Chinese surname · rank 340
薄
薄 is read as bó.
bó
Simplified and traditional 薄
thin, slight, weak; poor, stingy
Fire
Time: late Shang and early Zhou Bogu state tradition, ancient Bo/Bocheng and Eastern Han Bo county place-name layers, Western Han Wuxian Bo Ji/Bo Zhao evidence, Jin-period Qiang and Wuhuan Bo figures, Northern Wei Boxi changed-surname layer, and Ming-Qing distribution evidence; Shang tradition, c. 1600-1046 BCE
Place: Bogu near present-day Boxing, Shandong; Bo state or Bocheng around southeast Cao county and north Shangqiu, Henan-Shandong border region; Eastern Han Liang state Bo county around Shangqiu; Wuxian in Kuaiji commandery, present-day Suzhou, for Bo Ji and Bo Zhao; Danyang/now Anhui Dangtu for Bo Shaozhi; Dai/Daibei, Qiang, Wuhuan and Xianbei contexts for ethnic branches; Qiao and Yanmen as later prestige localities
Origin note
Bo is read bo as a surname. Its origins are explicitly multi-source. One line is state-name based: sources record Bogu, a late Shang polity in the Shandong Boxing area, and other summaries preserve an older Bo state or Bo/Hao place around the Cao county-Shangqiu region; descendants or residents could use Bo as a surname. A second line is fief or county-name based: Eastern Han Liang state had Bo county around present-day Shangqiu, and Song-state or Bocheng traditions are used in surname books to explain another Bo source. A third line is ethnic or changed-surname history: sources record Qiang, Wuhuan and Xianbei-related Bo groups, including Dai-area Boxi later changing to Bo. The Western Han Wuxian family of Bo Ji, mother of Emperor Wen, and Bo Zhao, her brother, proves an early Jiangnan Bo line was historically prominent. The page therefore treats Bo as state-name, place-name, ethnic, and historical-lineage layers, not as the everyday adjective 'thin'.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
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