Ji (Zhou dynasty ancestral surname)

Jī (姬) was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC. Thirty-nine members of the family ruled China during this period while many others ruled as local lords, lords who eventually gained great autonomy during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Ji is a relatively uncommon surname in modern China, largely because its bearers often adopted the names of their states and fiefs as new surnames.

For other Chinese surnames also romanized as "Ji", see Ji (surname).
Ji (姬)
Language(s)Chinese
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
Ji
Chinese name
Chinese姬
Korean name
Hangul희
Hui
Hee

The character is composed of the radicals 女 (Old Chinese: nra, "woman") and 𦣞 (OC: ɢ(r)ə, "chin").[1] It is most likely a phono-semantic compound, with nra common in the earliest Zhou-era family names and ɢ(r)ə marking a rhyme of 姬 (OC: K(r)ə).[1]

The legendary and historical record shows the Zhou Ji clan closely entwined with the Jiang (姜), who seem to have provided many of the Ji lords' high-ranking spouses.[2] A popular theory in recent Chinese scholarship has suggested that they represented two important clans – the Ji originally centered on the Fen River in Shanxi and the Jiang around the Wen River in Shaanxi – whose union produced the Zhou state ruled by Old Duke Danfu, although the theory remains problematic.[2]

In the family hymns recorded in the Classic of Poetry, the Ji (姬) family is traced from the miraculous birth of the Xia dynasty culture hero and court official Houji caused by his mother's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god Shangdi.[3] The Records of the Grand Historian instead make Houji the son of the Emperor Ku, descendant of Yellow Emperor.[4]

Ancient rulers with the surname

Other notable people
  • King Wu of Zhou, (????–1043BC) first ruler of the Zhou dynasty.
  • Ji Jin-chun (born 1877), Governor of Rehe and Suiyuan (1921–28), fought the Russians and the Japanese
  • Ji Hong-chang (born 1895), Governor of Ningxia and prominent Nationalist
  • Ji Pengfei (born 1910), a prominent Communist
  • Ji Shengde, former head of Chinese military intelligence

Other surnames adopted by descendants of Ji
  • Any surname derived from the Zhou dynasty Ji-descent vassal states
  • Qiū (秋)

References
  1. Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. "Baxter–Sagart Old Chinese Reconstruction". Archived from the original on April 25, 2012.  (1.93 MB), pp. 61, 106, & 175. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.
  2. Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000). "Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organization of the Zhou Polity" (PDF). Early China (25). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  3. Book of Songs. III.2.1.
  4. Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian.
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