Tang (; Chinese: 唐,

mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''Táng''; Japanese: 唐/とう/から; Korean: 당/唐; Cantonese : Tong; Wade–Giles: T’ang), is a

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, ...

. The three languages also have the surname with the same character but different pronunciation/

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

. In Korean, it is usually romanized also as Dang. In Japanese, the surname is often romanized as To. In Vietnamese, it is commonly written as Đường (the anglicized variation is Duong, not be confused with Vietnamese surname Dương which is also anglicized as Duong). It is pronounced dhɑngKarlgren, ''Grammata serica recensa'', 1996. in

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...

, and lhāŋ in

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 ...

. It is the 64th name on the ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese language , Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book ...

'' poem.K. S. Tom.

989 Year 989 ( CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to help him defeat Bardas Phokas (the Younger), who suffe ...

(1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom.

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. . The surname 唐 is also romanized as Tong when transliterated from

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, and this spelling is common in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. In Chinese, 湯 (

: ''Tāng''), is also romanized as Tang in English (and also Tong in Cantonese), although it is less common as a surname.

Distribution

Tang is a very common surname in

southern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture. Extent The Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone between ...

. Of the top 30 cities in China, 唐 ranked 10th most common surname in the city of

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

."https://www.douban.com/group/topic/23803598/"(Chinese)

History

People with this surname mainly have three originations: * From the clan name ''Tao-Tang'' (or ''Taotang'', ''Tao Tang'') ** ''Tao-Tang'' was the clan name for Emperor Yao's

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, so Yao is also known as Tang Yao (唐堯/唐尧) or Tang Fangxun (唐放勛/唐放勋) (''Fangxun'' literally means great meritorious service or contribution). ''Tao'' means ''

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

'', which was a very important invention and tool in ancient China; ''Tang'' was the ancient name for the place currently is part of central China and the central plain of Shanxi Province. Yao's tribe combined the names of pottery and their resident place as their clan name . The descendants of Yao continued using the surname Tang instead of ''Tao-Tang'', probably for simplification purpose. * From the King Tang Shuyu ** In the early

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

(Western Zhou), when the

King Cheng of Zhou King Cheng of Zhou (; 1055–1021 BC), personal name Ji Song, was the second king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty. The dates of his reign are 1042–1021 BCE or 1042/35–1006 BCE. Ji Dan, Duke of Zhou served as regent during his minority. His pare ...

was still a child, one day he played a game with his young brother Tang Shuyu. The King Cheng of Zhou cut a tung

leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leav ...

to a Jade Gui (Chinese: 玉珪, a kind of

jade Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

article representing authority and trust) shape, sent to Tang Shuyu, and said: you are raised to the

Marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

of Tang (Chinese: 唐侯, ''Tang'' here stands for the same place as mentioned above). The

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

aside immediately advised the King Cheng of Zhou to choose an auspicious day and make a royal ceremony for establishing Tang Shuyu. The King Cheng of Zhou was surprised, and said, "We are just playing a game and I just made a joke." The chancellor replied: the King cannot make a joke, once the King speaks out,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

s record his words, the loyal ceremony will be held, and the loyal music will be played." Thus Tang Shuyu was raised to the Marquis of Tang, and later became the first

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

of Jin. It's a famous historic event and the origin for the Chinese

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

''Tongye Fenghou'' (Chinese: 桐叶封侯). His offspring continued using ''Tang'' as their surname. * From

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

's aboriginal tribes ** Many native tribes in southern China adopted this surname from Chinese immigrants from

central China Central China () is a List of regions of China, region in China. It mainly includes the provinces of China, provinces of Henan, Hubei and Hunan. Jiangxi is sometimes also regarded to be part of this region. Central China is now officially par ...

throughout the history.

Chinese Muslims

Unlike some other

Hui people The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Islam in China, Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the Northwest China, northwestern provinces and in the Zhongy ...

who claim foreign ancestry, Hui in Gansu with the surname "Tang" 唐, are descended from Han Chinese who converted to Islam and married Muslim Hui or Dongxiang people, switching their ethnicity and joining the Hui and Dongxiang ethnic groups, both of which are Muslim. A town called Tangwangchuan (唐汪川) in

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 ...

had a multi ethnic populace, the Tang 唐 and

Wang (surname) Wang () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the common Chinese surname (''Wáng''). It has a mixture of various origin with uncertain lineage of family history, however it is currently the list of common Chinese surnames, mo ...

汪 families being the two major families. The Tang and Wang families were originally of non Muslim Han Chinese extraction, but by the 1910s some branches of the families became Muslim by "intermarriage or conversion" while other branches of the families remained non Muslim.

Notable people

* Agnes Hsu-Tang, American archaeologist, art historian, and philanthropist *

Audrey Tang Tang Feng ( zh, t=唐鳳, p=Táng Fèng; born 18 April 1981), also known by her English name Audrey, is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese politician and free software programmer who served as the first Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan from Augu ...

(born 1981), former Minster Minister of Digital Affairs * Tang Jian (579–656), Chinese official *

Tang Yin Tang Yin (; 6 March 1470 – 7 January 1524), courtesy name Bohu () and Ziwei (子畏), was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet of the Ming dynasty period. Even though he was born during the Ming dynasty, many of his paintings, especially t ...

(1470–1524), Chinese scholar, painter, calligrapher, and poet * Tang Zhen (1630–1704), Chinese philosopher and educator * Tang Tingshu (1832–1892), Chinese comprador, interpreter, and businessman * Tang Jingsong (1841–1903), Chinese general and statesman * Tang Shaoyi (1862–1938), Chinese politician, first Premier of the Republic of China, 1912 *

Tang Jiyao Tang Jiyao () (August 14, 1883 – May 23, 1927) was a Chinese general and warlord of Yunnan during the Warlord Era of early Republican China. He was military governor of Yunnan from 1913–1927. Life Tang was born in Huize county in 188 ...

(1883–1927), Chinese general and warlord of Yunnan * Tang Shengzhi (1889–1970), Chinese warlord and politician *

Tang Junyi Tang Chun-I or Tang Junyi (, 17 January 1909 – 2 February 1978) was a Chinese philosopher who was one of the leading exponents of New Confucianism. Born in Sichuan, he moved to Hong Kong in 1949 due to the establishment of the People's Rep ...

(1909–1978), Chinese philosopher * Tang Kesan (), Chinese Muslim Kuomintang politician and educator * Tang Ti-sheng (1917–1959), Cantonese opera playwright, scriptwriter, and film director * Tang Fei (born 1933), general and Premier of the Republic of China, 2000 * Tang Jiaxuan (born 1938), foreign minister of the People's Republic of China, 1998–2003 * Stephen Tong (; born 1940), Chinese-Indonesian Reformed pastor, teacher and musician * Edwin Tong (born 1969), Singaporean politician and lawyer who serves as Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law since 2020 * Tang Shu Shuen (born 1941), former Hong Kong film director *

Henry Tang Henry Tang Ying-yen (; born 6 September 1952) is a Hong Kong politician who served as the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong between 2007 and 2011. He held the position of Financial Secretary from 2003 to 2007. In 2012, he lost the Hong Kong Chief ...

(born 1952), Hong Kong politician * Tang Guoqiang (born 1952), Chinese actor * Danson Tang (born 1984), Taiwanese model, actor and singer * Oscar Tang, American financier

Fictional characters

* Tang Shen, a minor

supporting character A supporting character is a character in a narrative that is not the focus of the primary storyline, but is important to the plot/protagonist, and appears or is mentioned in the story enough to be more than just a minor character or a cameo a ...

in the ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'' franchise, who had died prior to each version of the show; namely the 2D 2003 series and the 3D CG 2012 show. Although mentioned/referenced several times, she is even shown only in flashbacks and/or photographs. *Trixie Tang, a recurring character in ongoing Nickelodeon's '' The FairlyOdd Parents''. *Tang Xuan, a starter character in the game " Dislyte" by Lillith Games *Keke Tang, a character in the media franchise Love Live! Superstar!!

Distribution

History

Chinese Muslims

Notable people

Fictional characters

References

See also