Lìlù / Li-lu
The Li surname is described as descending from Liuli, a clan leader from the early Neolithic period. The Liuli clan later adopted the chestnut tree as its totem and emblem, and its members thereafter took Li as their surname.
The Li surname is traced to the Feng surname and to the ancient Liuli clan. After Fuxi died, Nüwa succeeded him and enfeoffed twelve clans as feudal lords, with the Liuli clan occupying the north.
The Fengsu Tongyi records the Li surname as belonging to the Feng lineage and descending from the ancient Liuli clan. In his commentary on the Lower Commentary of the Xici, Kong Yingda lists Liuli among the clans that followed Nüwa.
In 7706 BCE, the Liuli clan moved to the Wilds of Liguang, namely Liyi, identified with present-day Xiayi County in Shangqiu, Henan. It then continued for more than twenty generations over nearly a thousand years.
When Fuxi ruled as emperor, the Liuli clan was appointed as the Water Dragon Clan, Black Dragon Clan, and Winter Official. It was responsible for cultivating vegetation, clearing waterways, and managing rivers, and was regarded as an ancestor of water conservancy.
The account describes the Li surname as descending from the ancient Liuli clan of the Feng lineage and states that its later members took Li as their surname; it does not describe “Liuli” as a separate surname.
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