Saturday, March 19, 2011

唐

Tang (Chinese: 唐, Pinyin: Táng; Japanese: 唐/とう/から; Korean: 당/唐), is a Chinese surname. The three languages also have the surname with the same character but different pronunciation/romanization. In Korean, it is usually Romanized also as Tang. 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 dhɑng in Middle Chinese, and lhāŋ in Old Chinese.

The surname 唐 is also romanized as Tong when translitered from Cantonese, and this spelling is common in Hong Kong and Macau. In Chinese, 湯 (Pinyin: Tāng), is also Romanized as Tang in English (and also Tong in Cantonese), although it is less common as a surname. It is believed to be derived from Tang of Shang.

History

People with this surname mainly have two originations:

  • From the clan name Tao-Tang (or Taotang, Tao Tang)
    • Tao-Tang was the clan name for Emperor Yao's tribe, 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, 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 (Western Zhou), when the King Wu of Zhou was still a child, one day he played a game with his young brother Tang Shuyu. The King Wu of Zhou cut a tung leaf to a Jade Gui (Chinese: 玉珪, a kind of jade article representing authority and trust) shape, sent to Tang Shuyu, and said: you are raised to the Marquis of Tang (Chinese: 唐侯, Tang here stands for the same place as mentioned above). The chancellor aside immediately advised the King Wu of Zhou to choose an auspicious day and make a royal ceremony for establishing Tang Shuyu. The King Wu 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, historians 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 of Jin. It's a famous historic event and the origin for the Chinese phrase Tongye Fenghou (Chinese: 桐叶封侯). His offspring continued using Tang as their surname.

Notable people

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