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A family that traces its name to ancient treasurer
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QIAN, which means money in Chinese, is a surname that originated from an official responsible for the country’s finances thousands of years ago.
It ranked as the country’s second most common surname in the “Book of Chinese Family Names” written during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Originally, many with the surname were descendants of King Qian Liu from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (AD 907-979) and worked as officials in present day Zhejiang during the Song Dynasty.
Today, there are an estimated 2.2 million people surnamed Qian in China, ranking as the country’s 96th most common surname. The number of people with the surname account for about 18 percent of the country’s population and they are mostly scattered around Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.
The family of Qian are an offshoot of the Peng family that formed more than 4,000 years ago. It became an independent family name in today’s Xi’an of Shaanxi Province during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC–771 BC).
Peng Fu, a member of the Peng Family in the Western Zhou Dynasty, earned the high position of Qian Fu Shang Shi and was responsible for the national treasury. He then named his family Qian, after his new position.
Due to the close relationship between the Qian and Peng families, intermarriage between the two was forbidden at the time.
The family of Qian was also expected to offer help when a Peng family member was in danger. Such doctrines can still be found in some Qian genealogy books.
The family of Qian began moving south during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).
By the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), people with the surname Qian had moved to today’s Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces.
People surnamed Qian later moved to the provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Anhui and Hunan.
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