GGood Chinese Name

Chinese surname · rank 18

林

林 is read as lín.

Pinyin

lín

Script forms

Simplified and traditional 林

Basic meaning

forest; grove

Five element

Wood

Origin

Time: Late Shang to early Zhou tradition; roughly 3,000 years ago; Shang tradition, c. 1600-1046 BCE

Place: Changlin Mountain tradition, commonly associated with today's Henan root-seeking narratives

Origin note

The best-known Lin tradition traces the surname to Bi Gan of the late Shang. In the Yuanhe Xingzuan tradition cited by China News, Bi Gan was killed by King Zhou of Shang; his son Jian fled to Changlin Mountain, and descendants used Lin as the surname. Other Lin origins exist, including official-title and later changed-surname branches, so this page presents the Bi Gan / Changlin layer as the main cultural origin.

Historical figures

林则徐 (Lin Zexu)

1785-1850 CE · Qing official

A major Qing official remembered for anti-opium policy and later national historical memory.

林徽因 (Lin Huiyin)

1904-1955 CE · architect, writer and scholar

A leading modern Chinese architect and writer associated with architectural preservation and literary culture.

Sources checked