What is the function of China's surname?

Surname is a sign and symbol used to show a person's family blood relationship.

The original source of ancient surnames in China is primitive religious worship, totem worship and ancestor worship based on "Heaven". The so-called "heaven" is the law that everything has. Primitive totem worship is the root of China's ancient surnames.

Descendants from the same ancestor are called clans. Surnames are derived from the names of tribes or tribal leaders. Its main function is to distinguish the descendants of different clans in the tribe and facilitate intermarriage between different clans. Therefore, the appearance of surnames marks the change from group marriage system to consanguineous marriage system, which is an important milestone in the progress of human civilization.

Surnames are passed down from generation to generation, which is generally stable, while surnames change with the changes of feudal cities and official positions, so there will be several surnames in one's descendants or different surnames between father and son. Last name and first name together form a person's first name. "Surname, unified his ancestors from the exam; The surname is not divided by his descendants. " The surname is a racial number, and the surname is a branch of the surname. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, surnames began to merge.

Extended data

The origin of hundreds of surnames

Hundreds of Surnames is a book about China's surname. According to documents, it was written in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. The original surname was 4 1 1, which was later supplemented to 504, including 444 single surnames and 60 compound surnames.

Hundreds of surnames are arranged in four fonts, and each sentence rhymes. Although its content is not artistic, it has played a great role in the inheritance of China surname culture and the understanding of China characters, which is also an important factor for its spread for thousands of years.

Hundreds of surnames, together with San and Qian, are also called "three thousand", which is an enlightenment book for children in ancient China. "Qiansun" became the four major surnames because there were hundreds of surnames in wuyue in the Song Dynasty, so Song Taizu Zhao, Qian Chu and South Tang Li became the four major surnames.

Baidu encyclopedia-surname

Baidu Encyclopedia-Hundred Family Names