The origin of Surname
Surname is the relationship of blood-line. Written records said: [Surname, created by mankind. Because of its creation, it had become the surname. To follow the female]. Zuo Zhuan ( 左 传) Lu Yin Gong ( 鲁 隐 公) 8th year recorded: [The King exercised kindness because of the birth she was given the land which had been blessed and named it under her surname].
Because of the relationship between her and the land, her surname was placed on top and the name below. The surname and the name combined became the surname and the name. Three years prior to this, there was a difference between the surname and the name. The surname was used to differentiate marriage and the name for prosperity and kindness.
Since the abolishment of feudal system ( 封 建 制 度) by Qin, the application of surname and name had since been combined into one. Then everybody was using the name as surname. On the question of official name, it was at time mixed together to make it as the mark of official identity.
In actual fact, there are two different meanings. Jun ( 郡) meant the name of the Regional Administrative Centre during the Qin Han era. Official name was the name of the place where their ancestors started to prosper. Name of identity was when people of different surname shifted to another place and the name of the place where majority of the people lived.
Each and every group felt that their identity would be carried on for long time. So, they put the identity surname ( 堂 号) on top of their names to signify they did not forget their roots.
The source of our Tan Surname, there are five different explanations as recorded in our official documents: (1) Surname Ji (齐), (2) Surname YING ( 赢), (3) Surname Zi (子) , (4) Surname Si (姒), (5) After Peng Hu ( 盘 瓠), apart from (1), (2), (3), the explanation had been mentioned in detail in the Investigations of the Tan Series. We now explain separately items (4) and (5): (4) Surname Si ( 姒) – recorded in the ten thousand surname list.
The Su Ping Zhong ( 苏 平 仲) in Ming remarked on the Tan Ancestral Record: [Originally, Tan was surname Si, a Viscount. Their distributed land is situated between the present Ji Nan and Li City. It was actually the attachment of Ji. During the Chun Qiu 39 year, 14th year of King Zhou Zhuang, 10th year of Lu Zhuang Gong, it was destroyed by Ji Huan Gong.
Eventually Tan escaped to Ju. Since Tan was destroyed by Ji, the descendants started using the name of the Kingdom as their surname.] And in the [Huang Di Thousand Family Names] written by Chen Ren De ( 陈 仁 德) from Tai Nan ( 台 南): Tan, surname Si, after Xia Hou Shi ( 夏 後 氏), and after Peng Hu, pronounced as Tan ( 谈), identity Ji Jun.
Recently, in the 3rd series of [We were a big family 500 years ago] written by Peng Kwai Fang ( 彭 桂 芳) The family name of the Tan in Hu Nan was very outstanding. This signified the remarks by Su Ping Zhong of Ming, originally the Surname of Tan was Si, the descendants of Xi Yu ( 夏 禹).
(5) There are three versions mentioned after Peng Hu :-
(1) Ji Jiu Zhang ( 急 就 章) recorded: there was this Tan Ping Ding during the Han, they were families with Surname Tan in Ba Nan (巴 南), descendants of Peng Hu.
(2) Collective Ten Thousand Surname: the big surname in Ba Nan was the Tan. After Peng Hu, their name went outside Hong Nong.
(3) “The Yan Huang Shi Ti blood line and land connection” written by Zhang Shao Xi ( 张 绍 熙) of Taiwan:
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