Qín () (秦) is a common

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicization, Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, ...

. "Qin" is the hanyu pinyin romanization of the surname for Mandarin, the common dialect of China; other romanizations of the surname include Chin and Jin in Mandarin, Ceon and Cheun in Cantonese, and Tần (or Tan when commonly written without accent in ASCII) in Vietnamese. People with this surname are most commonly found in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

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 ...

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

and

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

. It is the 18th name on the '' Hundred Family Surnames'' poem. Other surnames romanized as "Qin" include 欽/钦.

History

According to the '' Shuowen Jiezi'', the character for Qin is a compound ideogram which combined two characters: ''chong'' 舂 "to pound", and ''he'' 禾 "grain". The character originally refers to Qin Valley (秦谷) in Longxi near Tianshui,

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

and became the name of that area. The area was granted to Feizi, a descendants of Gao Tao, by King Xiao of Zhou as a fief in the 9th century BC, which then grew into the state of Qin. In the 3rd century BC, the state of Qin unified China and became the first imperial dynasty under Qin Shi Huang. After the fall of the dynasty in 206 BC, the descendants of Qin royalty, whose ancestral name was Yíng (), was said to have adopted the surname Qin. Many people sought to identify themselves with the Qin long since the fall of the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

; in Japan, the Hata clan of Japan claims descent from a branch of the Qin royal family, "Hata" being the native Japanese reading for the character "Qin". Another origin came from the Qin City (秦邑; present-day Fan County,

) in the state of Lu (鲁). During the early Zhou dynasty in the 10th century BC, Boqin the son of the Duke of Zhou, originally surnamed Ji (姬), was given the state of Lu, and his descendants who were assigned to the Qin estate adopted the name of their place of residence as their surname. After the opening of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

in the 2nd century BC, Daqin (大秦, Great Qin) was the name used by the Han Chinese for the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Some people to the west of China arriving via the Silk Road was therefore said to have adopted the surname Qin. Various non-Han people of China also took "Qin" as their surname, such as the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

, the Daurs, the Manchus, and the Jurchen Moyan (抹捻 during the Jin dynasty and 穆颜 during the Manchu period). Ancient Chinese texts recorded that one of the friends of the legendary sage king Emperor Shun (23rd century BC) was named Qin Buxu (秦不虛). However, no record exists of the later lineages of this Qin Buxu.

Notable people with the surname

Historical

* Qin Kai (秦開), general of the Yan state * Qin Wuyang (秦舞陽; died 227 BC), grandson of Qin Kai, accompanied Jing Ke to assassinate Qin Shi Huang Di in 227 BC * Qin Jia (秦嘉), Eastern Han dynasty poet * Qin Lang (秦朗), Wei general of the Three Kingdoms period * Qin Qiong (秦瓊; died 638), Tang dynasty general * Qin Zongquan (秦宗權; died 889), Tang dynasty warlord * Qin Guan (秦觀; 1049 – ), Song dynasty writer and poet * Qin Hui (秦檜; 1090–1155), Southern Song dynasty politician * Qin Jiushao (秦九韶; 1202–1261), Southern Song dynasty mathematician * Qin Liangyu (秦良玉; 1574–1648), Ming dynasty general * Qin Rigang (秦日綱; 1821–1856), Taiping Rebellion leader * Qin Jiwei (秦基伟; 1914–1997), general

Modern

* Qin Yi (秦怡; Qin Yi; 1922–2022), actress * Charlie Chin (秦祥林; Qin Xianglin; born 1948), actor * Qin Hui (秦晖; born 1953), historian * Qin Guangrong (秦光荣; born 1954), politician * Qin Yu (秦裕; born 1964), politician * Qin Gang (秦刚; born 1966), diplomat * Qin Yiyuan (秦艺源; born 1973), badminton player * Qin Dongya (秦东亚; born 1978), judoka * Qin Hao (秦昊; born 1979), actor * Qin Jinjing (born 1996), China-born Australian badminton player * Qin Lan (秦岚; born 1981), actress * Qin Shaobo (秦少波; born 1982), acrobat and actor * Qin Kai (秦凯; born 1986), diver * Qin Sheng (秦升; born 1986), football player * Ren-Chang Ching (1898–1986), botanist specialist of pteridophytes

References

{{surname, Qin Chinese-language surnames Qin (state) Qin dynasty Individual Chinese surnames