Rao / Jao
The Rao surname originated in North China and appeared around the Warring States period. It has a history of more than 2,200 years, later spreading from north to south and expanding in Jiangxi. The surname is included in the Hundred Family Surnames.
The Rao surname has two principal origins: the Gui lineage, whose descendant of Shun, a son of Shang Jun, was enfeoffed at Rao and whose descendants took the state name as their surname; and the Ying lineage, descended from a Qi grandee of the Warring States period who held Rao as a fief, whose descendants took the place name as their surname.
The Southern Song scholar Deng Mingshi recorded that a Qi grandee held Rao as his fief and that his descendants took the place name as their surname. According to the Zhao Hereditary House in the Records of the Grand Historian, the dates should be the fourth year of King Daoxiang of Zhao, when Rao'an was taken, and the sixth year, when Chang'an Jun was enfeoffed at Rao.
Prominent Rao lineages are associated with Pingyang and Linchuan. Genealogical records include the Dunmu Hall of Jingde in Anhui and Daye in Hubei, and the Pingyang Hall of Changsha and Huitong in Hunan.
Before the Qin period, Rao families were mainly active in Hebei. During the Song period, they were mainly distributed in Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, Henan, and Zhejiang. During the Ming period, Jiangxi was the primary region, followed by Hubei, Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangsu.
Some genealogies record that Wenfu, the founding migrant ancestor of the Jingde Rao lineage in Anhui, moved from Poyang in the early Northern Song. The founding migrant ancestor Gan of a Hunan Rao lineage had ancestors from Ji'an, Jiangxi, moved to Changsha during the Southern Song because of official service, and had descendants living in Ningxiang, Liuyang, and Yiyang.
Start with ancestral counties, villages, personal names and dates. Record genealogy titles, volumes, editions and catalog identifiers. A shared surname does not prove a shared lineage; compare branch records.
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