How to read Chinese names and surnames correctly. Chinese given names and surnames

Entertaining onomastics

The program "Russian Dynasties" along with the main activity - genealogical research - is also engaged in onomastic research. Onomastics, as you know, is the science of the origin of names. Most often, people with some mysterious surname turn to us, although many do not assume that the language can tell a lot of unusual things about the seemingly simplest family name, and once the attention shown to the linguistic secrets of our everyday environment opens the world with a new side...

CHINESE PERSONAL NAMES

Zhou Ashlai… Mei Lanfang… Guo Moruo… Mao Dun… Sima Qian… All these exotic-sounding names for a Russian person belong to the Chinese, the most numerous nation on the globe, possessing one of the most ancient cultures.

At present, when cultural and economic ties between the USSR and the People's Republic of China are rapidly developing, the models of socio-political and economic development of our countries are increasingly being compared, the flow of information about our neighbor is increasing literally every day. Employees of scientific and technical information centers, publishing houses, libraries, as well as all those who are interested in Chinese culture, experience considerable difficulties when faced with Chinese proper names, in particular with Chinese personal names. Let us dwell on some features of the modern system of personal names among the Chinese and on some of the anthroponymic traditions that gave rise to it.

family names

Personal names, anthroponyms, which are perceived by us as an inseparable whole, consist of a surname, most often formed from the individual name of the grandfather, or from the name of the craft, occupation, position, from his place of residence and name. Moreover, the surname among the Chinese takes a steady first place not only in the official name of use, but also on the title page of the book and in everyday life (unlike Russian or English anthroponyms, in which both components are easily interchanged). When publishing the works of Chinese authors in European languages, there is a practice of rearranging the name in the first place according to the model of the national name of use. For example, instead of Li Dazhao - Dazhao Li.

The surname, as a rule, is written in one hieroglyph, which is a single syllable when written in Russian or Latin transcription. So, the surname of the famous politician Deng Xiaoping is Deng, the artist Mei Lanfang is Mei, and the writer Wang Mei is Wang. The repertoire of Chinese surnames is small. The most common are such as Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao and Liu. Therefore, earlier, to specify the surname, the name of the county - the author's homeland - was put on the books. Two-syllable surnames, i.e. those that are written in two hieroglyphic characters and transcribed in two words are rare. For example, the historian Sima Qian had the two-syllable surname Sima.

individual names

An individual name is written in one or two hieroglyphic characters, i.e. is a single-syllable or two-syllable spelled together in transcriptional spelling. The repertoire of Chinese names is theoretically unlimited, as there are no canonized lists of names. Any word or phrase can be chosen as an individual name. However, in the practice of naming, great importance is attached to traditions. The name should not only be harmonious, but also have a certain semantic meaning.

For example, the name of the writer Mao Dun - Dun in translation means "warrior's shield"; the name of the female doctor Shen Hong - Hong means "rainbow", the name of the famous politician Zhou Enlai - Enlai means "who came with good." It is clear that the etymology of most individual names is associated with well-wishing or with a traditional artistic image.

Women's names

The female personal names of the Chinese do not contain formal features to distinguish them from male ones. In modern directories of Chinese names or in texts containing a list of names, a designation indicating belonging to the female gender is usually used after the female name. Among the lexical features that make it possible to distinguish a female name from a male one are the following. In the personal names of men, words are traditionally used indicating such qualities as courage, valor, fidelity to duty, and in the names of women - the names of flowers, precious stones, butterflies, epithets associated with the assertion of female virtues, or exquisite poetic images. In modern names, these features are often leveled. So, the name of the poetess Li Qingzhao means "pure light"; Ma Zhenghong is an example of a name that has a political connotation and does not contain signs to distinguish it from a male (Zhenghong is red politics). In modern China, women retain their maiden name after marriage, unlike in the past when they added it to their husband's surname.

Anthroponymic traditions

To understand the modern system of Chinese personal names, one should turn to its history, anthroponymic traditions associated with various aspects of national culture. Naming has long been given great importance. This is evidenced, in particular, by the custom of using several names for one person. According to tradition, the parents called the child the so-called baby name, then at school the teachers gave him a new one, and, finally, upon reaching adulthood, he himself chose an adult name for himself, i.e. official.

This name in Chinese terminology was called "ming". The second official name or names ("zi") were given to him by friends in the service or relatives, or again he chose him or them himself. These last names were sometimes changed several times during life. In addition, after death, the Chinese received a posthumous name, which appeared on the wooden tablets of ancestors exhibited on home altars or in Chinese temples. It, as it were, summed up the life path and contained an assessment of his relatives or contemporaries.

Sacrificial vessels were placed in front of the tablet with a posthumous name and prayers were made, as the Chinese believed in the connection of "qi" (bioenergetic substance) of ancestors and descendants. In Chinese biographical directories, all three forms of names are usually indicated: "ming", "zi" and posthumous. They are currently out of use. Another feature of naming in China is related to the etymological significance of the name. Most often, it reflected the wish for longevity, wealth, a successful career, family happiness (numerous sons or filial piety), as well as the affirmation of moral values. Often, a wish was conveyed with the help of stable symbols, which were used as the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena, signs of the traditional calendar cycle. The etymological significance of the name turns it into a mirror of the era, socio-political and ethnic culture of China and at the same time into a means of artistic expression. In the meanings of past and modern names, traces of disappeared philosophical and religious customs and ethnic ideas, national customs, rituals, details of everyday life, etc. are often preserved.

Here are some examples of traditional naming. As is known from the biography of the artist Qi Baishi, his childhood name was Erzhi (longevity fungus), the school name given by the teacher was Huang (jade ornament in the form of a half-disk), another name also given by the teacher was Baishi (White Stone - that was the name post office nearby). This last artist chose as an adult name. It was he who carved it on the seals that replaced the signatures in the artist's paintings. The "ming" name of the poet Du Fu was Fu (abundance), and his middle name was Zimei (son of the beautiful). Let us dwell on one of the customs in the field of naming, which has been preserved in China to the present day. Its meaning is that in the names of brothers and sisters of the same generation, the same hieroglyphic sign or graphic element is used, which act as a determinant of kinship (the “paykhan” custom). As an example, we can cite the names of several brothers with the surname of Liu: Chunguang (spring light), Chunshu (spring tree), Chunlin (spring forest), Chunxi (spring joy). Of particular note are the names of writers and other representatives of creative professions. Firstly, they are characterized by a special sophistication of images, sometimes reaching eccentricity.

In addition, representatives of creative professions are characterized by the presence of pseudonyms. The famous Chinese writer Lu Xun had, for example, about 100 of them. Sometimes pseudonyms included the names of the writer's native places or places of his residence at a given time, or were the name of the writer's studio, office, "abode", expressed in poetic form.

Sometimes fictitious names were the life credo or motto of the author, expressed in the form of an aphorism. Pseudonyms were usually used on personal seals, which can be seen on Chinese books and paintings. It is known that personal seals with pseudonyms carved on them had a utilitarian purpose, replacing the author's signature, and at the same time were an integral part of the artistic composition of a picture or an artistic detail of a book's design.

For example, the “ming” name of the poet Su Shi was Shi (the name of the ritual bow), the second name was Zhan (looking up, i.e. with reverence), the posthumous name was Wenzhong (devoted to literature).

The polysemanticism of Chinese hieroglyphic characters in the presence of a minimal context makes it possible to interpret the meaning of the name in different ways. Sometimes the obsolete lexical meaning of the hieroglyphic sign is used in the name. Often, writers used pseudonyms to hide their real names, since writing works of the so-called "low genres" (novels, dramas, etc.) was considered an occupation unworthy of a "learned man." For example, the author of the famous Chinese novel "Flowers in a Golden Vase", the second edition of which was recently published in Russian translation, is known only under the pseudonym Lanling mocker (Lanling xiaoxiaosheng).

Next, I would like to briefly dwell on the names of Chinese emperors, which are a phenomenon of Chinese anthroponymy. The fact is that the personal names of emperors who were deified during their reign or the reign of the entire dynasty were subject to taboo. Their use orally or in writing was punishable by law up to the death penalty. Instead of the name of the emperor, the motto of his reign was usually used, and after death, the temple or posthumous name. Moreover, the motto of the board could change during the life of the emperor, and was also carved on his personal seals. The custom of tabooing the personal names of emperors gave rise to the following curiosity. If in the title or text of the book there were hieroglyphs that coincided with the hieroglyph, which was used to write down the personal name of the emperor, then they were replaced by other signs that were close in meaning, or the outline of these hieroglyphs was deliberately distorted (for example, the hieroglyphic sign was written without the last line). This helps book attribution. For example, a treatise on the game of weiqi (draughtsmen) called "Xuan xuan qingjing" ("Secret treatise on the game of weiqi") during the reign of Emperor Kangxi was published under the title "Yuan yuan qijing" ("Original treatise on the game of weiqi"). ), since the first two hieroglyphs of the name (“Xuan xuan”) coincided with the hieroglyph that is part of the personal name of the Kangxi emperor - Xuanye, and therefore were subject to taboo. This makes it possible to determine the approximate years of cutting of the boards for this edition.

Transcription of personal names

In printed publications published in Russian or one of the Western European languages, the personal names of the Chinese are transmitted using either Russian transcription or the Chinese phonetic alphabet (pinyin), created on the Latin basis. In early 1979, the UNESCO International Organization for Standardization ISO developed recommendations for publishing houses and bibliographic institutions to change the transcription of Chinese proper names in general and Chinese personal names in particular. These recommendations are as follows: change to a continuous spelling of a two-syllable Chinese name; the use of Chinese phonetic writing as a generally accepted standard for the transcription of Chinese proper names, including proper names. The recommendations were accepted at the suggestion of Chinese representatives in this international organization in order to unify the transcription of Chinese proper names. At present, the continuous spelling of Chinese two-syllable names is accepted when they are transmitted using Russian or Latin transcription.

For example, Guo Moruo instead of Guo Mo-ruo; Deng Xiaoping instead of Deng Xiao-ping. When performing a bibliographic search and when clarifying the bibliographic data of a book or article by a Chinese author, one should take into account the difference in the spelling of Chinese names in editions published before the early 1980s and in modern editions. In accordance with the ISO recommendations, in bibliographic publications published in our country, the Chinese phonetic alphabet has been adopted as the transcription standard instead of the previously used Russian transcription. The Chinese phonetic alphabet based on the Latin (Pinyin) has existed in China since 1958. It is used for the transcription of hieroglyphs in order to spread the unified (supra-dialect) orthoepic norm of the national language (Putonghua).

However, Russian transcription continues to be used in book and article indexes of literature, as well as in catalog descriptions. The transcription of hieroglyphic characters used in the "Big Chinese-Russian Dictionary" edited by I.M. Oshanin (M., 1984) is taken as a single norm of Russian transcription. In bibliographic publications published abroad, Chinese phonetic writing is also used. The same type of transcription is also used in reference books and book indexes, and in bibliographic descriptions compiled for library catalogs. Due to changes in the form of transcription and the lack of a single form of transcription in our country, the bibliographer often finds himself in a difficult situation. In these cases, it is difficult to do without comparative tables or the advice of a specialist who knows Chinese.

Proper names in Chinese.

1. National traditions of anthroponymy.

The modern system of Chinese personal names, anthroponyms, is rooted in ancient national culture.

The fact that the name in ancient China was given great importance is evidenced by the preserved custom of using several names for one person:

- baby name(given by parents);

- new name(the name is given during the school period);

- adult, legal name(a person takes his own name on reaching the age of majority). The adult name could change by its carrier during life.

- posthumous name(the name is imprinted on the wooden tablets of the ancestors, exhibited on home altars or in Chinese temples. The name sums up the life path and contains an assessment of the person's actions by his relatives or contemporaries).

2. Etymological significance of the name.

One of the features of naming in China is related to the etymology of the name. The name reflected the wishes of longevity, wealth, a successful career, family happiness, and the affirmation of moral values.

Allegories could be the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena, signs of the traditional calendar cycle.

The etymological significance of the name reflects the ethnic, social culture of China, being at the same time a means of artistic expression.

In the meanings of ancient and modern names, traces of disappeared religious and national customs, rituals, ethnic ideas, details of everyday life are often preserved.

Personal anthroponyms, perceived by ear as a whole, consist of a surname, most often formed from:

An ancestor's individual name,

From the name of the craft, occupation, position,

from his place of residence.

Traditional name example:

artist Qi Baishi.

Baby name - Erzhi (longevity fungus),

The school name given by the teacher is Huang (half-disk jade decoration),

Another name also given by the teacher is Baishi (White Stone was the name of the post station nearby).

The artist chose the name "Baishi" (White Stone) as an adult name. He carved it on the seals that replaced the signatures on the artist's paintings.

3. Use of identical hieroglyphic characters.

One of the customs that has been preserved in China to this day is to give the names of brothers and sisters of the same generation the same hieroglyphic sign or graphic element, which acts as a defining sign of kinship (the "payhan" custom).

Name example:

the names of several brothers with the surname Liu:

Chunguang (spring light)

Chunshu (spring tree)

Chunlin (spring forest)

Chunxi (spring joy).

4. Hao (pseudonym).

Hao (Chinese tr.: 號 ; ex. whale.: 号 ; pinyin: hào).

The most frequent structure:

Three hieroglyphs;

Four hieroglyphs.

One of the reasons for the appearance of "hao" is the fact that many people have the same middle names.

There was no connection between "Hao" and the name.

Alias ​​selection:

Embodies the hint;

Contains a rare hieroglyph,

The names of writers and other representatives of creative professions tend to:

Refinement of images;

Aliases.

The Chinese writer Lu Xun had about 100 pseudonyms in his set.

In some cases, pseudonyms were contained in a capacious figurative form:

Own names of the native places of the writer;

Name of the place of residence at the present time;

The name of the studio, office, "abode" of the writer, expressed in poetic form;

Alias ​​example:

the poet Su Shi - Dongpo Jiushi ("Residence Dongpo" - On the eastern slope) - the residence that he built while in exile. Authors often used their pseudonyms in the titles of collections of their work.

Pseudonyms in most cases were used on personal seals imprinted on Chinese books and paintings. Personal seals with pseudonyms carved on them replaced the author's signature, being at the same time an integral part of the artistic composition of a picture or an artistic detail of a book's design.

One of the goals of using a creative pseudonym was to compose works of the so-called "low genres" (novels, dramas, etc.), which was previously considered an occupation unworthy of a "learned man".

5. Polysemy of Chinese characters.

The ambiguity of Chinese characters against the background of a minimal context provides a wide range of interpretation of the meaning of the name.

A reflection of the ancient tradition is the obsolete lexical meaning of the hieroglyph.

6. Names of Chinese emperors.

The personal names of the deified emperors were subject to taboo during their reign or during the reign of the entire dynasty.

Their use orally or in writing was punishable by law up to the death penalty.

Instead of the name of the emperor, the motto of his reign was usually used, and after death, the posthumous name.

The motto of the board could change during the life of the emperor.

The custom of tabooing the personal names of emperors created an anthroponymic feature:

if in the title or text of the book there were hieroglyphs that coincided with the hieroglyph, which was used to write down the personal name of the emperor, then they were replaced by other signs that were close in meaning, or the outline of these hieroglyphs was deliberately distorted (for example, the hieroglyphic sign was written without the last line).

For example, a treatise on the game of weiqi (draft checkers) called "Xuan xuan qingjing" ("Secret treatise on the game of weiqi") during the reign of Emperor Kangxi was published under the title "Yuan yuan qijing" ("Original treatise on the game of weiqi"). ), since the first two hieroglyphs of the name ("Xuan xuan") coincided with the hieroglyph that is part of the personal name of the Kangxi emperor - Xuanye, and therefore were subject to taboo.

7. Transcription of personal Chinese names.

Chinese personal names are transmitted by means of:

Russian transcription,

Chinese phonetic alphabet (pinyin), created on the Latin basis.

In Russian, a space is usually placed between the Chinese surname and given name:

Last name First name. The name is spelled out.

In old sources, Chinese names were written with a hyphen (Feng Yu-hsiang), but later the continuous spelling became accepted. (correctly - Feng Yuxiang).

At present, the continuous spelling of Chinese two-syllable names is accepted when they are transmitted using Russian or Latin transcription.

Examples of transcription of two-syllable names:

Guo Moruo instead of Guo Mo-ruo;

Deng Xiaoping instead of Deng Xiao-ping.

8. Surname in the Chinese language mentality.

In a Chinese full name, the family name comes first, followed by the personal name.

The Chinese naming system is the basis of all traditional ways of naming in East Asia. Most East Asian countries follow the Chinese name tradition.

The surname in the linguistic mentality of the people of China occupies a stable first place not only in the official use of the name, but also on the title page of the book and in everyday life.

The surname, as a rule, is written in one single-syllable hieroglyph when written in Russian or Latin transcription.

Previously, to specify the surname, the name of the county - the author's homeland - was put on the books. Two-syllable surnames, written in two hieroglyphic characters, with transcription in two words, are rare. For example, the historian Sima Qian had the two-syllable surname Sima.

Number of Chinese surnames: more than 700 different surnames.

The number of the most frequent surnames: Approximately 20 surnames are used by most of the Chinese population.

The diversity of given names in Chinese is provided by the range of personal names rather than family names. Most of the Chinese surnames are written with one character, a smaller part - with two.

The most common Chinese surnames are:

Lee (Chinese trad. 李 , pinyin: Lǐ),

Wang (Chinese trad. 王 , pinyin: Wang),

Zhang (Chinese trad. 張 , ex. 张 , pinyin: Zhang)

The most common Chinese surname in the world: Zhang.

According to statistics collected in China in the early 2000s, the number of people with the surname Zhang is more than 100 million.

Common Chinese surnames (late 1990s statistics):

Approximately 40% of the population: Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, Chen, Yang, Wu, Liu, Huang and Zhou.

Approximately 10% of the population: Xu, Zhu, Lin, Sun, Ma, Gao, Hu, Zheng, Guo and Xiao.

Less than 10% of the population: Xie, He, Xu, Shen, Luo, Han, Deng, Liang and Ye.

Less than 30% of the population : Mao, Jiang, Bai, Wen, Guan, Liao, Miao, Chi.

Approximately 70% of the inhabitants of China have one of the listed surnames.

8.1. The history of the concept of "surname" in China.

The concept of a surname in China acquired its form in the era of the Three Emperors and Five Kings - a period when the history of the family was calculated exclusively along the maternal line. Before the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou (2140-256 BC), people in China already had surnames (Xing) and "Clan name" (Shi). If the surnames came from the name of the native village or family, then the "Clan Name" was formed from the name of the territory or title received as a gift from the emperor, sometimes even posthumously.

The presence of the "Clan Name" spoke of a certain social status of its owner.

The tradition continued for 800 years until 627 AD, when a government official, Gao Silian, did some kind of census and calculated that the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire managed with only 593 surnames. After the census, Gao Silian published the Annals of Surnames, which became the most important bureaucratic tool for selecting qualified personnel for government positions and for drafting marriage contracts.

The book "Surnames of a Hundred Families", created in 960, had a high popularity in ancient China. The book contained records of 438 surnames, of which 408 are single-word surnames; 30 surnames - out of two.

9. Name in the Chinese language mentality.

The most frequent structure of the name of the inhabitants of China:

One syllable;

Two syllables.

The first name is written after the last name.

In modern China, there is a rule according to which the name of a resident of China must have a translation into Putonghua.

In previous years, the inhabitants of China throughout their lives had several names:

- in childhood- "milk", or baby name (xiao-ming, Chinese ex. 小名 , pinyin: xiǎo míng),

- in adult years- official name (min, Chinese ex. 名 , pinyin: míng), employees among relatives had a middle name (zi, Chinese ex. 字 , pinyin: zì), some also took a pseudonym (hao, Chinese ex. 号 , pinyin: hào).

By the mid-1980s, it had become common for adults to have only one official name, min. "Milk" names in childhood were still common.

Name Example: Li Zhenfan (Bruce Lee) had the childhood name of Li Xiaolong (Li Little Dragon), the name he was known by in his short adult years.

The range of Chinese names is theoretically unlimited due to the lack of a strictly defined list of names. Any word or phrase can be chosen as an individual name. The only thing that limits the creative range in creating a name is tribal traditions, which are given great importance when creating a name.

Name requirements:

Connection with the traditions of the family;

Euphony;

Name examples:

Mao Dun. (Dun - "warrior's shield"). Profession: Writer.

Shen Hong. (Hong - "rainbow"). Profession: Doctor.

The etymology of most individual names is associated with a wish for good or with a traditional artistic image.

9.1. Women's names.

Women's personal names in the Chinese tradition do not contain formal signs of difference from men's. To distinguish between the gender of the owners of names, after the female name, a designation is usually used, indicating belonging to the female gender.

Lexical signs of the difference between a female name and a male one:

In the personal names of men, words are traditionally used that indicate qualities: courage, valor, fidelity to duty;

In the personal names of women, the names of flowers, precious stones, butterflies, epithets of female virtues, and exquisite poetic images are traditionally expressed.

In modern names, the figurative border of a distinct delimitation of the sexes is erased.

Name example:

Li Qingzhao - "pure light" (profession: poetess);

Ma Zhenghong - (Zhenghong) "red policy". A female name that is indistinguishable from a male.

In ancient China, after marriage, women added their surname to the surname of their husband.

In modern China, women after marriage, in most cases, keep their maiden names and do not take the husband's surname (in China, this is an almost universal practice). Children, in most cases, inherit the father's surname.

9.2. Second name.

Second name ( 字 , zì) - the name given upon reaching the age of majority ( 字 , zì) and used throughout life. Issued after 20 years as a symbol of growing up and respect.

Initially, the middle name was used after male names. A young man could receive a middle name from his parents, from the first teacher on the first day of attending school, or he could choose a middle name for himself.

The tradition of using middle names has gradually begun to disappear since the Movement

There are two generally accepted forms of the middle name: Zi 字 (zì) and hao 號 (hao).

- Tzu, sometimes also biaozi ( 表字 )

a name traditionally given to Chinese men at the age of 20, symbolizing their coming of age. Sometimes a middle name was given to a woman after marriage.

According to the Book of Rituals ( 禮記 ), after a man reached maturity, it was disrespectful for other people of the same age to address him by his first name 名 "min".

Thus, the name given at birth was used only by the person himself or his older relatives. The middle name "Zi" was used by adult peers to address each other when communicating or writing.

Zi, the structure is predominantly a two-syllable name, consisting of two hieroglyphs. The basis of the name in the tradition of "Zi": "ming" or the name given at birth.

Yan Zhitui ( 顏之推 ), who lived during the Northern Qi Dynasty, believed that if the purpose of the name given at birth was to distinguish one person from another, then the purpose of the "second name" was to denote the moral viability of the person endowed with this name.

- Hao(Chinese tr.: 號 ; ex. whale.: 号 ; pinyin: hào).

Alternative middle name, usually used as an alias.

The inhabitants of China chose "hao" for themselves and could have more than one "creative name".

"Khao" was the creative name, the individual's sense of himself.

Use of a homophonic hieroglyph.

One of the ways to form a middle name. A polite address to a man - like the first character of a two-syllable zì. For example, Gongsun Qiao's middle name was Zichan ( 子產 ), and the poet Du Fu - Zǐméi ( 子美 ).

Use of the first character.

It is common practice to create a middle name based on the first hieroglyph, indicating the birth order of a child in his family.

According to historical evidence, Confucius' real name was Kung Qiu (Kǒng Qiū, 孔丘 ), and the middle name is Zhongni (Zhòngní 仲尼 ), where the first character 仲 (zhòng) shows that he was the middle (second) son in his family.

Common characters for birth order:

Bo (bo 伯 ) - for the first child,

Zhong (zhong 仲 ) - for the second,

Shu (shū 叔 ) - for the third,

Ji (jì 季 ) - usually for all younger ones, if there are more than three sons in the family.

The tradition of using a middle name began around the time of the Shang Dynasty. By the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, this tradition gained popularity.

At that time, women were also given a middle name, consisting in most cases of a hieroglyph showing the order of birth among the sisters and her last name:

Meng Jiang 孟姜 ) was the eldest daughter of the Jiang family.

Prior to the 20th century, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese were also referred to by their middle names.

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China is a country of original culture. Their religion, traditions and culture are so far from ours! This article will focus on Chinese names, the choice of which in the Middle Kingdom is still treated with special trepidation.

Exclusivity did not save the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, they did not escape the fashion for borrowed names. But even in this, the Chinese remained true to their traditions. "Imported" names they famously adjusted to the tone of their own. Elinna - Elena, Li Qunsi - Jones. There are even names with Christian origins. For example, Yao Su My means Joseph in translation, and Ko Li Zi Si is the name George.

In China, there is a tradition of giving posthumous names. They sum up the life lived, reflect all the deeds committed by a person in this world.

How to address a resident of the Middle Kingdom?

Chinese appeals are somewhat unusual for our ears: “Director Zhang”, “Mayor Wang”. A Chinese person will never use two titles when referring to a person, such as "Mr. President". He will say "President Obama" or "Mr. Obama." When referring to a saleswoman or maid, you can use the word "Xiaojie". It looks like our "girl".

Chinese women do not take their husband's surname after marriage. “Ms. Ma” and “Mr. Wang” do not interfere in life at all. These are the laws of the country. Foreigners are most often addressed by their first names, while adding a polite title if they do not know the profession or position of the person. For example, "Mr. Michael". And no patronymic! It's just not here!

The Chinese are the bearers of a great ancient culture. Although China is a developed country, it occupies not the last place in the world market, but it seems that the inhabitants of the sunny state live in some special world, preserving national traditions, their own way of life and a philosophical attitude to the environment.

In ancient times, the Chinese knew two types of surnames: surnames (in Chinese: 姓-xìng) and clan names (氏-shì).

Chinese surnames are patrilineal, i.e. passed down from father to children. Chinese women usually keep their maiden name after marriage. Sometimes the husband's surname is written before his own surname: Huang Wang Zeqing.

Historically, only Chinese men possessed xìng (surname), in addition to shì (clan name); women had only a clan name and after marriage they took the husband's xìng.

Prior to the Warring States Period (5th century BC), only the royal family and the aristocratic elite could have surnames. Historically there was also a distinction between xing and shi. Xing were surnames carried directly by members of the royal family.

Prior to the Qin Dynasty (3rd century BC), China was largely a feudal society. As fiefs were divided and subdivided among heirs, additional surnames known as shi were created to distinguish seniority of descent. Thus a noble could have both shi and xing. After the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, family names gradually passed to the lower classes and the distinction between xing and shi faded.

The surnames shi, many of which have survived to the present day, came about in one of the following ways:

1. From xing. They were usually kept by members of the royal family. Approximately six common xing only Jiang(姜) and Yao(姚) survived as common surnames.

2. By imperial decree. During the imperial period, it was common to give subjects the surname of the emperor.

3. From the names of states. Many ordinary people took the name of their state to show their belonging to it or their national and ethnic identity. Examples include Dream (宋), Wu (吴), Chen(陳). Not surprisingly, due to the mass of the peasantry, they are one of the most common Chinese surnames.

4. From the name of fiefs or place of origin. Example - Dee, Marquis of Ouyanting, whose descendants took the surname ouyang(歐陽). There are about two hundred examples of surnames of this type, often two-syllable surnames, but few have survived to this day.

5. On behalf of an ancestor.

6. In ancient times, syllables meng (孟), zhong (仲), shu(叔) and zhi(季) were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth sons in a family. Sometimes these syllables became surnames. Of them Meng is the most famous.

7. From the name of the profession. For example, Tao(陶) - "potter" or Wu(巫) - "shaman".

8. From the name of the ethnic group. Such surnames were sometimes taken by the non-Han peoples of China.

Surnames in China are distributed unevenly. In northern China, the most common is Van(王), worn by 9.9% of the population. Then Lee (李), Zhang(张 / 張) and Liu(刘 / 劉). In the south, the most common surname Chen(陈 / 陳), covering 10.6% of the population. Then Lee (李), Zhang(张 / 張) and Liu(刘 / 劉). On South Chen(陈 / 陳) is the most common, being shared by 10.6% of the population. Then Lee (李), Juan (黄), Lin(林) and Zhang(张/張). In the major cities along the Yangtze River, the most common surname is Lee(李) with 7.7% of speakers. It is followed by Van (王), Zhang (张 / 張), Chen(陈 / 陳) and Liu (刘 / 劉).

A 1987 study showed that there were over 450 surnames used in Beijing that were widely used in Beijing, but there were fewer than 300 surnames in Fujian. Despite the presence of thousands of surnames in China, 85% of the population has one of the hundred surnames, which make up 5% of the family fund.

A 1990 study showed that 96% of people in a sample of 174,900 have 200 surnames, 4% have 500 other surnames.

The three most common surnames in mainland China are Li, Wang, Zhang. They are worn respectively by 7.9%, 7.4% and 7.1% of people. This is about 300 million. Therefore, these three surnames are the most frequent in the world. In Chinese there is an expression "three Zhang, four Li", which means "any".

Most common surnames in China have one syllable. However, about 20 surnames have two syllables, for example Syma (司馬), ouyang(歐陽). There are also surnames with three or more syllables. By their origin, they are not Han, but, for example, Manchu. Example: last name Aisin Gioro(愛新覺羅) of the Manchu imperial family.

In China, all namesakes are considered relatives. Until 1911, marriages between namesakes were forbidden, regardless of the existence of real family relations between them.

© Nazarov Alois