Related News
Home » Sunday » Now and Then
Most prolific surname stems from plum
Print Edition
A plum tree that saved a refugee woman and her son contributed to the most common Chinese family name today — Li.
Li, which means plum in Chinese, is one of the biggest surnames in the world. There estimated to be 92 million people surnamed Li in China, accounting for slightly over 7 percent of the total population.
Legend suggests that the common ancestor of Li family was Gao Tao, who served as governmental officer in Yao’s Reign more than 4,000 years ago.
Gao Tao’s position at the time was named “Da Li,” which literally means big and reason. Three generations of his family inherited the position and thus named their family after “Li” (reason).
However, a descendant of the Li family enraged King Zhou in the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC) by frank advice and was killed. His wife and son had no choice but to run for their lives. Just as they were about to starve to death, a plum tree with rich fruits saved their lives.
To show their gratitude, they changed their family name from the “reason” Li into “plum” Li.
And the surname was granted to many other people including the minority ones since the Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280).
The most well-known descendants of the Li family include the famous philosopher Li Er (more widely known as Lao Zi) in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), and Emperor Li Shimin, who started the “Zhenguan Period” in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).
Quite a number of kingdoms and dynasties were established by the families of Li, which contributed to the prosperity of the family. That includes minority regimes like Da Cheng, Liang, Wu, Xi Xia and the Han regime like the Tang Dynasty.
The family of Li originated in Hunan Province. A branch of the family moved to Shandong Province in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD); some others moved southwest to Sichuan and Yunan provinces since the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD). Li families now can be found all over China.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
