Tang / Tang
Tang accounts for about 0.19% of China's Han population and ranks 90th among Chinese surnames. It is widely distributed, with Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, and Hubei together accounting for about 56% of Han people surnamed Tang.
The Tang surname derives from Cheng Tang. Cheng Tang, whose personal name was Lü and courtesy name Tang, was the fourteenth-generation descendant of Qi and the founding ruler of the Shang dynasty. His descendants adopted their ancestor's name as a surname, giving this Zi-lineage Tang surname a history of at least 3,600 years.
During the Northern Song, bearers of the Yin surname were ordered to change it to Shang or Tang to avoid the personal name of Zhao Hongyin. After Yin Chongyi, a vice director of the Department of State Affairs under Southern Tang, entered Song service, his entire clan adopted Tang.
The Tongzhi, Shizulüe and other works record that Qi was appointed Minister of Instruction by Shun for assisting Yu in flood control, granted the surname Zi, and enfeoffed at Shang; his fourteenth-generation descendant was Shang Tang.
Before the Qin dynasty, the Tang surname was concentrated in the Central Plains. During the Han it moved east into Jiangsu and south into northern Vietnam; during the Tang it spread with migrants from the Central Plains into Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, and Fujian. It moved into Guangdong and Guangxi during the Ming and reached Taiwan in the early Qing.
The catalog lists 137 Tang genealogies from 12 provincial-level regions. Recorded hall names include Zhongyi, Yuxiu, Liuhe, Dunben, Changfa, Liuyu, Chongde, Wende, Wenhua, Yongmu, and Shuanggui.
Start with ancestral counties, villages, personal names and dates. Record genealogy titles, volumes, editions and catalog identifiers. A shared surname does not prove a shared lineage; compare branch records.
These catalogs or datasets attest written names, not every origin or lineage claim on this page.
This page includes automatically organized material. Check the references and original family documents.
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