to the succession of the throne. Duke Zhou Heijian was involved in the civil strife and killed. In his later life, sun you changed his surname to Zhou because of "Duke Zhou".

There were Zhou tribes in the era of the Yellow Emperor 5000 years ago. Zhou Chang and Zhou Shu, the ministers of the Yellow Emperor, belonged to Zhou tribes (ancient Zhou state). According to the research on surnames, it is said that there was a general named Zhou Chang in the time of the Yellow Emperor, and there was a Taishi named Zhou Ren in the Shang Dynasty. The descendants of these two people all took Zhou as their surname. According to the Hetu Yunlu method, in ancient times, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan had Zhou Chang, a great general, and in the Shang Dynasty there was Zhou Ren, a supreme historian. The descendants of the two took Zhou as their surname.

The first ancestor of the Zhou surname is King Wen or Duke Zhou. The history of the Zhou surname can be traced back to the time of the Yellow Emperor in ancient times. The main origin of the Zhou surname was in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. After the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the descendants of Duke Jidan, the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou, inherited the title of Duke Zhou. In the spring and Autumn period, Duke Zhou Heijian was killed for rebellion, and the title of Duke Zhou was abolished. The descendants of Duke Zhou took Zhou as their surname. The Qin Dynasty unified China and destroyed the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, the ancestor of the Zhou surname is King Wen or Duke Zhou.

Migration communication

The surname Zhou originated in the Weihe plain of Shaanxi Province. In the early Zhou Dynasty, a large number of vassal states were enfeoffed, which were widely distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and Jianghuai region. The migration and reproduction of Zhou surname from west to East is closely related to the capital of Zhou Dynasty moving from Shaanxi to Henan. Since King Ping moved eastward to Luoyang, the Zhou family has been greatly multiplied and once became a giant family.

The surname Zhou mainly propagated in the vast areas of northern China, with Henan and Shaanxi as the two major centers. During the Warring States period, Qin and Han Dynasties, the migration of nobles to other countries when Qin destroyed the six states, and the war at the end of Qin Dynasty provided conditions for the development and spread of Zhou surname. The system of prefectures and counties in the Qin Dynasty and the system of prefectures and states in the Han Dynasty gave the Zhou family a chance to form a prefecture. During this period, the Zhou family migrated to southern Henan and Northern Jiangsu, and formed a famous family in the area, that is, Zhou family of Runan and Zhou family of Pei state. During the Han Dynasty, Henan and Shandong were the most populous areas in China. From the second year of the first year of the Western Han Dynasty (Ad 2) to the fifth year of Daye of the Sui Dynasty (609), the population of Henan accounted for about one fifth of the national population in 600 years.

During the Wei, Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the long years of war in the north, there was the first national migration. The Zhou family also followed the gentry in the Central Plains to the south.

Around the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the surname Zhou developed on a large scale. The warlords in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties were in chaos for several decades, especially the Jin soldiers in the late Northern Song Dynasty and the Mongolian soldiers in the late Southern Song Dynasty. These wars forced a large number of Zhou surnames in the Central Plains of Henan and Shandong to move southward, mainly to Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, some people with the surname of Zhou followed Chen Yuanguang to Kaiji, Fujian Province and Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Zhou family of Gushi County, Guangzhou, Henan Province migrated to Mafu, Jian'ou, Fujian Province

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Shi