Why do North Korea, South Korea and Viet Nam have so many China surnames?

There are 285 Korean surnames in the world, and there are 230 common surnames except Geng, Luan, Ao and Ao. Of these 230 surnames, 164 comes from China, accounting for more than 70%, but its population is less than 30%. There are 66 surnames of indigenous peoples originating from the Korean peninsula, accounting for less than 30%, but the population accounts for more than 70%. Of course, the so-called origin in China is only Chinese characters borrowed by ancient Koreans, and it is not necessarily the descendants of China people who immigrated to the peninsula.

The origin of Korean surnames

Let's start with the most common Kim surname in North Korea. There are several sources of Jin surname. The first one came from the king of Silla Jin Shu, and the second one came from the king of Kaye Jin Shoulu. The surname Park comes from the ancestor of Silla King Park (Silla King belongs to the same family, but there are two surnames Park and Jin). These two surnames belong to surnames from myths and legends. The high surname, rich surname and Liang surname of Jeju Island also come from myths and legends. Fu Xi, king of Baekje, and Gao Shi, king of Koguryo, all took their surnames.

There are also some surnames given by the ancient Emperor China or the kings of the three countries on the Korean Peninsula (such as Jinhai Xu Shi given by King Silla and Ganquan given by Emperor China), which were changed by themselves (after the demise of Korea, the Wangs changed their surnames to Yu, Quan and Tian, etc.). Fu Yulong, the son of King Baekje Yici, went to study in the Tang Dynasty after his death and was given the surname Xu. After Silla, the third generation Confucian king, divided the country into six tribes, he gave the chiefs of each tribe surnames, such as the surname Sun given by Zhu Lima, the surname Cui given by Suvaduri and so on.

There are also insulting surnames given by the king to "disorderly people", such as ox, horse, elephant (later changed to Shang), roe (later changed to Zhang) and dolphin (later changed to Dun). There are also some ancient surnames of unknown origin, such as North Korea's Xianyu, Xu and Su, as well as Baekje Sha, Yan, Xie, Guo, Zhen and Miao.

Some ancient Korean surnames are duplicated with surnames from China, but their "native place" (ancestral home) is different. The main surnames introduced into Korea from China are: Zhang (concubine of Princess Mengyuan), Kong (Confucius of Qufu who took refuge across the sea in the late Ming Dynasty), Min (whose ancestor was Min Gua, an envoy of the Song Dynasty), Yin (ambassador of the Jin Dynasty), Zuo (official of the horse herding in Tanluo Island of Mengyuan), Zhu (descendant of Zhu Zhisun who took refuge in North Korea in the late Southern Song Dynasty), Ming and Sheng (Zhu).

Different ethnic groups with the same surname

There are also some surnames, although they share the same surname in North Korea, but their ancestors are different, such as Li who "created" or gave his surname in Silla and Koryo periods (such as Quanzhou Li, Li and Incheon Li), and also introduced from China, such as the descendants of Li Mao, the general who assisted Silla in the Tang Dynasty (the ancestor of Yan 'an Li) and the 24th generation of Jinshi Sun in the Western Han Dynasty (the ancestor of Li in the old city).

Among the five most populous surnames in South Korea, there are 106 biographies of Kim, Park, Lee, Cui, Zheng and Kim Nengkao, more than 70 biographies of Park, and 43 biographies of Cui, all of whom are native and have no identical surnames handed down from China. About 30 of Li's 109 biographies were imported from China. Among Zheng's 35 biographies, only Ruishan Zheng He's ancestors came from China.

An, Bian, Bian, Cai, Cao, Chen, Chi, Ding, Fan, Fang, Hong, Jiang, Ji, Kang, Kong, Lian, Lu, Ming, Nan, Pan, Qian, Qin, Qiu, Ren, Shen, Shen, Shi, Song, Wei, Yan. Surnames such as Lin, Lu, Liu, Che, Luo, Lu, Nangong, Rui, Wang and Wu are circulated in the genealogy. Their ancestors were China people who entered Korea in Shang, Zhou, Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties.

The same family can't get married.

You can't get married if you have the same surname, the same clan or a different surname but the same clan. Divided into the following situations:

One, the same clan, the same surname, the same book, marriage is absolutely forbidden, such as between Quanzhou Lee and Quanzhou Lee, and between Anton Kim and Anton Kim. Even if you intermarry with foreign people, for example, although you have given five clothes, it is absolutely forbidden for Confucius in Qufu, South Korea to intermarry with Confucius in Qufu, China.

Second, people of different nationalities share the same surname. For example, the Hong family in Nanyang is divided into "Tang Hong" and "Tuhong". The ancestor of "Tang Hong" is Yin Hongyue who settled in Silla in the Tang Dynasty, and the ancestor of "Tuhong" is Korean Hong Xianxing, so the two families can get married.

Three, the same family, the same surname, different origins, such as Jiangling Jin and Gwangju Jin, their ancestors and roots are different, but their ancient ancestors are all Jin, so it is best not to marry. There is also a situation where marriage is absolutely forbidden, that is, there are branches from different places below the ancestors. For example, the ancestors of the Wu family in Baocheng were Wu Xianbi, who was named the monarch of Baocheng during the Korean period for fighting against the Yuan army, while the ancestors of the Wu family in Changxing were the second son of Wu Sizhong, the sixth grandson of Wu Xianbi, so intermarriage between the two ethnic groups was absolutely forbidden.

4. Different surnames, same surnames, different origins, this situation appears in the most common surnames, for example, between Jinhai and Jiangling, one of the ancient ancestors was the first to show the king and the other was Jin Xunzhi, and there is no blood relationship between them, which does not affect marriage.

Five, the same clan, different surnames, the same book, such as Jinhai Jinshi, Jinhai Xu Shi, ancestors are the first king, so it is forbidden to marry.

Six, the same clan, different surnames, different books, such as Shi Ming in Xishu and Shi Sheng in Changping, whose ancestors were Ming Sheng, the son of Ming Yuzhen, who was exiled to North Korea in the early Ming Dynasty, so it is also forbidden to marry.

From the above taboos, we can see the importance of Benguan to Koreans.

Vietnamese surname

Among Southeast Asian countries, Viet Nam is deeply influenced by China culture. On the one hand, its historical development is closely related to China; On the other hand, Chinese characters have been widely used in Viet Nam for a long time, so it has the conditions to fully absorb China culture.

The influence of China culture on Vietnamese is first of all Vietnamese surnames, and most Vietnamese have a Chinese surname plus a first name. Such as Ruan, Fan, Chen, Wu, Li, Zheng, Li and Ding. The founding kings of several Vietnamese dynasties were all from China, such as Wu Quan (Ji Ren) in Wu Dynasty, Ding Buling (Cantonese) in Ding Dynasty, Li nationality (Shu people) in the previous dynasty, Li Tai (Min people) in Li Dynasty, Chen Ritang (Min people) in Chen Dynasty and Hu (Zhejiang people). At the same time, there are also relatively few surnames introduced after Gu Annan conquered southern Champa and Zhenla. (Phoenix Network)