Hundred Family Surnames

Hundred Family Surnames

2012-10-22

The Hundred Family Surnames (Chinese: 百家姓; pinyin: Bǎijiāxìng) is a classic Chinese text composed of common surnames in ancient China. The book was composed in the early Song Dynasty. It originally contained 411 surnames, but was later expanded to 504. Of these, 444 are single-character surnames, and 60 are double-character surnames. About 800 names have been derived from the original ones.

The work is a rhyming poem in lines of eight characters.

The surnames are not listed in order of popularity. The first four surnames listed are believed to derive from the most important families in the empire at the time:

1st: Zhao (趙) is the family name of the Song Dynasty emperors.

2nd: Qian (錢) is the family name of the kings of Wuyue.

3rd: Sun (孫) is the family name of the queen of Wuyue.

4th: Li (李) is the family name of the kings of Southern Tang.

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