Baixing
Baixing (Chinese: 百姓; pinyin: bǎixìng; lit. 'hundred surnames' or lao baixing (Chinese: 老百姓; lit. 'old hundred surnames') is a term in Chinese meaning "the people", or "commoners".[1][2] The word lao (Chinese: 老; lit. 'old') is often added before "baixing".[3]
Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use, but the great majority of Han Chinese people use only a relatively small number of these surnames; 19 surnames are used by around half of the Han Chinese people, while around 87% of the population share 100 surnames.[4][5]
Chinese Family Names
Chinese family names are patrilineal, passed from father to children.[6][7] Chinese women, after marriage, typically retain their birth surname.[8] Two distinct types of Chinese surnames existed in ancient China, namely xing (Chinese: 姓; pinyin: xìng) or ancestral clan names, and shi (Chinese: 氏; pinyin: shì) or branch lineage names. Later, the two terms began to be used interchangeably, and now, xing refers to the surname while shi may be used to refer to the clan name or maiden name. Historically, only Chinese men possessed xìng (Chinese: 姓; lit. 'family name'), in addition to shì (Chinese: 氏; lit. 'clan'); the women had only the latter and took on their husband's xìng after marriage.[8]
Origin
A confederation of tribes living along the Yellow River were the ancestors of what later became the Han ethnic group in China.[9][10] During the Warring States (475–221 BCE) several large tribes, including the Huangdi tribes (Chinese: 黄帝族), Yandi tribes (Chinese: 炎帝族), and the Yi tribes formed an alliance which consisted of roughly 100 tribes, hence the origin of the Baixing Chinese: 百姓, or the "hundred surnames".[11]
Literary Compilation
The Hundred Family Surnames (Chinese: 百家姓), commonly known as Bai Jia Xing,[12] is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames.[13] The book was composed in the early Song dynasty.[14] It originally contained 411 surnames, and was later expanded to 504.[when?][14] In the dynasties following the Song, the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, and Thousand Character Classic came to be known as San Bai Qian (Three, Hundred, Thousand), from the first character in their titles, and were the almost universal introductory literary texts for students, almost exclusively boys, from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers.[15][16]
References
- ^ "Old 100 names: Witnesses of China's history". BBC News. October 18, 2012.
- ^ Lee, Philip (June 2003). 250 Essential Chinese Characters for Everyday Use. # Publisher: Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. pp. Page 25. ISBN 978-0-8048-3359-2.
- ^ "Blog: New dawn for Chinese activism". SBS News. August 26, 2013.
- ^ Du Ruofu (杜若甫) (June 1986). "Surnames in China / 中国的姓氏". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 14 (2): 315–328. JSTOR 23767123.
- ^ Emma Woo Louie (2008). Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition. McFarland & Co. p. 35. ISBN 978-0786438778.
- ^ "Chinese surname shortage sparks rethink". China Daily. June 13, 2007.
- ^ Li, Jane (April 22, 2020). "A movement to pass mothers' last names to their children is gaining traction in China". Quartz.
- ^ a b Tatlow, Didi Kirsten (November 11, 2016). "For Chinese Women, a Surname Is Her Name". New York Times.
- ^ Cioffi-Revilla, Claudio; Lai, David (1995). "War and Politics in Ancient China, 2700 BC to 722 BC". The Journal of Conflict Resolution. 39 (3): 471–72. doi:10.1177/0022002795039003004. S2CID 156043981.
{{cite journal}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ^ Guo, Shirong; Feng, Lisheng (1997). "Chinese Minorities". In Selin, Helaine (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology and medicine in non-western cultures. Dordrecht: Kluwer. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-79234066-9.
During the Warring Stares (475 BC–221 BC), feudalism was developed and the Huaxia nationality grew out of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou nationalities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. The Han evolved from the Huaxia.
- ^ ""老百姓"这个称呼是怎么来的？百度知道" [Baidu Knows: Where did the name "Lao Baixing" come from?]. zhidao.baidu.com. 2005-10-26.
- ^ Ting Hui Lee (2011). Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia: The Struggle for Survival. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 249–. ISBN 978-981-4279-21-5.
- ^ Zhang, Jiansong; Shen, Haixiong (Mar 5, 2006). ""百家姓"排列终有序。姓氏文化有何内涵？" [The "Hundred Family Surnames" are finally arranged in order. What is the cultural meaning of the surnames?]. Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on 2014-11-08.
- ^ a b Tom, K. S. (January 1, 1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends, and Lore of the Middle Kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1285-9 – via Google Books.
- ^ Haines, Lester (June 13, 2007). "China runs out of surnames". The Register.
- ^ Wang, Bao; Hong, Zhaojun (June 26, 2014). "台灣罕姓 肇是帝冑、胖源自明皇室" [Taking Stock of Classic Early Childhood Readers]. China Times.
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