Chinese surname · rank 315
索
索 is read as suǒ.
suǒ
Simplified and traditional 索
large rope, cable; rules, laws; to demand, to exact; to search, inquire; isolated
Water
Time: Late Shang Jing-Suo/Suo state tradition, early Zhou Bo Qin-Lu relocation layer, Han-Tang Dunhuang and Wuwei commandery-lineage evidence, Song-Ming distribution summaries, and later Manchu changed-surname layers; Shang tradition, c. 1600-1046 BCE
Place: Jing-Suo/Suo state around present-day Xingyang, Henan; Lu state/Shandong relocation context; Dunhuang and Wuwei in Gansu as medieval commandery lineages; Song distribution in Hebei, Sichuan, and Henan; Ming distribution in north China and the Central Plains
Origin note
Suo is read suo as a surname. The core tradition is a Zi-surname Shang line: 23mofang connects Suo with Jing-Suo, placed in present-day Xingyang, Henan, where Shang king Di Jia is said to have enfeoffed his son Dan; after Shang fell, Suo people became part of the Yin groups relocated to Lu under Bo Qin. This explains why some summaries describe Suo as one of the old Yin or Shang groups rather than as a surname made from the everyday word for rope. Later history adds important regional layers: Dunhuang and Wuwei became famous Suo commandery lineages in the medieval northwest, and later summaries also record changed-surname branches, including Manchu Socoloro/Suojia-type surnames. The page therefore treats Suo as a layered Zi-lineage, Lu-migration, northwest-commandery, and changed-surname surname.
Historical figures
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