 |
The Baijiaxing 百家姓 "The hundred family names" is a character text book for elementary learning. The common version of the Baijiaxing has 472 characters arranged in four-character groups in rhymed verses. There are not only one-syllable surnames, but also binomes, like Sima 司馬 or Ouyang 歐陽 and others which have died out in the meantime, like Puyang 濮陽 or Shentu 申屠. The author is not known, but it might have been written during the early Song period, because the family name of the Song dynasty, Zhao 趙, is the first character of the small book. The author might either have had the surname of Qian 錢, which is the second character, or have originated in the city of Qiantang 錢唐, Zhejiang. Qian is also the surname of the rulers of the Wu-Yue state 吳越 (907-978) during the Five Dynasties period 五代 (907-960). The last ruler, Prince Chu 俶, could have been venerated by naming him the second. The following characters, Sun 孫, Li 李, Zhou 周, Wu 吳, Zheng 鄭 and Wang 王, are all the surnames of the wives of the rulers of the Wu-Yue dynasty.
The Baijiaxing was very widespread, and there were many supplements, studies, or similar texts written, like the Huangchao qianjiaxing 皇明千家姓 by Wu Shen's 吳沉 and Liu Zhongzhi 劉仲質 (the first surname being Zhu 朱, that of the Ming rulers), and Huang Zhouxing's 黄周星 Baijiaxing xinjian 百家姓新箋 (also called Chongbian baijiaxing 重編百家姓) from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644)
, and the Yuzhi baijiaxing 御制百家姓, written by the Kangxi Emperor 康熙 (r. 1662-1722). The latter changed the sequence of the surnames, putting Kong 孔, the surname of Confucius, at the front, and Meng 孟, the surname of Mengzi, at the first place of the second verse. During the 19th century, a second and third imperial version (Baijiaxing erbian 百家姓二編 and sanbian 三編) was written, each with the reign title of the Xianfeng era 咸豐 (1851-1861) as the first characters. Cui Mian 崔冕 has written a book called Qianjiaxing wen 千家姓文 "The thousand surnames text".
Sources:
Jiaoyu da cidian bianzuan weiyuanhui 教育大辭典編纂委員會 (1991). "Baijiaxing 百家姓", in: Jiaoyu da cidian 教育大辭典, vol. 8, p. 210. Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe.
Li Ming 黎明 (1993). "Baijiaxing 百家姓", in: Zhongguo xiaoxue jiaoxue baike quanshu 中國小學教學百科全書, Yuwen 語文, p. 89. Shenyang: Shenyang chubanshe.
|
