Asù Surname

Surname Overview

Surname classification

The source explicitly classifies “Asu” as a historical ethnic-minority surname and states that it has more than one origin.

Reference: 阿速姓_阿速姓的来源和历史_百家姓

Origins

Proposed Jurchen tribal origin

The page states that a Jurchen Asu surname existed in the Liao and Jin periods: the Asu group lived around the Ussuri River, then called the Asu River, took the group name as its surname, and was rendered as Asu with different Chinese characters in the Qing period.

Reference: 阿速姓_阿速姓的来源和历史_百家姓

Asu people and a Mongol Eight Banners surname

The page describes the Asu as an Iranian-language tribal group distributed north of the “Taihe Ridge” in the Caucasus of Central Asia; it says Asu was one of the thirty-one Yuan-period Semu surnames and was rendered as Asut in the Qing period, becoming one of the surnames of the Qing Mongol Eight Banners.

Reference: 阿速姓_阿速姓的来源和历史_百家姓

Historical Records

Attestation among Yuan-period Semu surnames

According to the page’s secondary account, Tao Zongyi’s Nan村 Chuogeng Lu, “Clans,” included Asu among thirty-one Yuan-period Semu surnames; the supplied page is a secondary citation rather than verification of the original text.

Reference: 阿速姓_阿速姓的来源和历史_百家姓

Notable People

Kou’erji

The page identifies Kou’erji as a member of the Asu surname group and says that, as a commander of one hundred under Yuan Shizu, he gained merit while accompanying Marshal Aju in the campaign against Song; he was later appointed commander-in-chief of the Left Guard Asu Imperial Army in what the page calls the “Dachu years.”

Reference: 阿速姓_阿速姓的来源和历史_百家姓