Zheng (surname)

Zheng or zhèng (Hanyu Pinyin) or Cheng (Wade-Giles) is a Chinese surname and also the name of an ancient state in today's Henan province. It is written as 鄭 in traditional Chinese and 郑 in simplified Chinese. It is the 7th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.

Zheng (Cheng/Chang/Cheang)
PronunciationCheng (Wade-Giles)
Zhèng (Mandarin)
Tcheng or Cheng/Chang (Hong Kong)
Cheang (Macao)
Tay, Tee, Teh or The (Hokkien, Teochew)
Dang or Dhang (Hokchew)
Language(s)Chinese
Origin
MeaningName of an ancient state in Henan province
Region of originChina
Other names
Variant form(s)Chung, Jung, Jeong (Korean)
Saetae (Thai)
Trịnh (Vietnamese)

In 2006, Zheng (Cheng/Chang) ranked 21st in China's list of top 100 most common surnames. Zheng (Cheng/Chang) belongs to the second major group of ten surnames which makes up more than 10% of the Chinese population.[1][2][3] Zheng (Cheng/Chang) was a major surname of the rich and powerful during China's Tang dynasty.[4]

In Hong Kong and Taiwan, the name is normally romanized as Cheng or Tcheng (occasionally romanized as Chang in Hong Kong although that variant is more commonly used for another Chinese name, Zhang). In Malaysia, Cheng is commonly romanized as Cheng, Cheang, Chang, Tay, Tee and Teh. It is spelled as Tay in Singapore and Teddy in Indonesia and Ty in Philippines,[5] from the Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew pronunciation of the character. It also pronounces Dâng in Hokchew.

The surname also has taken form outside of Chinese societies: in Vietnamese as Trịnh. In Korean, the name is written 정 and transliterated as Chung, Jung, or Jeong. It is the fifth most common Korean surname (after Kim, Yi, Park, and Choi), with about 4.85% of the South Korean population (2,230,611 people) having this name.

Origin

The Zheng surname originated in Henan. In 806 BC, King Xuan, the penultimate king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, enfeoffed his younger brother Prince You, who became posthumously known as Duke Huan of Zheng, at Zheng (present-day Hua County, Shaanxi). Duke Huan was killed along with King You of Zhou when the Quanrong tribes sacked the Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC. Duke Huan was succeeded by his son Duke Wu, who helped King Ping of Zhou establish the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Luoyang, and his feudal state of Zheng was also moved east to present-day Henan. His descendants and many people of the state later adopted Zheng as their surname.[6][7][8]

The city of Xingyang is considered as the origin place of the people whose surname is Zheng. Today, Xingyang is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou (鄭州) which translates to "Settlement of Zheng". Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan province and is located within the boundaries of the ancient state of Zheng (state). There is also another city called Xinzheng ("New Zheng"), also under the administration of Zhengzhou.

The Zheng clan character (鄭) is featured prominently on the flag of the short-lived rebel Kingdom of Tungning founded by Ming-loyalist Koxinga (who had the surname Zheng) in Taiwan. Also called the Kingdom of Formosa.

During the Tang dynasty the Li family of Zhaojun 趙郡李氏, the Cui family of Boling 博陵崔氏, the Cui family of Qinghe 清河崔氏, the Lu family of Fanyang 范陽盧氏, the Zheng family of Xingyang 荥陽鄭氏, the Wang family of Taiyuan 太原王氏, and the Li family of Longxi 隴西李氏 were the seven noble families between whom marriage was banned by law.[9] The marriages between the families were performed clandestinely after the prohibition was implemented on the seven families by Emperor Gaozong.[10] Their status as "Seven Great surnames" became known during Gaozong's rule.[11]

Distribution

Of the top 30 cities in China, 郑 ranked 4th most common surname in the city of Fuzhou.[12]

Spelling and pronunciation
Chinese Mandarin (Hanyu Pinyin) Hakka Cantonese (Jyutping) Hokkien (Pe̍h-ōe-jī) Hokchew (Bàng-uâ-cê)
Trad. Simp.
鄭 郑 Zhèng Meixian: cang52
Huiyang: cang53
Fengshun: chang31
Wuhua: qang31
Songkou: cang52
Yingde: qang31
Sixian: cang55
Hailu: chang33
Dabu: chang53
Raoping: chang24
Zhao'an: chang55
Hong Kong: cang55		 zeng6 Tēⁿ / Tīⁿ Dâng

Notable people

There are over 400 Zhengs listed in the Who's Who in Chinese History.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]

Monarch

Arts, entertainment & media

Sports, fitness

Other
  • Alvin Cheng Kam-moon, a Hong Kong student activist
  • Carrie Lam née Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong politician
  • Claudio Teehankee (1918-1989), Chinese-Filipino judge, later ambassador. He is included here under Cheng, Zheng because in Hokkien, his surname is Tee; similar to Malaysian or Singapore surnames Teh or Tay.

See also

References
  1. National Natural Science Foundation, China. Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. China renews top 100 surnames, Li still the biggest, People's Daily, January 11, 2006.
  2. Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Houston, Texas
  3. Origins of Chinese Names By Chunjiang Fu, Asiapac Editorial, Wei Lin Chua, Joo Ling Choong Published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd, 2007; ISBN 981-229-462-7, ISBN 978-981-229-462-3; p. 37
  4. Origins of Chinese Names By Chunjiang Fu, Asiapac Editorial, Wei Lin Chua, Joo Ling Choong Published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd, 2007; ISBN 981-229-462-7, ISBN 978-981-229-462-3; p. 36
  5. Setyautama, Sam; Mihardja, Suma (2008). Tokoh-tokoh Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia [Ethnic Chinese Figures in Indonesia] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Gramedia. ISBN 978-979-9101-25-9.
  6. Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
  7. Top 100 surnames: in the Lower Mainland by Chad Skelton, published in the Vancouver Sun, Saturday, November 03, 2007 Archived June 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. Origins of Chinese Names By Chunjiang Fu, Asiapac Editorial, Wei Lin Chua, Joo Ling Choong Published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd, 2007; ISBN 981-229-462-7, ISBN 978-981-229-462-3; p. 60
  9. "p. 67" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  10. A Study of Yuan Zhen's Life and Verse 809--810: Two Years that Shaped His Politics and Prosody. 2008. pp. 65–. ISBN 978-0-549-80334-8.
  11. William H. Nienhauser (2010). Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader. World Scientific. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-981-4287-28-9.
  12. "https://www.douban.com/group/topic/23803598/"(Chinese)
  13. Who's who in China, 1919
  14. Who's who in China, Containing the Pictures and Biographics of Some of China's Political, Financial By John Benjamin Powell, Hollington Kong Tong Published by Millard's review, 1920
  15. Who's who in China [Supplement to the 3d Ed.] edited by John Benjamin Powell Published by The China Weekly Review, 1928
  16. Who's who in China: Biographies of Chinese : Supplement By China Weekly Review Published by China Weekly Review, 1931
  17. Who's who in China: Containing the Pictures and Biographies of China's Best Known Political, Financial, Business and Professional Leaders ... By Zhixiang Hao Published by The China weekly review, 1931
  18. Who's who in China Published by China Weekly Review, 1936; Item notes: 1936
  19. Who's who in China: Biographies of Chinese Leaders. Chung-kuo Ming Jen Lu Published by The China Weekly Review, 1936
  20. Who's who in China: Biographies of Chinese Leaders : Supplement to Fifth Edition : (including a Section Embracing Those who are Affiliated with Japanese-sponsored Administrations Within Areas Controlled by the Japanese Military Forces Published by The China weekly review, 1940
  21. Who's who in China By Who's Who Staff Published by AMS Press, 1950; ISBN 0-404-56968-4, ISBN 978-0-404-56968-6
  22. Who's who in China; Biographical Sketches of 542 Chinese Communist Leaders.: Biographical Sketches of 542 Chinese Communist Leaders By Donald W. Klein Published 1959
  23. Who's who in China, 1918-1950: With an Index By Jerome Cavanaugh, Chinese Materials Center Published by Chinese Materials Center, 1982; Item notes: v.1
  24. Who's who in China: Current Leaders By Who's Who in China, "Zhongguo ren ming da ci dian" bian ji bu; Published by Foreign Languages Press, 1989; ISBN 0-8351-2352-9, ISBN 978-0-8351-2352-5
  25. Who's who in China: Chinese-English Manual of Chinese Leaders and Government Organizations = 汉英中国领导人暨政府机构手册 Published by TWL, 1993
  26. Who's Who in China By Sony Imagesoft Published by Sonic Books, 1994; ISBN 1-56673-135-6, ISBN 978-1-56673-135-5
  27. Who's who in China: [a First-ever Comprehensive Compilation of the Powerful, Affluent, and Influential in China - Their Stories, Net Worth and Networks] Contributor Gerald Leong Published by Inspire Publ, 2004; ISBN 3-938159-00-6, ISBN 978-3-938159-00-2

Further reading
  • Surnames of a Hundred Families (Bai Jia Xing), 960AD-1127AD
  • Annal of Surnames by Gao Shilian, 627AD
  • Chinese Dimensions: Their Roots, Mindset and Psyche by Dr.Yow Yit Seng, 2006, Malaysia, 1st Edition; ISBN 967-978-927-6
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.