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Looking back at Su family lines
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IT is estimated that there are about 5.8 million people surnamed Su in China, making it the 41st most common surname in the country.
The earliest branch of the Su family originated from the Emperor Zhuan Xu more than 4,000 years ago. The descendants of his offspring, Sun Wuhui, grew into a big tribe, and were granted the land of Yousu in today’s Henan Province in the Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century BC). The kingdom was conquered at the end of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC), and the family subsequently named themselves Su.
People from minority groups also started surnaming themselves Su long ago. There are records of minorities taking the surname Su as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).
Su is one of the most common surnames of the Hui ethnic group. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), a Persian trader settled in China. His original surname was Sulamani. His family thus shortened it as Su.
The family of Su originated in Wen County of Henan Province, and later migrated to Luoyang in the same province as the Zhou Dynasty moved its capital there. After a man surnamed Su was made an official of the Chu Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), the family of Su grew quickly in Hunan and Hubei provinces. Su Jian, a general in Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) was granted the land of Xianyang in Shaanxi Province for his contribution to defeating the Huns, which also brought more Su families to the region. People surnamed Su are now found all over China, while Guangdong Province has the most, accounting for 20 percent of all Sus.
Editor’s note:
Every Chinese family name has its own cultural origin that can be traced back thousands of years. In this column, Shanghai Daily introduces the biggest Chinese family names and their histories.
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