Who is Qu Yuan’s surname?

Whose surname is Qu Yuan?

Whose surname is Qu Yuan? In life, when it comes to Qu Yuan, I believe many people are familiar with it! Qu Yuan is a famous patriotic poet in the history of our country, and the Dragon Boat Festival is a festival to commemorate him. However, many people don’t know Qu Yuan’s last name. Let’s take a look! Who is Qu Yuan's surname? 1

When you see this title, you may burst out laughing: "Hey, guy writing, isn't Qu Yuan's surname Qu Mingyuan?" Haha, this friend of mine is too much for you. If you are too confident, Qu Yuan really is not named Qu Mingyuan.

Let’s look at Qu Yuan’s surname first. When I was a child, the author read an interesting novel in "Youth Literature". It is about Teacher Fan who is new to a class and teaches Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Tower".

After Teacher Fan finished speaking, a student named Xiong raised his hand and asked about the relationship between Teacher Fan and Fan Zhongyan. When I met a problem student, Teacher Fan was very like everyone. He talked about the inheritance of the surname, and instead led the classmate Xiong to join the army, saying that he was a descendant of Qu Yuan. Classmate Xiong later asked Teacher Fan how Qu Yuan’s surname was related to our Xiong family.

Teacher Fan said that Xiong is the surname of the country of Chu, and surnames such as Qu, Jing, and Zhao are all derived from the surname Xiong, so Xiong may be a descendant of Qu Yuan.

This theory sounds quite reasonable. However, it also has two flaws. In the pre-Qin period, surnames and surnames were separate. The surname was larger than the surname and generally did not change. However, the surname may change with changes in fiefdoms and official positions. The Qu family is a branch of the Xiong surname. King Xiong Tong of Chu Wu granted his son to Qu, and his descendants took the surname of their ancestors as their surname.

We can say that the ancestor of a person with the surname Qu is Xiong, but we cannot say that the ancestor of a person with the surname Xiong is Qu. There is another thing. Strictly speaking, Xiong is not the surname of Chu. The real surname of Chu is Mi, which is Mi Yue's surname in the TV series "The Legend of Mi Yue".

What's going on? It turns out that the ancestor of Chu was named Mi Wanxiong, who was the teacher of King Wen of Zhou, and his descendants were named after him. Later, King Zhou Cheng made Xiong Yi, the great-grandson of Huan Xiong, the King of Chu. From this point of view, the King of Chu's surname is Xiong, and Qu Principle is the surname Mi.

Qu Yuan’s name is not Yuan, but Ping, and his character is Yuan. Qu Yuan's reputation obviously surpassed that of Qu Ping. In ancient times, there was a proper term for calling someone by a character instead of his name. There are many such celebrities, such as the well-known Xiang Yu, Wu Zixu, Tao Yuanming, Meng Haoran, Tang Bohu and others.

Qu Yuan actually had another name. When we read "Li Sao", we will read these two sentences: "The name Yu is Zhengzexi, and the courtesy name is Lingjun."

It seems that Qu Yuan was also named Zhengze and had the courtesy name Lingjun. Why did Qu Yuan have two sets of names and characters? The historians have not yet reached a conclusion. Maybe Qu Shiweng felt lonely and gave himself an extra name to amuse everyone, haha. Who is Qu Yuan's surname? 2

It's the Dragon Boat Festival again, so I will naturally think of Qu Yuan. However, if I ask you what Qu Yuan's surname is, do you know it?

Some people may answer without thinking: My surname is Qu!

Unfortunately, this answer is wrong.

Men are called by their surname but not their surname, and women are called by their surname but not their surname

Qu Yuan: Actually, my surname is Mi

Qu Yuan’s surname is Mi! The once-popular TV series "The Legend of Miyue" has popularized this seemingly strange surname. Qu Yuan was a Duke of Chu, which meant that he had the same surname as the king of Chu, Mi.

The surname Mi has a very early origin. "Historical Records of the Chu Family": "The ancestors of Chu came from Emperor Zhuanxu Gaoyang... (after Gaoyang) Wu Hui gave birth to Lu Zhong. Lu Zhong had six sons, and they were born by caesarean section. The eldest son was Kunwu...the sixth was Jilian. The surname Mi is also the descendant of Chu."

Then, why not call it Miyuan or Miping? This is because in the pre-Qin era, the usage of surnames and surnames was different from today.

Li Lixin, secretary-general of the Henan Surname Culture Research Association, said that totems are the earliest source of surnames. In the early days of matriarchy, lineage was based on the matriline, so all members under the same clan name (i.e., the same totem) came from a matrilineal ancestor and had a close kinship relationship.

With the evolution and progress of society, clan totems have gradually transformed into clan surnames, and this surname represents the title of a clan with the same blood relationship.

The surname appeared relatively late and originated from the patrilineal clan society. It is a branch derived from the surname and is used to distinguish the origin of descendants. It is a title that symbolizes the clan system of ancient nobility.

At that time, the surnames were divided into two, and men were called family names instead of surnames. Therefore, there is no distinction between high and low surnames. The noble ones have surnames, and the lowly ones have names but no surnames. For the nobles in the pre-Qin era, this was still very strict.

Qu was originally a place name, said to be in the Zigui area of ??present-day Hubei Province. During the Spring and Autumn Period, King Wu of Chu named his prince Yu Qu, and his descendants took Qu as their surname. Qu Yuan is the descendant of Wang Zixia, so he can only be called Qu Yuan or Qu Ping, but not Mi Yuan or Mi Ping.

When "The Legend of Mi Yue" was on the air, some people said that the name "Mi Yue" was inaccurate. Mi Yue comes from the Chu clan and is the Xiong family. The correct name should be "Bear Moon".

Is that so? Of course not. The prototype of Mi Yue is Mi Bazi, the Queen Mother Xuan, the mother of King Zhao of Qin, who actually existed in history. "Historical Records" says that Mi Bazi was "a native of Chu before", so his surname was Mi. Surnames are used to distinguish marriages. People with the same surname cannot intermarry. People in the pre-Qin era paid special attention to this.

To marry a woman, you must know her surname, so women call her surname; and because of this, "Mi Yue" cannot be called "Xiong Yue".

According to the etiquette of the Zhou Dynasty, people with the same surname were not allowed to intermarry

Confucius: Duke Zhao lay down with a gun

In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Zhao of Lu did something embarrassing: he married a man from the state of Wu. A lady. Isn’t it normal for a king to marry his wife? This is embarrassing because Lu and Wu are countries with the same surname. According to the Zhou Dynasty etiquette, people with the same surname cannot intermarry.

So this matter makes it difficult for many people. First of all, Duke Zhao of Lu was in a dilemma. What should he call this lady? In the Spring and Autumn Period, the title of the monarch's wife was usually the name of the country where she grew up plus her surname. Therefore, the wife should be called Wu Ji according to the etiquette.

If the word Ji is called out, doesn’t it mean to tell everyone clearly that the king married a woman from a family with the same surname? So in order to conceal his taboo, he had to change his name to "Wu Mencius".

You must know that surnames and surnames were created in different times and under different conditions, and their social functions are also different: surnames are the basis for determining whether intermarriage can occur, that is, people with the same surname cannot marry; surnames are used to distinguish between noble and humble, That is to say, common people do not have surnames, and only nobles have surnames.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying in our country that "men and women with the same surname will not be born together". The general idea is that if close relatives marry, the offspring may not be prosperous.

Zheng Chengzhi, a researcher at the Party School of Zigui County, Yichang City, Hubei Province, took the Qu family and the Xiong family as examples. They both have the same surname of Mi, and the two families have adhered to the custom of not intermarrying for thousands of years.

The "Qu Family Genealogy" compiled during the Republic of China in the south of the Yangtze River in Zigui records a period of about 500 years. There are 1,000 couples of the Qu family in the genealogy. There are only 5 couples with intermarriage between the two surnames Qu and Xiong. On average, every 100 years, every Only 1 out of 200 couples has an intermarriage between Xiong and Qu.

Three Gorges Project immigrants moved out of Zigui, with a population of 1,300 people surnamed Xiong and Qu, 813 households including spouses with different surnames, and only 12 couples were intermarryed.

However, Duke Zhao of Lu knew what he was doing, but he just couldn't say it clearly. Unexpectedly, this incident actually made Confucius also feel guilty.

Confucius traveled around the country and arrived at Chen State. An official in the Chen State, Chen Sibai, asked Confucius: "Does Duke Zhao know etiquette?" Confucius said: "He knows etiquette." After Confucius left, Chen Sibei invited Confucius's student Wu Maqi in and said: "I heard that a gentleman is impartial, can a gentleman be partial too? The girl Zhaogong married from Wu had the same surname as him, so he had to call her Wu Mengzi. If Zhaogong knows etiquette, then who doesn't know etiquette?"

In fact, Confucius knew very well about knowing etiquette but not etiquette. But when others ask him about his monarch, he will never criticize his fault. This is called taboo for a monarch. Wu Maqi told Confucius what Chen Sibai said. Confucius said: "I am so lucky. If I make a mistake, people will know about it."

Later, this incident embarrassed the historian of Lu State. It is said that marrying a wife is a major event and should be recorded in the "Spring and Autumn Annals", just like in the third year of Duke Huan, "Mrs. Jiang's family came to Ziqi".

However, we can no longer see Lu Zhaogong’s marriage to Wu Mencius from the Spring and Autumn Annals. Perhaps the historians did not record it at all.

In the twelfth year of Lu Aigong's reign, Mrs. Zhaogong passed away, and the historian only vaguely recorded: "Mencius died." No surname was written, no wife was called, and no mention of burying the young king.

In the pre-Qin period, men’s names could not be pronounced together, but only their given names.

Duke Zhou: Please don’t call me Ji Dan

Now let’s talk about who has the last name. The surname comes first and the given name comes last. This is a habit that was only formed in the Qin and Han dynasties; however, many people mistakenly believe that pre-Qin surnames and given names can also be called together in this way.

For example, some books say that Zhou Gong Ji Dan and Zhao Gong Ji]. In fact, for men of that era, surnames and given names cannot be used together, but only family names and given names can be used together. The Duke of Zhou was granted the title of Zhou and took the fiefdom as his surname, so it can be called Zhou Gongdan.

Even the famous historians Sima Qian and Liu Zhiji once made such a joke. Zheng Qiao, a historian of the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "Why did Sima Zichang and Liu Zhiji say that Duke Zhou was Ji Dan and King Wen was Ji Bo? There was no such language in the three generations. After three generations of Liang Yu, the surnames were merged into one. Although the son was the elder, , I know several good histories, but I still don’t understand this!”

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the distinction between surnames and surnames gradually disappeared. For example, Qin's surname was Ying, but by the time of Qin Shihuang, it could already be called Ying Zheng; Sima Qian even mixed the surname into one, saying that the great ancestor "surnamed Liu".

However, the phenomenon of "the surnames being combined into one" has no written records at that time. So, when did written records officially mix surnames?

Li Lixin said that according to the textual research of Gu Yanwu's "Rizhilu" during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was Sima Qian, the great historian of the Western Han Dynasty, who mixed the surname with the surname when he wrote "Historical Records". The "Clan" chapter of the book says: "The names of surnames have been mixed into one since Tai Shigong.

"Benji" said that the surname was "Zhao" in the Qin Shihuang, and "Liu" in the Han Dynasty. "Shi'." From then on, either the surname, the family name, or both the surname and the surname have the same meaning.

Finally, how to determine the surname and surname? It's very simple. Taking the Qin and Han Dynasties as the boundary, if we are talking about characters from the pre-Qin period, we should find out what their surnames and surnames are; if we are talking about characters from the Qin, Han and later periods, there is no need to strictly distinguish between surnames.

Logically speaking, this is not a very high requirement. Unfortunately, many works nowadays cannot meet it, and even reference books such as "Cihai" make mistakes. For example, the "Chinese Historical Chronology" in the appendix of "Cihai" still calls King Wu of Zhou as Ji Fa and King Cheng of Zhou as Ji Song.