''Jī'' () 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 period
The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
s. 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
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several giv ...
.
The character is composed of the radicals (
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
: ''nra'', "woman") and (OC: ''ɢ(r)ə'', "chin").
[Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. '' '', pp. 61, 106, & 175. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.] 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 (OC: ''K(r)ə'').
The legendary and historical record shows the Zhou Ji clan closely entwined with the
Jiang (), who seem to have provided many of the Ji lords' high-ranking spouses.
A popular theory in recent Chinese scholarship has suggested that they represented two important clans the Ji originally centered on the
Fen River
The Fen River drains the center of Shanxi Province, China. It originates in the Guancen Mountains of Ningwu County in northeast Shanxi, flows southeast into the basin of Taiyuan, and then south through the central valley of Shanxi before turni ...
in
Shanxi
Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...
and the Jiang around the
Wei River in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...
whose union produced the
Zhou state ruled by
Old Duke Danfu, although the theory remains problematic.
In the family hymns recorded in the ''Classic of Poetry'', the Ji (姬) family is traced from the
miraculous birth of the
Xia dynasty
The Xia dynasty (; ) is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, it was established by the legendary figure Yu the Great, after Emperor Shun, Shun, the last of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Fiv ...
culture hero and court official
Houji caused by his
mother
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...
's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god
Shangdi.
['' Book of Songs''. III.2.1.] The ''
Records of the Grand Historian'' instead make Houji the son of the
Emperor Ku, descendant of
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...
.
[ Sima Qian. '' Records of the Grand Historian''.]
It is sometimes listed as one of the
Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity, replacing when present.
Ancient rulers with the surname
*Kings of the
Zhou dynasty
*Rulers of the
State of Wu, who claimed descent from
Taibo
*Rulers of
Eastern Guo and
Western Guo, descended from
Jili's two younger sons, Zhong of (Eastern) Guo and Shu of (Western) Guo
*Rulers of
Han, descended from a son of
King Wen of Zhou
*Rulers of
Teng, descended from Shu Xiu of Cuo (Teng), a son of King Wen of Zhou
*Rulers of
Wey, descended from
Shu of Wey–Kang, a son of King Wen of Zhou
*Rulers of
Wei, descended from a son of King Wen of Zhou
*Rulers of the State of Liu ( from Duke Kang of Liu (), son of
King Qing of Zhou
*Rulers of
Xing
Xing may refer to:
* an abbreviation for crossing such as Pedestrian crossing, Pedestrian Xing or Wildlife crossing, Wildlife Xing, primarily used in North America
* Chinese surname (姓, ''xing'')
* Xing (surname) (邢), a Chinese surname
* Xing ...
, descended from Pengshu of Xing
*Rulers of
Cai, descended from
Cai Shu Du
*Rulers of
Cao, descended from Shu Zhenduo of Cao
*Rulers of
Jin state, descended from
Shu Yu of Tang
*Rulers of
Lu, descended from
Bo Qin, son of the
Duke of Zhou
*Rulers of
Zheng
*Rulers of
Hann, which claimed descent from
Wuzi of Hann, a grandson of
Marquis Mu of Jin
*Rulers of
Shen, from sons of
King Wen of Zhou
*Rulers of
Xi
*Rulers of
Yan from
Duke of Shao, brother of
King Wu of Zhou
*Rulers of Cen (), from Viscount Ji Qu, nephew of the
Duke of Zhou
*Rulers of Xianyu (), who dwelt among the
Di.
Other notable people
*
Ji Pengfei (1910–2000), 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)
*
Wēng (翁)
**
Hóng (洪)
**
Jiāng (江)
**
Fāng (方)
**
Gōng (龚)
**
Wāng (汪)
References
{{surname
Chinese-language surnames
Individual Chinese surnames
Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity