Chinese surname · rank 208
冷
冷 is read as lěng.
lěng
Simplified and traditional 冷
cold, cool; lonely
Earth
Time: Ancient Ling Lun music-official tradition; Western Zhou/Spring and Autumn Wei Kangshu Ji-surname layer; later ethnic adoption layers; Western Zhou to Spring and Autumn tradition, 1046-476 BCE
Place: Wei-state/Ji-surname layer and Lengshui place tradition; Xin Cai, Jing Zhao, and Lin An appear as later commandery associations
Origin note
Leng has two source-backed origin layers rather than a single simple founder. One tradition begins with the Yellow Emperor's music official Ling Lun, also written or ; descendants used Ling or , and some later surname accounts describe the sound or writing shifting into Leng. The other line is a Ji-surname lineage: Wei Kangshu, younger brother of King Wu of Zhou, became the founding ruler of Wei, and later descendants connected with the place-name Leng or Lengshui used Leng as a surname. Later surname summaries also note Mongol Huite adoption and Leng surnames among Yi, Manchu, Hui, Tibetan, Bouyei, Daur, Qiang and other groups. This entry therefore separates the music-official/-to- tradition from the Wei Kangshu place-name line and treats later ethnic uses as additional layers.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
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