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,
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 ...
) 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