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Shi’s roots traced to 5 major sources
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APART from the general practice of naming the family after the kingdom they owned, the Shi population in China has also accommodated families who used the surnames to reflect their occupation or commemorate their origins.
There are an estimated 2.1 million people surnamed Shi in China, ranking them 97th in terms of population. The number of people surnamed Shi accounts for about 0.17 percent of the population.
The Shi family can be traced back to five major sources. The earliest can be tracked back to a kingdom named Shi in Xia Dynasty (c. 21st-16th century BC) in today’s Enshi Miao Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province. The descendant of the kingdom surnamed themselves Shi ever since.
During Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th century BC), there was a group of people surnamed Shi who made flags. Shi literally meant flag.
Another early connection to the Shi family came from Lu Huigong, the ruler of Lu Kingdom, in Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-770 BC). Lu Huigong had a son named Shi Fu, whose offspring later only retained the surname Shi.
Later, the Shi family was joined by a group of descendants of the famous scholar Fang Xiaoru in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Loyal to the previous emperor, Fang displeased Zhu Di who usurped the throne. Zhu ordered the extermination of the entire family and relatives. Some of Fang’s descendants, who managed to escape, changed their surname to Shi.
There are also a small group of people who changed their surnames into Shi for reasons like marriage, relocation or the influence of Han culture. There are Shi in Man, Jing, Yi, Miao, Mongolian, Qiang, Dai, Nu, Naxi and Lisu ethnic groups.
The Shi family mainly resided in Shandong and Anhui provinces. They gradually migrated to southeast during Song to Ming dynasties. Their traces have been found in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. Well-known Shis include Shi Nai’an, author of Chinese classic “The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh” at the end of Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
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