The migration of the Zhou family tree

The surname Zhou originally originated in the Weihe Plain area of ??today's Shaanxi Province. The Zhou surname migrated and multiplied from west to east, which is closely related to the eastward migration of the capital of the Zhou Dynasty from Shaanxi to Henan. After King Ping moved east to Luoyang, the Zhou family multiplied on a large scale and became a giant clan for a time. During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, the migration of nobles from various countries when Qin destroyed the six kingdoms, as well as the wars at the end of Qin, provided conditions for the development and spread of the Zhou surname. During this period, the Zhou surname migrated to places such as southern Henan and northern Jiangsu, and formed prominent local families, namely the Zhou family in Runan and the Zhou family in Peiguo. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the first great ethnic migration occurred due to long-term wars in the north. People with the Zhou surname also followed the gentry from the Central Plains and migrated southward in large numbers. Before and after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Zhou surname developed on a large scale. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties, warlords were in chaos for decades, especially in the late Northern Song Dynasty when the Jin soldiers went south and in the late Southern Song Dynasty when the Mongolian soldiers went south. These wars forced the people with the Zhou surname in the Central Plains of Henan and Shandong to A large number of people moved south, mainly to Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. In the early Tang Dynasty, some people with the surname Zhou followed Chen Yuanguang into Zhangzhou, Fujian Province.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Zhou surname from Gushi County, Guangzhou, Henan Province moved to Mafu, Jianou, Fujian, where it was known as the "Mafu Zhou Family". In the second year of Chunhua, Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, he moved to Xiandian, Chong'an, Fujian. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin soldiers captured Bianjing, and people surnamed Zhou from Gushi, Henan, traveled south with the Song Dynasty and moved to Ninghua, Minting (now Ninghua, Fujian). At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, this group of Zhou people continued to move south to Meixian County, Guangdong. When the Northern Song Dynasty fell, a large number of people with the Zhou surname in Shandong and Henan followed Song Emperor Gaozong across the Yangtze River and settled in Zhejiang. They were successively distributed in Hangzhou, Zhuji, Shaoxing, Xiaoshan and other places. The Zhou surname entered Guangdong during the late Northern Song Dynasty and the late Southern Song Dynasty when people migrated south from the Central Plains. For example, the Xinhuiqiao Tingfang Zhou family and the Shafufang Zhou family were both originally from Henan. They migrated south with Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty in the early Southern Song Dynasty and with Shao Emperor of the Song Dynasty in the late Southern Song Dynasty respectively. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, people surnamed Zhou from Ji'an Prefecture in Jiangxi Province immigrated to Shaoyang area in Hunan Province. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the provinces with a relatively high concentration of Zhou surnames have been Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian and other provinces. People with the Zhou surname in Taiwan are mainly concentrated in Tainan and Taipei. Most of them moved from the north to Fujian and Guangdong, and then moved to Taiwan from Fujian and Guangdong. People with the Zhou surname from mainland China began to immigrate overseas in the late Qing Dynasty after the Opium War, mainly from Fujian and Guangdong on the mainland. Today, the population of Zhou surname ranks ninth in the country.