Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2022 5:58:17 GMT
Jun 14, 2022 14:17:19 GMT kyc said:
Most surnames in wuxia fiction are obviously of Han Chinese origins, since the setting is almost always ancient China. And most of the surnames from the Hundred Families' Surnames (Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li etc.) are of Han Chinese provenance.I wonder however about the surnames not of Han Chinese provenance. One of them clearly is Nalan 納蘭, a Manchu surname, from which we get Nalan Xingde (a historical Qing dynasty poet featured in LYS's works) and Nalan Minghui. The famous Chinese Mainland singer Na Ying (那英), whose surname is Na, derives her surname as an abbreviated form of Nalan, specifically Yehe Nara hala 葉赫那拉氏.
Others are more ambiguous. Is Jin (金, Korean pronunciation Kim) one of the surnames with clear non-Han origins? I'm thinking of people like Jin Shiyi.
It gets more interesting with compound surnames. Compound surnames like Shangguan, Sima and Zhuge are of Han Chinese origins I think, but many others I'm not so sure.
Ouyang Feng is not Han Chinese. Is the surname Ouyang 歐陽 of non-Han provenance?
Murong Fu is not Han Chinese (at least his forefathers were not). Is Murong 慕容 a non-Han surname?
Is the surname Dugu 獨孤 of Han Chinese provenance? Is Dugu Qiubai even a Han Chinese?
What about Dongfang Bubai? What about his surname 東方?
One other surname I'm interested in is Tantai 澹臺. There's a major character in LYS's PZXYL (The Wanderer's Chronicles) who goes by the name Tantai Mieming 澹臺滅明. He was a historical figure, allegedly a descendant of one of Confucius's students. So does it mean he was Han Chinese?
The answers may be floating around the Internet or even on Wikipedia, but this strikes me as an interesting topic so I'm putting this up for discussion. In case you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment.
Murong and Dugu are the Xianbei's surname.
Xiao 萧 is the surname of the Khitan Liao people.
Dongfang is an ancient surname. The first Dongfang's record is from Dongfang Suo - a daoist who lived in Han Wudi era. So I'm not sure if he's a Han Chinese or other ethnic. Definitely he's a Huaxia ethnic, but I'm not sure if he's Han.
Please be noted that the term Han Chinese only exist after the middle of Han Dynasty reign. We can't call Qin Shihuang or Confucius Han ethnic - they're called Huaxia ethnic.
