Wen / Wen
The main origins of the Wen surname comprise three branches: Ji, Jiang, and Gui. The Ji branch is associated with the posthumous title of King Wen of Zhou and with the style name of Wen Zi; the Jiang branch derives from the posthumous title of Xu Wenshu; and one Gui branch derives from the posthumous title of Tian Wen.
The Wen surname has Yanmen Commandery as a commandery designation, and hall names including Liuyi Hall, Yanmen Hall, Xinguo Hall, and Zhengqi Hall. Liuyi Hall is associated with Wen Tianxiang inscribing a plaque and composing a poem for his clan uncle’s six sons; Xinguo Hall and Zhengqi Hall are associated with Wen Tianxiang’s ennoblement as Marquis of Xinguo and his composition of the Song of Righteousness.
Before the Qin period, the Wen surname was mainly active in Henan, Shandong, and Hubei. During the Warring States period it spread to the Jianghuai region; during the Han dynasties it moved west to Sichuan, north to Shanxi, and south across the Yangtze; by the Tang dynasty it had appeared in the two Guang regions, with particularly strong concentrations in Jiangxi and Anhui.
Wen Tianxiang was a Southern Song minister, national hero, and writer. After being captured following the failure of the resistance against the Yuan, he was executed on the ninth day of the twelfth month in the nineteenth year of the Zhiyuan era. His works include The Complete Works of Mr. Wenshan.
For the Qing Gong branch of the Wen lineage in Liling, Hunan, the generation names from the second to the twentieth generation are recorded as “仲以单士 单宗楚应明 世聿在宪正 大一元起家”; “单” indicates a generation in which given names contain a single character.
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