Author: Zhang Dongxiao
(Eight-meter-tall white jade statue of The Ancestor of Zhang)
Throughout the ages, among the hundred family names, Zhang Wang, Li Zhao, and Li Zhao had four surnames, and the Zhang surname was the first.
Li founded the Tang Empire, one of the most powerful empires in human history. The Zhao surname founded the Great Song Dynasty, which was slightly inferior to the Tang Empire in martial arts, but Wenzhi was superior to it, so that future generations worshiped it to this day.
Wang's surname was wang mang's new dynasty reform, the late Sui dynasty Wang Shichong was called emperor, the late Tang dynasty Wang Zhizhi, Wang Zhenzhi, and so on also established a divided regime; the five dynasties of Wang Jian established the Shu state in Chengdu, dominating one side; Wang Jianyi founded the state of Goryeo and ruled the Korean Peninsula for more than three hundred years; during the two Jin Dynasties, although the Wang clan was not an imperial family, "the king and the horse, the world", its power can be seen.
Compared to this, only the surname Of Zhang is slightly dim. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Zhang Rail occupied Liangzhou and established Former Liang, but the inheritance was not more than a hundred years, and the area was too small, and it was difficult to regard it as the representative of Emperor Zhang. Zhang Shicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the like, although they have the name of the emperor, they are actually liukou.
But why can Zhang, who has never been a serious emperor, be the first of the four surnames?
(Zhang surname Totem)
(1) The Surname Zhang has many origins and flourishes
Unlike the Zhao surname and the Li surname inherited from the Ying surname (the Li Tang Dynasty is inextricably linked to the Qin Dynasty), and the Wang surname is derived from the Ji surname, the origin of the Zhang surname is relatively more diversified.
One of the sources: from Zhang Hui, the grandson of the Yellow Emperor. Legend has it that the grandson of the Yellow Emperor invented the bow and arrow and took it as his surname, so "Zhang" means "Zhang bow and arrow". And because Zhang Waving was named Qingyangzi, his Zhang surname was mainly Qingyang. Qingyang, in today's Qinghe area, so in history there is also a saying that "the surname of Zhang in the world is out of Qinghe".
The second source: it originated from the change of his surname, and there were many.
The history books record that during the Three Kingdoms period, the famous general Zhang Liao of the State of Wei had the ancestral surname of Nie, and in order to avoid the enemy family, Fang changed his surname to Zhang. Zhang Liao was a Confucian general under Cao Cao's account, xiaoyaojin, famous in the world, many descendants, branches and leaves, for the zhang clan's first surname to make an immortal contribution.
(Zhang Liao)
Source Three: During the period of great ethnic integration, the ordinary Zhang surname became the first choice for ethnic minority descendants to integrate into the Han ethnic group.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, various minority (nomadic) ethnic groups such as the Khitan and Xianbei rose one after another, with many regimes and frequent wars. With the unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties, many ethnic groups gradually withered away. In order to learn Han culture or to escape the chaos of war, their descendants poured into the Central Plains, gradually merged with the Han people, and adopted the Zhang surname for the convenience of life, adding fresh strength to the Zhang surname.
The reason why they chose the surname Of Zhang was nothing more than two points: the original number of people surnamed Zhang was large, which was convenient for warming up in groups and easy to gain the trust of the surrounding residents. After all, the surname Zhang is ordinary, not a national surname; the national surname cannot be changed randomly, and it is easy to be valued by those in power and bring misfortune.
Source 4: When Zhuge Liang passed through the southwest, he gave the local aboriginal name Zhang.
The granting of surnames is not uncommon in history. Famous ones are zheng he, the grand eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Chenggong, the grandfather of the country, both of whom were given surnames by the Zhu family emperor. The surname of Zhang is mainly related to Zhuge Liang, who assisted Liu Bei in the southwest, opened up the land and expanded the land, and in order to facilitate management, he gave the local indigenous people the surname of Zhang, adding another big vein to the Zhang clan.
In addition, the history books also have records that the surname Zhang originated from the Yellow Emperor Ji surname, the Gu Xi clan, and so on. In any case, these show that the origin of the Zhang surname is very diverse.
Only the source of living water comes. The small rivers merge into the sea, and no two "Zhang" characters can be written in a single stroke, and it is these countless tributaries that have achieved the first major surname in history.
(2) Zhang surname has many prime ministers and strong fertility
There are few emperors surnamed Zhang, but there are many prime ministers, and there are many names.
According to incomplete statistics, there were more than 500 prime ministers surnamed Zhang in history, the first of the world's surnames. It is the so-called one heavenly son and one courtier, but there are many sons of heaven and many ministers!
Zhang Liang, the Marquis of the Third Jieliu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang's large army division, won thousands of miles away, strategized in the drapery, and made an immortal contribution to the Great Han Dynasty. It was believed that Xiang Yu's defeat was first defeated by Han Xin, and the second defeated by Zhang Liang, and even worse.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions and opened the Silk Road, which took an important step for human cultural exchanges, and our current Belt and Road initiative is also following his footsteps.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were more prime ministers surnamed Zhang. Zhang Jiuling, the famous minister, not only has remarkable political achievements, but also writes poetry first-class, and the sentence "The sea is born of the bright moon, and the end of the world is at this time" has been passed down through the ages. The famous minister Zhang said that he had worshipped the prime minister three times, and the prime minister could hold a boat in his belly, which was not false. The famous minister Zhang Kamzhi forced Wu Zetian to return to Li, and he had the merit of recreating Li Tangjiangshan.
(Zhang Yi)
Zhang Xian of the Northern Song Dynasty was known as the Prime Minister of Taiping, and his writing was also first-class. The moon breaks the moon and flowers make shadows, and praises good sentences for generations. In the Southern Song Dynasty, zhang jun, after Zhang Liang, the marquis of Nailiu, commanded an army against Jin. In the end, although it failed, it was also a momentary masterpiece.
Zhang Juzheng, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty University, entered the cabinet to worship the Wanli Emperor when he was in the cabinet and assisted the Wanli Emperor in carrying out reforms, and was an outstanding political reformer in The history of our country.
Is there more prime minister, more people? Oh, many of them are Taiping Prime Ministers, their own longevity, and super fertility.
Zhang Xiandu was more than eighty years old, and he still took a concubine, and even gave birth to several sons. Su Dongpo's famous poem "Eighteen brides eighty langs, pale hair against red makeup." Mandarin ducks are stacked into the night, a tree of pear blossoms press begonias" is talking about Zhang Xian.
Zhang Jun's father, Zhang Xian, was even more powerful. He himself gave birth to eleven sons, as well as many nephews, and worked hard for the Formation of the Mianzhu Zhang clan of the Song Dynasty that has continued to this day.
Although Zhang Tang of the Western Han Dynasty was known as a cool official, he was actually a clean official, and he had two sons and three grandchildren, and then directly formed the Zhang clan of Jingzhao Province. Now the Northwest Zhang clan is basically related to him.
(Zhang Liang)
(3) There are many cultural people surnamed Zhang
Poetry has been passed down from generation to generation for a long time. The surname Zhang is very prominent in the cultural field.
Zhang Heng in the Han Dynasty was the "child who counted the stars" in the language textbook, engaged in armillary celestial instruments and ground movement instruments, and was known as "Kesheng".
Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor, a "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", laid the theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine, is a classic of Chinese medicine, and is still a must-read textbook for medical students.
Cao Sheng Zhang Xu, dragon flying phoenix dance, out of the gods, its words and "Li Bai's poems, Gongsun Da Niang sword instrument dance" and called "three absolute".
The Northern Song Dynasty great Confucian Zhang Zai was even more cattle, and the sentence "Establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for all the people, and continue to learn for the saints" shocked the ancient and modern.
Ming Dynasty Zhang Dai, prose everyone, essays alone in the literary world. His famous saying, "Man has no fetish and cannot have intercourse, but he has no affection; man cannot have intercourse without fetish, and he has no true qi", seeing through the world, in a word.
In addition, Zhang Jiuling, Zhang Zhihe, Zhang Ji, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Xian, Zhang Xiaoxiang, Zhang Weiping (a great poet of the Qing Dynasty), as well as Zhang Hexhui, Zhang Ailing, Zhang Zhongxing, etc. are all outstanding representatives of the cultural people surnamed Zhang.
Cultural people talk about cultivation, reading, and integrity, but also talk about inheritance. In ancient times, they were also easy to become officials, which could create more convenient conditions for the continuation of future generations, after all, officials were far more energetic and endurance than ordinary people in terms of survival! And because the poetry book is passed down from generation to generation, the continuation of the family is also clearer and will not be interrupted. This is an important reason why the Surname Zhang is widely spread.
In addition to the above three reasons, I personally believe that there is another factor that cannot be ignored: the surname Zhang is not a national surname, and it is rarely slaughtered.
History is not as easy as we write, sometimes it is very cruel. After Li Tang became a state, the descendants of Yang Guang, the Sui Emperor, were swept away. After the change of Xuanwu Gate, Li Shimin did not show the slightest mercy after Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji. When Wu Zetian came to power, li's descendants were almost slaughtered. Ai Xinjue Luoshi also never gave up the pursuit of Zhu surname.
(Zhang Ailing)
Wildfires burn endlessly, and spring winds blow again. Cut the grass and remove the roots, always.
Isn't that emperor's hat all bloody?!
Therefore, in a sense, the emperor of the Eight Classics of The Eight Classics of The Zhang surname did not appear, but was the blessing of the Zhang surname.
The surname Zhang, this ancient surname, is precisely because of the diversification of origins, the strong fertility of the prime minister, the heirloom of poetry and books, and "there has never been a serious emperor" that it has been able to force Wang, Li, and Zhao to become the first surname in ancient times.
No matter what the surname is, we must cherish a peaceful life, and we are glad to be born in a peaceful country.
Love surname culture, love Chinese culture, love our country, is to remember.
(May 10, 2019)
【About the author】Zhang Dongxiao, male, born in 1983 in Zhumadian, Henan, now lives in Beijing. I like to read, like to dance and ink, and like to meet friends with literature.
Tips: If you like this article, please forward and comment.