At the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the loosening of the Qing Dynasty's closed policy, the phenomenon of mixed Han and Mongolian people gradually increased, and in order to facilitate communication and exchange, a large number of Mongolians began to choose Han surnames. In the Republic of China period, because the government required Mongolians to use Han surname registration, and children in school must also have Han surname names, a large number of Mongolians began to use Chinese names.
The Mongolian Iron Horse that once swept the world
Yun was one of the Han surnames chosen by the Mongols at that time. In the vast inner Mongolia region, there are individual ethnic groups with yun as the surname, but specific to Mongolia, the Mongolian region that uses the yun surname the most is the Inner Mongolia Tumut Left Banner. For example, Ulanfu, the founding general of the country and born in Tumut Zuoqi Tabu Village in Inner Mongolia, was born in a Yun family in Tumut, and in the revolutionary work, he also used Chinese names such as Yunze and Yunyushi.
So, was the Yun surname a nobleman of the Mongol tribes during the feudal society period?
We first have to know which branch of the Yun clan comes from. When Tumut Mongolian changed its Surname to Han, the Mongols only had the Jin clan, and a considerable number of people chose Yun as their surname. As we all know, Bo'er Only Jin is the surname of Genghis Khan, that is to say, Bo'er Only Jin is the surname of the Golden Family. Then it is obvious that a considerable part of the Tumut Left Banner Yun Clan is a descendant of the Bo'er Only Jin Clan, that is, the Golden Family. Then it is reasonable, this part of the Yun clan can naturally be regarded as the descendants of the nobility.
Map of Inner Mongolia
However, at that time, Mongolia changed the Han surname, not a tribal surname was changed to a surname, nor did different tribes choose different surnames, for example, the Golden Family's Bo'er only Jin, did not choose only the Yun surname, in addition to the Yun surname, Tumut's Bo'er only Jin also chose Bai, Bu, Jing, Huang, Jin and other Han surnames as surnames, "Yun" is only one of the many Han surnames chosen by the Bo'er Only Jin clan.
At the same time, other tribes in Mongolia may have chosen Yun as their surname. For example, during the Ming Dynasty, yongshebubu, one of the 30,000 households in right-wing Mongolia, has a considerable number of people whose descendants now choose Yun as their surname. At the same time, before liberation, there was still a large number of feudal slavery in Mongolia, these slaves enslaved by the Mongolian nobles, neither personal freedom nor their own Mongolian surnames, when these people were liberated, they also chose different Han surnames, because these people have no culture, they choose the Han surname is very arbitrary, yun surname is also one of the Han surnames they chose.
Mongol cavalry
In addition, the descendants of the Duke of Yunguo, who had been pardoned by the Yuan Dynasty, migrated to live in the Tumut area after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, and this part of the people also took Yun as a surname to commemorate the titles of their ancestors, and this part of the people, of course, can also be counted as the descendants of the nobility.
Of course, there are also some ordinary Mongolians who choose Han surnames, because they do not know the Han surname, there is no goal to choose, and they do not care which Han surname they choose, so many people follow the current and follow the Bo'er only Jin clan to choose Yun as a surname.
A nation on horseback
However, it does not make much sense to consider whether they are aristocratic, even if some of the commoners and slaves with the surname Yun are traced upwards, their ancestors may not be Mongolian nobles. Because, as the tribes decayed or the war failed to lead to captivity, it was also very normal for nobles to eventually become commoners or slaves, and it was also an important source of Mongol civilians and slaves.
What's more, in today's modern society where everyone is equal, the glory of the ancestors is only the glory that has passed away, and as a member of the Chinese nation, looking forward is the most important.