Chapter 248 surname and surname

"Now we are talking about the third wife, surnamed Tian, ​​who is the daughter of Tian Qi's family. Zhuang Sheng traveled in Qi State, and Tian Zong valued his character and regarded his wife as a female wife. The Tian family is more beautiful than the previous second wife." This is a section in "Zhuangzixiu drums and pots into a road" in the middle of the book.Readers may not understand, since it is "surnamed Tian", why is it also called "Tian's"? It turns out that there is a difference between "surname" and "family" in ancient my country. Before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, surnames and clans were different and had different functions. Out, to your merit.Therefore, men are called surnames and women are called surnames.The nobles have clans, the lowly ones have no clans.In other words, people with the same surname are descendants of the same ancestor and cannot marry.However, the descendants of the same ancestor were noble or humble, so the nobles gave themselves different "surnames" so that people would know that they were rich and powerful when they heard their "surnames".Of course poor and lowly families don't have a family name.

The conflation of surnames and surnames began with Sima Qian. In "Historical Records", Tai Shigong mentioned that Qi's surname was Jiang, Qin's surname was Ying, and Zhou Wenwang's surname was Ji, but the surnames were no longer strictly distinguished.Now we have already fully integrated the "surname" and "surname".After each clan has a fixed surname, its children and grandchildren will use it permanently, forming a family that has been passed down in one line, with clear clues to the origin of blood.After people look up their surnames, they can easily find out their blood origin.

However, in the feudal society, women were discriminated against, and lower-class women were not allowed to be named. The surname Zhang could only be called "Zhang Shi", and the surname Li was called "Li Shi". This "shi" is not the same as the earliest "shi".Therefore, Zhuangzi's wife's surname is Tian, ​​so she is called Tian's.