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Dou surname traced to Xia Dynasty
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DOU, which literally means cave or hole in Chinese, is a surname that has a long history.
There are an estimated 380,000 people surnamed Dou in China, ranking it 219th in terms of population. The surname accounts for about 0.031 percent of the population, scattered all over China.
Dou is also an ancient surname that has been around for more than 4000 years. A legend helped traced the history of Dou’s family back to the Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century BC) when enemies chased a tribal leader’s pregnant wife.
She fled and hid in a cave where she gave birth to a boy who grew up to become a tribal leader and emperor. The emperor surnamed himself Dou, which means cave in Chinese.
There were also records of families surnamed Dou in the Di nation in today’s Shanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. Other minority people also changed their surnames to Dou following interactions with the Han people.
Another branch of the Dou population dates back to an official in Wei Kingdom of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) with the title of “Dou Gong.” His offspring used his title as their surname and joined the Dou family in China.
A well-known personality with the Dou surname is probably the Queen Mother Dou in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), who is the wife of Emperor Wen of Han, mother of Emperor Jing of Han and grandmother of Emperor Wu of Han. The reign of the three successive emperors saw China grow economically and militarily.
Dou’s assistance to the three great rulers has been widely recognized, but her despotism also led to criticism with allegations of high-level corruption.
Queen Mother Dou is a firm believer of Taoist philosophy that advocates “governing by doing nothing that goes against nature.”
She was annoyed when a Confucius scholar slammed Taoism as “common opinions,” and ordered the scholar to fight wild boars. With a sword given by the Emperor Jing, the scholar survived.
Editor’s note
Every Chinese family name has its own cultural origin that can be traced back thousands of years. In this column, Shanghai Daily introduces the biggest Chinese family names and their histories.
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