Why are there so many surnames?

1, from Ji's surname. He is a descendant of King Jichang of Zhou Wen, and takes the country as his surname. After the King of Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty, his fifth brother was awarded a degree in Cai, which was called the capital of Cai Shu in history. Now, the son of Cai Shudu was renamed Cai, and the new Cai State is in Shangcai County, Henan Province. After Chu destroyed Cai, Chinese people took the country as their surname and scattered around.

2. From the surname. From the fief of the Yellow Emperor branch, it belongs to the name of fief. Ai surname is a direct descendant of the Yellow Emperor. During the Yao, Shun and Xia dynasties, Ai's clans, such as Yan, Kan, Yin, Cai and Lu, were distributed in the east and west Yellow River basins in Henan. Cai is a branch of Wa nationality, and holds a high sacrificial position in the tribe. Cai and Ji were commonly used in ancient times, so Cai came from Ji.

3. from ethnic minorities. The incident of Cai's surname flowing into foreign blood mainly occurred after the Song Dynasty. Later, Wu Lin, the jurchen of the State of Jin, changed her surname to Cai, and the surnames of Manchu Eight Banners, Wuling and Samara were all changed to Cai.

After living together with the Han nationality for a long time, these foreigners gradually assimilated into the Cai surname of the Han nationality in the north and flourished in the northeast. A large part of Cai's surname among the ethnic minorities in Guizhou and Guangxi was assimilated into the southern Han nationality, mainly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Population distribution:

In the Song Dynasty, there were about 440,000 people surnamed Cai, accounting for 0.57% of the national population, ranking 36th. Fujian is the largest province with Cai surname, accounting for about 2 1.2% of the total population of Cai surname in China.

The distribution in China is mainly concentrated in Fujian, Shandong and Henan. Cai in these three provinces accounts for 5 1% of the total population of Cai, followed by Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hebei, Hubei and Jiangsu provinces. There are two population centers named Cai in Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and the southeast coast of Jiangsu, and in Lu Yu, Hebei and Central Hubei.

There were about 460,000 Cai surnames in Ming Dynasty, accounting for 0.49% of the national population, and it was the 46th surname in Ming Dynasty. Zhejiang is the largest province with Cai surname, accounting for about 20.2% of the total population of Cai surname. The distribution in China is mainly concentrated in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Jiangsu. Cai in these four provinces accounts for about 63% of the total population of Cai, followed by Guangdong and Hunan provinces.

During the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the population of Cai mainly migrated from the north to the southeast and south, especially to the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian. The population of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Jiangsu and Cai has re-formed nationwide. ?

The population of contemporary Cai surname has reached 5.52 million, which is the 44th surname in China, accounting for 0.46% of the national population. The distribution of Cai surname in China is mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, accounting for about 35% of the total population of Cai surname; Secondly, it is distributed in Sichuan, Hubei, Taiwan Province, Anhui and Fujian, with a concentration of 32% in these five provinces.

Guangdong is 13.7% of the total population of Cai, and it is the largest province in Cai, accounting for 1% of the total population of the whole province. The whole country has formed a region with a high proportion of Cai surnames in the southeast coastal areas.

In the past 600 years, the degree and direction of Cai's population movement are somewhat different from those in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Although there are cases of emigration to Central China and North China, it is still the mainstream to emigrate to the southeast, and some to the west and northeast.