This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
Chinese surnames are a standard for distinguishing blood and family relationships in China. Yet ordinary-looking surnames such as Li, Wang, Sun and Zhao hide three great secrets: the same surname means the same “genetic code”; the same surname does not necessarily mean the same family; and they are the richest in meaning. Let’s get to know them today.
Secret 1: The same surname, the same “genetic code”
In China surnames have long followed the male line, and from the standpoint of genetics only males have the Y chromosome. So the Y chromosome is passed down to male descendants together with the surname; as a result, people with the same surname also have the same type of Y chromosome, together with the genes it carries.
In surveys we have found that many hereditary diseases spread only among people with the same surname; compiling statistics on the number and distribution of surnames is therefore a great help in the study of human genetics. In fact, surnames are a bridge connecting cultural inheritance and biological inheritance.
Secret 2: The same surname does not necessarily mean the same family
When Chinese people meet, they always ask each other’s names; if they find they share a surname, they feel especially close and think the two of them “were one family five hundred years ago.” In fact this saying cannot be trusted.
Surveys have found that a large surname may have up to a hundred or more origins. For example, Li, the most common surname in China: some Li come from the surname Ying, some from the surname Zhao; in the Tang dynasty Li Shimin bestowed the surname Li on founding ministers; and even in the Later Wei period some Xianbei compound surnames were changed to Li.
Nevertheless, surnames have become the glue of the Chinese nation’s cohesion. Many overseas Chinese pay to repair their family genealogies in search of their roots, and in the course of compiling them, through contacts with the mainland, they also give a great boost to the local economy.
Secret 3: Chinese surnames are the richest in meaning
Whether in the East or the West, surnames are an important symbol of cultural heritage. But no country in the world can match China in the completeness and depth of meaning of its surname heritage. For example, although Japan also has surnames, they carry very little cultural meaning. Before the Meiji Restoration Japan had only a few surnames. The Meiji Emperor, for the sake of reform, required everyone in the country to have a surname. As a result, more than eighty thousand surnames appeared within a few short years, with no origin or meaning, most of them named after places, such as Matsushita, Inoue and Tanaka. Therefore Japanese scholars find it very hard to link Japanese surnames with human genetics.
In the United States, although there are fixed surnames, a mere two hundred-odd years of history is not enough to form a cultural heritage. Therefore American scholars, in researching their own people, rely mainly on skin color, hair color and eye color.
As for Britain, its surnames are relatively stable. They come mainly from directly borrowing baptismal names, or adding affixes indicating descent to baptismal names to mean “son or descendant of so-and-so”; some add affixes indicating status before the baptismal name; others reflect place names, landforms or features of the environment, or status or occupation. As for the surnames formed later by combining two surnames, although they appeared even later than baptismal names, they are far more numerous. As for the royal family, in former times it used “Edward” as its surname, and later the relatively new “Windsor” appeared.
On the European continent, surnames are usually a mark distinguishing place of birth. During the Second World War, European armies once grouped soldiers with the same surname together to increase their units’ cohesion and fighting power.
From this it can be seen that only Chinese surnames show both genetic inheritance and the transmission of surnames, highlighting all the more China’s unique culture.
