Surname Overview
Overview
Zhi, written 职 in simplified Chinese and 職 in traditional Chinese and pronounced zhí, is a relatively rare modern Han Chinese surname with a broad but small population.
职 Surname
Population reference (not a current census): 188Origins
Surname from an Office
The Zhi surname is recorded as descending from holders of the office Zhifang, whose descendants adopted the character Zhi from the official title. Zhifang was subordinate to the Xia official and managed maps and tribute from the four quarters.
Historical Records
Recorded Lineage and Commandery
The surname appears in the clan sections of the Zheng Tongzhi and Qing Tongzhi. Zheng Qiao identified it as descending from the Zhifang office in the Zhouli, and its commandery affiliation was Shanyang.
Migration and Distribution
Migration from Hongdong
At the end of the Song dynasty, members of the Zhi clan fled warfare and settled at Nanquan Bridge in Hongdong, Shanxi. In the early Ming, the four branches named Fu, Gui, Rong, and Hua respectively moved to Wen County, Huojia, and Tianjin Wei, while Hua remained in Hongdong.
Notable People
Historical Figures
Recorded bearers include Zhi Hong, magistrate of Shanyang in the Han dynasty; Zhi Nanjin of the Tang dynasty; and Zhi Jindan, an educational official at Xinye in the Qing dynasty.
Research Notes
Genealogical Limit
The genealogy has a documented break: the earlier register was lost during the flight from warfare at the end of the Song dynasty. A Kangxi-era preface states that the more than fourteen centuries from Han to Ming could no longer be traced genealogically, so the lineage begins with the Ming return migration from Hongdong.
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Surname attestation references
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