菜 Surname

Surname Overview

The surname Cai is pronounced cài, has about 2,000 people today, ranks 1,133rd, and ranks 1,692nd in Taiwan.

Reference: 菜姓_菜氏_菜姓的起源_菜姓有哪些名人_菜姓来源及历史-跟哈工具

Origins

Two Lineages

One lineage derives from the Shang-period Zhongcai clan of the Zi surname and took its surname from a state name; the other derives from descendants of Gija Joseon and took the surname from the occupation of vegetable cultivation.

Reference: 菜姓_菜氏_菜姓的起源_菜姓有哪些名人_菜姓来源及历史-跟哈工具

Historical Records

Qin Guan’s Record

In Huaihai Ji, the Northern Song writer Qin Guan recorded the marriage and death-for-chastity of a Cai woman from Yingyang, suggesting that she was probably a descendant of Gija.

Reference: 菜姓_菜氏_菜姓的起源_菜姓有哪些名人_菜姓来源及历史-跟哈工具

Migration and Distribution

One branch of Gija’s descendants moved back to Liaodong and Liaoxi and then to Yingyang in Yingchuan in the early Song; another remained around Incheon on the Korean Peninsula. Today the surname is distributed in Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan, Tianjin, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere.

Reference: 菜姓_菜氏_菜姓的起源_菜姓有哪些名人_菜姓来源及历史-跟哈工具

Research Notes

Documentary Limits

The surname appears in Xinbian Qianjiaxing. Other records state that it already existed in Dunhuang during the Sui and Tang periods, while also stating that pre-Qing surname books contained no such surname and that it was a newly emerged modern surname.

Reference: 菜姓_菜姓的来源和历史_百家姓