Who is the first owner of Li?

Li's surname is derived from the old surname. The ancestor of Li's surname is Lao Zi, whose surname is Li Erhu Totem. His descendants take Li as their ancestor.

Keywords Li surname; Laozi; Xing Shi Wenhua

China Library Classification Number C9 12.4 Document Identification Code Part A Number

Surname culture, clan pedigree, is the history of the origin, survival and reproduction of a family. It is the blood of national inheritance and the foundation of national growth. It is the tradition of the Chinese nation to respect the old and love the young and promote virtue. Therefore, it is of great significance to study surname culture and trace the origin of caste for inheriting national blood, enhancing national unity and improving national cohesion.

Henan is one of the main birthplaces of the Chinese nation, and it is also an important birthplace of China's surname. Many China surnames originated in Henan and later spread to the whole country and even the whole world. Li is the largest surname in China today, and it is also the largest surname in the world. According to statistics, Li nationality accounts for 7.9% of the Han population, that is, the population of Li nationality in the world exceeds 87 million [1]. Li's ancestral home is in Henan, which was called Guxian in ancient times. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it belonged to Chen, and later to Chu. It is the birthplace of Lao Zi (Li Er), a great thinker, philosopher and founder of Taoist school in ancient China.

The origin, development, differentiation and evolution of many surnames have extremely complicated social and historical reasons. From the replacement of dynasties, the collapse of vassal States, the rise and fall of tribes, to immigration, family bullying and personal despair, it will have an impact on the evolution of surnames. China attached great importance to the research and arrangement of national genealogy in ancient times. However, because surnames have a long history and can often be traced back to prehistoric times, there is no written record and no evidence of belief history, so many people guess fictional words. Second, ancient genealogists often raised their family status for the political needs of a certain ethnic group, so their credibility was not high. Therefore, people with higher surnames are more likely to be confused.

Li is the surname of the Tang Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, it flourished and became a noble family. The royal family of Li Tang is descended from the northwest minorities. After entering the Central Plains, in order to strengthen the rule of the Central Plains, Li Yuan claimed to be the Li of Longxi, and the family origin was traced back to Old Gigi Lai II by Li Xin, the general of Qin and Li Guang, the general of Han, in order to improve his clan status. Emperor Taizong used political means to organize the compilation of genealogy, which changed the concept of aristocratic family status in the Central Plains since Wei and Jin Dynasties, with Lu, Cui, Zheng, Wang and Han as the main names, and determined Li's supreme position in the form of local chronicles. This practice will inevitably add a speculative and subjective element to the origin of Li, so there are too many statements about the origin of Li in the classics after the Tang Dynasty. Zheng Qiao, a historian of the Song Dynasty, wrote in "Tongzhi? Genealogy says: "Li Liang was a martial artist in Wang Youguo for 20 years, and Gaozu was on earth for 300 years. Since he is well supported, his descendants are numerous. However, the discussion about genealogy doesn't know where to start. "

To sum up, there are five main reasons for the origin of Li and Li's ancestors, which are listed as follows:

First, the origin of the surname win. That is to say, Li's surname is won, and the ancestors of blood are, first Li, then Li, the surname of the ancestors is, and Li Er is. This statement was first put forward by li yanshou in the Tang Dynasty. He's in the History of the North? "Preface" said: "Li's predecessor is Zhuan Xu's Levin's". In the Yuan and Yuan Dynasties (806), Yuan and Xing Zhi recorded the origin of Li's surname, that is, according to li yanshou. In the Northern Song Dynasty, when Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi wrote The Book of the New Tang Dynasty, they also took Lin Bao's statement as the basis and enriched it. The origin and pedigree of the surname Li listed in the genealogy of the imperial clan and prime minister in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty are very detailed. New Tang book? Imperial clan lineage "includes:

Lee comes from the winner's surname. Emperor Levin of Zhuan Xu gave birth to a great cause. The great cause gave birth to a female Hua and a female Watson, whose strong word is Yao Dali. If you are profitable, you will succeed in good health. Li Yu, Xia, Shang, the world is Dali, and the official is Li. In the end, Li Zheng was virtuous and was transferred to the Wu Bo wing. He was not allowed to go straight, so he offended and died. His wife Chen and his son Li Zhen fled to the market and ate all of them, so they changed their names to Li.

Li is a descendant of Levin's family in Zhuan Xu, which originated from the won surname. Press: Also surnamed Yan. Historical records? The judiciary quoted the emperor of the century as saying: "Hao Tao was born in Qufu. Qufu, Yan Di, so the emperor (Shun) gave the surname Yan. " Hao Tao's eldest son, Boyi, "is Shun's main animal, so he was given the surname Won". The first volume of Guo Moruo's Historical Draft of China: "Hao Tao is Yan's surname, and Boyi is Bo's surname. Yan, Yan, a turn, developed from two close relatives, clan and tribe. " Therefore, Yan and Yan have different surnames. If the Book of the New Tang Dynasty prevails? Imperial clan lineage "said that Li's surname originated from Yan's surname. Hao Tao was the king of Dali in Yao Di, and his descendants inherited the position of the king of Dali, taking the official position as their surname. At the end of Shang Dynasty, Li surnamed Sun offended and was killed. His wife, Qi He, a native of Chen, fled back to Chen with her son. She was so hungry that she ate Mu Zi (the fruit of the tree) and saved her life. In order to thank Mu Zi and avoid Zhou Wang's pursuit, the original surname was hidden. Because "Li" and "Li" are homonyms, the word Zhen was changed to Li, which is the ancestor of Li's surname.

Mother and son returned to Chen State and settled in Guxian County (now Lu Yi, Henan Province) not far from Chen. According to the records in Yuan He's Family Name Compilation, Ancient and Modern Family Name Book Discrimination and New Tang Book Road History, he also married the daughter of Chen and his family, gave birth to Chang Zu, then practiced medicine and lived in Kuxian County. The eldest ancestor gave birth to Tongde, the great-grandson of Tongde, and Zhou Kangwang gave him a fief in Guxian County. Li Shuozong's fifth grandson is Zi Guo. He served as an ancient consultant in the Western Zhou Dynasty, married a long-lived baby girl and gave birth to Li Er. "Historical Records" contains: "I was born in Qurenli, Chuku County, and my surname is Li. His name is Er, and the word Yong is the history of Zhou Shoucang. " Lin Bao quoted the cheats and said: "The eleventh generation of Sun Laojun, Li Zhen, whose real name is Bai Yang, lives in Qurenli, Lai Township, County." Deng's book Dialectics of Ancient and Modern Surnames calls Li Zhen the sixth ancestor of Laozi.

Lao Zi Li Er was the first official named Li before the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. Historical Records is a biography of Li Er, but it says nothing about Li Er's grandparents. "Northern history? Introduction and New Tang Book? The statement that the origin of Li's surname is too vivid and legendary in the genealogy of the imperial clan will inevitably arouse the suspicion of future generations. Miro's History of the Tao said: "Jin Wengong ordered Li Li to be reasonable in those days, and this was proved after Hao Tao thought. Laozi was born after Hao Tao, but the books of the Tang Dynasty are clouds. Lao Tzu was born under Li and assumed his surname. Or the cloud got its surname because of overeating bitter plums; You can call it Mu Zi, the hunger bait. This is a wrong birth. "Zheng Qiao Chronicle?" "Genealogy" said: "It is unreasonable to take Mu Zi as the surname and take the homonym of the past. However, without giving a convincing negative reason, he said, "Now is not the time to start." Let's be reasonable "I don't know the origin of Li's surname, so I have to use the theory of New Tang Book for the time being." Sheng 'an Ji, Volume 50, Li Fei Yi thinks that "Longxi Li is different from Li", and New Tang Book? Clan lineage "with waste words, flattery", and said, "after Tang Ben and Li Jue, they are from Xiliang, not China, and have nothing to do with Hao Tao's reasons. Emperor Taizong named Li Laojun as his ancestor and enshrined it in a temple, which made the theory of historian Hao Tao well-founded. Why not ancestor Hao Tao, but ancestor Li Er? This is self-contradictory and suspicious. " Chen Yinque also proved that the ancestor of the imperial clan was not Li in Longxi, so "History of the North"? Introduction and New Tang Book? The theory that Li's surname in Genealogy was intentionally attached to the theory and Lao Zi's actions.

Second, it refers to Li Wei's surname. Historical records? "Justice" quoted "Mystery Inside" as saying: "Mother Li was pregnant for 81 years and lived happily under the plum tree. She was born under her left armpit. " Historical records? (Suoyin) Press: Ge Xuan said:' Li's daughter is born with her mother's surname.' Another cloud said,' I was born to refer to Li Shu and thought it was my surname.' "It says here that Lao Tzu is the ancestor of Li. There is still a folklore in Lu Yi today. Mother Li was pregnant for 8 1 year and gave birth under the plum tree. Li Er was a white-haired old man when he was born. Mother Li called "my old son", hence the name "Lao Zi". As soon as Lao Zi was born, she pointed to Li Zishu and recognized her surname as Li. This statement is very bizarre, and it is the work of Taoist deification of Laozi, which has always been considered absurd and incredible.

Third, Li Shu totem theory. That is, Li's surname originated from totem worship. "Totem" comes from Hindi, which means "his kin". Totem is the symbol of a clan. Freud said, "Totem is always the ancestor of the clan and its guardian." [2] The earliest surnames mainly came from various ancient totems and place names. Xu Shen's explanation of "surname" in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is: "surname is born by people. Ancient times are sacred, and mothers are born of heaven, so they are called sons of heaven and born of women. " Because in primitive times, clan members believed that fertility was a totem that entered the female body, and the newborn was the son of the totem; The surname is a stranger's thing (totem), the son of heaven is born of "mother's feeling of heaven", while others are born of feeling of things, that is, a totem. Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty wrote in Lun Heng? "The Art of Divination" said: "The ancients were born with surnames, and they were born with surnames. If you swallow Coix lachryma in summer, your surname is Coix lachryma. Shang swallowed a swallow and was born, so his surname was Zi. At the time of Zhou Lu, the name of Ji was also established. " "White tiger Yi Tong? The famous article said: "The Yu family is the Yu family, and the ancestor is the Yi family; Yin surnamed Zi (good), and his ancestor was Xuanniaozi; Zhou is Ji, and his ancestors are also famous. "That is to say, ancient people were born with surnames, taking the things that gave birth to them as surnames. For example, Xia's ancestor was born when his mother swallowed Coix lachryma-jobi (a plant seed, that is, the totem of his mother), so Xia's surname was "Si"; The ancestor of Shang clan was born in his mother swallowing Yan (swallowing eggs, that is, his mother's totem eggs), so he took Zi as his surname. Zhou's ancestors were born by his mother's totem footprint, so the Zhou family took "Ji" as their surname. Today, some ethnic minorities in China can still find examples of taking clan totem as their surnames. Such as wild cats, waterfowl and tigers among Kemu people in Yunnan.

From this point of view, it is not credible that old Gigi Lai II thought his surname at birth, but it seems reasonable to assume that Li Mu totem is his surname when Li Er was born and Li Shu totem is his surname. Modern He Guangyue's History of the Origin of Dongyi also mentioned that Li took the plum tree as a totem tree: "Li Yin got his surname as an official in Dali, and then took refuge for food. Because they eat wild plums, they are cultivated as domestic plum trees, and plum trees are regarded as sacred trees, that is, totem trees. Therefore, all descendants of Li often plant Li as a symbol next to the house, and this habit has been preserved to this day. For example, Li Baijia has a peach and plum garden, and the Tang Dynasty Palace has a variety of plum trees. "

But the question is, why does mother Li take the plum tree as a totem? There is no strong evidence that Li worships the plum tree totem after referring to the legend of Li Wei's surname, so this statement needs to be verified.

Fourth, it comes from the tiger totem theory. This view holds that Li's totem is not a plum tree, but a tiger. The totem of Laozi's birthplace in Li Er, Chen Chu is a tiger, and "Li Er" means "tiger" in Chu language. Gong Wei Ying said in the Outline of Primitive Worship:

It turns out that Li Er is also a Chu language, namely tiger. Dialect? Babaoyun: "Tiger, ... Li Er between Jiangnan and Chu. "Lao zi's old country is Chen, and he died in Chu, so he is a Truman. Chen belongs to the Huaihe River Basin and calls the tiger "Li Er". This is why Lao Zi is also called Li Er. It should be noted that Chen Weishun, surnamed Gui, also had tiger totem worship in ancient times. The tiger totem beliefs of Chen and Chu are mutual infiltration and mutual promotion, not the unilateral action of one party on the other.

Li Er should be Chu Chenren's common name for tigers. According to legend, Lao Tzu was born in Geng Yin, a tiger. At that time, Kuxian dialect called the tiger a "raccoon dog", so all my relatives and neighbors called me a "raccoon dog", and later it gradually evolved into "Li Er". Sun said:

Since there is no "Li Er" in pre-Qin classics, where did Sima Qian's so-called "surname Li Minger" come from? In our opinion, the biggest possibility is that Lao Tzu's nickname is Li Er. Yang Xiong dialect: "Tiger, between Chen, Wei, Song and Chu, is called Li Fu;" Between Jiangnan and Chu, it is called Li Er. "Fang Yizhi's" Tongya "Volume 46 says that tigers" or raccoons turn to Li Er ". It seems that those born at the turn of Chen, Song and Chu may be nicknamed (raccoon dog), and their voices turned to Li Er. Neighbors in the village only call him Li Er by his nickname. Sima Qian's so-called "surname Li Minger" probably mistook Lao Zi's nickname from folklore for his first name. As for why Laozi was nicknamed raccoon (Little Tiger), we speculate that there may have been a custom of dating the zodiac in the Spring and Autumn Period. ..... The folk custom of the zodiac is nothing more than the remains of totem worship of ancient ancestors, and it will not be too late to form. If this speculation can be established, then let's look back at the year of Lao Zi's birth recognized by many people-57 1 BC, that is, the year of Geng Yin, that is, the year of the tiger. It is natural to be born in the Year of the Tiger and be nicknamed Little Tiger. The little tiger, also called raccoon dog in Laozi's hometown, became raccoon dog in Lao Dan, and its voice changed to Li Er. ”〔3〕

Fifth, it originated from the old surname theory. This statement mainly comes from the textual research of Laozi's surname, and holds that Laozi is not surnamed Li but surnamed Lao, and Li's surname comes from the old surname. Tang Lan, an archaeologist, thinks that Lao Zi's surname Li Minger is untrue: "According to people's general appellation at that time, the old word was the name of his clan, because people who called Zi at that time, such as Confucius, Youzi, Ceng Zi, Yoko, Mozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi and Keiko, all added Zi under the clan" and "there is no trace of Li in ancient books". [4] It is made clear that Lao Tzu is not surnamed Li, but surnamed Lao. Guo Moruo, Ma Xulun, Chen Duxiu and others agreed with Tang's viewpoint. Gao Feng has further textual research on this. He wrote in Lao Zi Zheng Shi? As I said before:

At the turn of the sound between Lao Zi and Li Yi, Lao Zi's original surname was Lao Zi, and later it became Li with the same sound, so there must be two. 〔5〕

He listed four pieces of evidence: First, in the old books of the pre-Qin period, such as Zhuangzi and Xunzi, Confucius and Mozi were given surnames, while Lao Dan was called "Li Meng" when he was alone with Laozi; Called "Lao Zi" instead of "Mei Zi", it can be seen that Lao Zi was originally named Lao Yi. Second, "in ancient times, there was an old surname but no Li surname." Zuo Zhuan became a public official for fifteen years: "Song had Sima Lao Zuo" and fourteen years: "Lu had Lao Xie". "Shiben": "Zhuan Xu has old children." Custom Yi Tong: "Lao Shi, the son of Zhuan Xu." There was no Li surname in the Spring and Autumn Period. Historical records? Li in Biography is a mistake of Zuozhuan scholars, and he should not be Li. During the Warring States Period, Li Mu appeared, and the origin of Li was very late. Third, many ancient surnames have no original words, and they often borrow homophones. Changing the old surname to Li is also homophonic. Fourth, "the ancient rhyme' Lao' belongs to the hidden voice, and' Li' belongs to the voice. The two voices are close in sound and ancient is not ancient." Gao Feng quoted a large number of sentences in Laozi, which proved that the occult and the part are harmonious. Finally, he said: "Lao and Li both belong to Lai Niu (that is, the initial consonant is L) and belong to the same rhyme, but the sounds are very clear, only the sounds are the same, so they are changed from Lao to Li." 〔5〕

According to others, the surname Li did not evolve from the surname Li, but originated from the old surname. Teacher Gao's quotations from the perspective of phonology are very detailed and convincing. Today, there is Laozi's hometown near the Taiqing Palace in Lu Yi, and there are many villagers named Li. The author asks why he is called "Lao Zhuang" and answers "since ancient times", which can be regarded as another proof that Li's surname originated from the old surname.

In a word, the author thinks: History of the North, Biography of li yanshou and Book of the New Tang Dynasty? Li's surname originated from the won surname in the imperial clan genealogy, which was recorded in the official history and widely circulated. Now many newly compiled surname books have adopted this theory. But there is a story that is bizarre because of eating Mu Zi. People like Loretta Lee before Laozi didn't see any historical records, which is unfounded, and it is not rigorous enough to prove history with recent evidence and myths and legends in the future. Second, because of this, in the Tang Dynasty, there was an element of raising Li Tang's imperial clan and attaching to it, and it was subjective and not credible. Laozi's statement that Li Shu is his surname is purely a legend, which is the result of Taoism deifying Laozi, not a belief in history. Li Shu Totem said the evidence was insufficient. Comparatively speaking, the author agrees with the statement that Li's surname originated from the old surname. This theory is based on a large number of phonological exegesis and is very detailed. It can be combined with tiger totem theory and based on folklore, with higher credibility.

On this basis, the author thinks that Li's surname originates from the old surname, and the ancestor of Li's surname is Lao Zi, Lao Zi's surname, named Li Er after the tiger totem, and the descendants named Li after their ancestors. Zuozhuan? There are five sources of surnames in Eight Years of Hidden Gong: "The son of heaven, Jiande, was born in the surname and died in the ground; The princes took the word as their name, because they thought it was a clan; When officials make meritorious deeds, there will be a butler, and the city will have a butler. "Zheng Qiao chronicle? Genealogy divides the origin of surnames into 32 categories, including "taking characters as surnames" and "taking names as surnames". According to the patriarchal clan system of the Zhou Dynasty, the son of a vassal is called "Gongzi", and the son of "Gongzi" is called "Gongsun". The son of "Gongsun" can no longer be called "Gongsun", but takes his grandfather's name or word as his surname. " Tongzhi? There are 3 1 1 people who take their grandfather's name as their surname, which exceeds the total number of people who take the country as their surname and the city as their surname. It can be seen that taking the names or words of ancestors as surnames is a great source of surnames. In China, Hu surname, Yuan surname, etc. They were all given by the ancestors, and their surname should be the same as Li's.