Yang (surname)

History

Four proposed and linked historical origins are:

1. Direct descendants of Huang Di (Emperor) of Hua Xia include descendants of Yellow Emperor during Xia Dynasty, also many sons and grandsons of Yu the Great, have taken Yang as surname, some of its sub-domains are the prominent Yang Jian of Zhou which take role as a Heavenly Marshal take his colony to seek peace after Zhou Dynasty win and erected his colony peacefully. And also Yang Ren is known through the title of Grand Counselor. Which appear at Fengshen Yanyi or Investiture of the Gods, novel accordingly to the historical founding of Zhou Dynasty.
2. The Yang clan was founded by Boqiao (later become Yang Boqiao, with Yang, as usual ducal courtesy name), son of Duke Wu of Jin in the Springs and Autumns Period of the Ji (姬) surname, the surname of the royal family during the Zhou dynasty (c. 8th to 5th centuries BC) who was enfeoffed a vast land, the Yang Kingdom, with its central in at ancient's Shaanxi.
3. Yang Tang, the first historical ancestor of the Jeju's Yang clan was a Shilla figure, but according to another source, his distant ancestor was one of three men who ascended from a cave on the north side of Cheju Island’s Halla Mountain, Jeju’s Tamnagook kingdom who built the Yang Clan there.
4. Yang Shi, senior advisor of Jin, During the Warring States period (403–221 BCE) his descendants fled to escape destruction by the conquering the Qin, and simplified their surname to Yang.

The Sui dynasty Emperors were from the northwest military aristocracy, and emphasized that their patrilineal ancestry was ethnic Han, claiming descent from the Han official Yang Zhen. and the New Book of Tang traced his patrilineal ancestry to the Zhou dynasty kings via the Dukes of Jin.

The Yang of Hongnong 弘農楊氏 were asserted as ancestors by the Sui Emperors like the Longxi Li's were asserted as ancestors of the Tang Emperors. The Li of Zhaojun and the Lu of Fanyang hailed from Shandong and were related to the Liu clan which was also linked to the Yang of Hongnong and other clans of Guanlong. The Dukes of Jin were claimed as the ancestors of the Hongnong Yang.

The Yang of Hongnong, Jia of Hedong, Xiang of Henei, and Wang of Taiyuan from the Tang dynasty were claimed as ancestors by Song dynasty lineages.

There were Dukedoms for the offspring of the royal families of the Zhou dynasty, Sui dynasty, and Tang dynasty in the Later Jin (Five Dynasties).

Characters

Yang is most often the transliteration of the character 楊 (in simplified Chinese: 杨). The same character can also mean a type of poplar. The character is composed of a "wood" radical mu (木) on the left and the character yi/yang (昜) on the right, which indicates the pronunciation of the whole character.

Yang can also be the phonetic translation of other Chinese surnames. These include 阳, the Chinese character for "sun"; the very rare Chinese family name 羊, the Chinese character for "goat" or "sheep"; or another character pronounced "Yang", regardless of tone, such as 仰 or 養.

Origins

Four origins are recorded for the surname Yang (楊):

1. Out of the Ji (姬) surname, the surname of the royal family during the Zhou dynasty. A fifth generation descendant of Duke Wu of Jin was enfeoffed at a place called Yang, and his descendants adopted this as their surname, giving rise to the surname Yang.
2. Translation of surnames used by other ethnic groups in ancient China. For example, the Di people used the surname Yang. The Yang clan of the Di people lived in Chouchi in Gansu.
3. Homogenization of another surname pronounced Yang (揚), written with a "hand" radical rather than the "wood" radical. The two characters were used interchangeably in ancient times.
4. Other adoptions. For example, the Mohulu clan of the Northern Wei dynasty changed their surname to "Yang".
5. another known source:

The "Four Wisdoms"

Some branches of the Yang clan (in particular the Hongnong branch) refer to themselves as "Yang of the Hall of Four Wisdoms". The "Hall of Four Wisdoms" refers to a story concerning Yang Zhen, an official of the Eastern Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), and known for his erudition as well as moral character. When a man named Wang Mi visited Yang Zhen at night and attempted to bribe him 10 catties of gold, Yang rejected the gift. Wang Mi persevered, saying that nobody would know. Yang Zhen famously retorted "Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know and I know. How can you say that nobody would know?" Descendents of Yang Zhen adopted the "four wisdoms", or "Si Zhi" as the title of their clan hall. Some Yang family clan halls in various parts of China still carry this name.

Polities ruled by Yang families

Alternative spellings

Historical figures

For a list of famous Korean people with the last name Yang, please refer to Yang (Korean surname).

Modern figures