chuān
The surname Chuan is pronounced chuān and is relatively rare. It is found in Songjiang in Shanghai, Jing County in Hebei, Heishan in Liaoning, Yuncheng in Shanxi, Xintai in Shandong, and Hualien in Taiwan.
One line adopted a term for mountainous rivers as its surname; the ancient form 巛 was later simplified to 川. Shang oracle-bone inscriptions contain a dated record of a person called 巛.
Among descendants of the Western Zhou officials Chuanshi and Chuanheng, some adopted 巛 from an ancestral office and later simplified it to 川. The Chuanshi administered the names and products of rivers and marshes, while the Chuanheng inspected them.
The Manchu Bira clan derived from the Jurchen Bilan tribe, and Bira Hala means “river” in Manchu; the surname was also adopted by some Daur people. After the mid-Qing period, some members changed their Chinese surname to Chuan.
The surname Chuan is included in Xing Yuan. Xing氏 Kaolüe quotes the Qing scholar Zhang Shu as proposing that Chuan may have developed from the compound surname Sanchuan.
Associated commanderies include Yingchuan, Sanchuan, Shu, Ba, Liaodong, and Sanchuan written 三巛. Hall names include Yingchuan, Sanchuan, San巛, Shu, Ba, and Liaodong, with several alternative names. The 三巛 and 三川 lineages are not related by blood.
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