Chinese surname · rank 248
商
商 is read as shāng.
shāng
Simplified and traditional 商
commerce, business, trade
Earth
Time: Shang state and dynasty layer from Xie and Tang, Zhou conquest surname layer, Warring States Shang Yang fief layer, and Song-Ming distribution layers; Shang tradition, c. 1600-1046 BCE
Place: Shang east of today’s Shang County, Shaanxi; Shangqiu in Henan; Bo south of today’s Cao County, Shandong; Yin at today’s Anyang Xiaotun, Henan; Shang Yang’s fief in today’s Xichuan, Henan; later Shandong, Henan, Gansu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Hebei, Hubei, and Shanxi
Origin note
商 has two major source-backed surname lines. The older line is Zi-surname and state or dynasty based: Xie, a descendant of the Yellow Emperor line and son of Emperor Ku, was enfeoffed at Shang, first placed east of today’s Shang County in Shaanxi and later connected with Shangqiu in Henan. After fourteen generations, Tang overthrew Xia and founded the Shang dynasty; after the dynasty was conquered by Zhou, descendants used the state or dynasty name Shang as a surname. A second line is Ji-surname and fief-name based: the Warring States reformer Gongsun Yang was enfeoffed at Shang in today’s Xichuan, Henan, and became known as Shang Yang; later descendants are recorded as using Shang as a surname. These layers are kept separate rather than merged into one founder story.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
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