Zhao / Chao
The Zhao surname originated from the Ying surname, with ancestry traced to Shaohao of the Five Emperors period. Zaofu was enfeoffed in Zhao City for his achievements, and his descendants adopted the fief name as their surname. Zaofu is regarded as the founding ancestor of the Zhao surname, with a history of about 3,000 years.
In 408 BCE, Zhao Ji declared himself a feudal ruler and established the Zhao state. Zhao was conquered by Qin in 222 BCE; by then, areas of Zhao surname activity had expanded to northeastern Shaanxi, the Hetao region of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, southern Hebei, northern Henan, and western Shandong.
The Zhao genealogy database contains 124 Zhao genealogies covering multiple provincial-level regions. Listed hall names include Airi Hall, Banbu Hall, Mingzong Hall, Qinhe Hall, Tianshui Hall, and Dunben Hall.
During the Qin and Han periods, the Zhao surname spread widely: after Qin conquered Zhao, the Zhao royal clan was relocated to the Xirong region, bringing the surname into Gansu; the descendants of Zhao Tuo formed prominent Zhao lineages in Guangdong, Guangxi, and the southwest; by the Western Han it had entered western Liaoning and Anhui via Henan, while the Eastern Han saw Zhao presence in Sichuan and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. It reached Fujian during the Tang dynasty and Taiwan in the late Ming.
Among contemporary Zhao surname users, ancestral places are mainly concentrated in Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Henan, Beijing, and Liaoning; Shandong accounts for 11.5%, Hebei 9.7%, and Jiangsu 7.6%.
The Zhao genealogy of Taikang, Henan, records the following generation-name sequence: Kai Shao Ben Si Yu; Qi Ming Yue Ze Xin; Yun Chao Lian Yun Bu; Gong Tong Zi Tian Shen; En Pei He Hua Guang; An Bang Li Wan Chun; Ji Xiang Wen Cheng Yong; Chuan Yi Ruo Zhen Jin; Kun De Rong Shi Gu; Zhen Zhong Shu Chang Cun; Gu Fang Pu Yu Zhang; Yao Wu Jian Qing Lin.
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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