Chinese surname · rank 282
禹
禹 is read as yǔ.
yǔ
Simplified and traditional 禹
legendary hsia dynasty founder
Earth
Time: Xia Yu ancestral-name tradition, Western Zhou Yu state enfeoffment layer, Spring-and-Autumn Yu state and Lu conquest/Qiyang layer, Han and later Langya/Longxi commandery traditions, modern Taiwan rank 358 layer, and later Hui, Manchu, Mongol, or Yuwen changed-surname layers; Xia-dynasty tradition, c. 2070-1600 BCE
Place: Xia Yu and Si-surname ritual contexts; Yu state in Langya; north Linyi, Shandong; Qiyang as Lu territory; Langya and Longxi commandery traditions; Shaoxing/Kuaiji Great Yu ritual context; Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Gansu, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Liaoning, Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Taiwan distribution contexts; Hui, Manchu, Mongol, and Yuwen-related contexts
Origin note
Yu is read y as a surname. The page separates the cultural figure Xia Yu from the concrete surname layers. One line is Si-surname: collateral descendants of Xia Yu are recorded in surname tradition as using Yu as a surname, but the page does not turn the whole surname into a single direct-descendant claim. A second line is Yun-surname and state-name based: in the Zhou and Spring-and-Autumn period, the small state of Yu, written , stood in Langya, with old territory around today's north Linyi in Shandong. After the state was taken into Lu and became the Lu place Qiyang, descendants of Yu used the old state name; later, by removing the component from , some wrote the surname as . 23mofang also notes a tradition that , , and are related-origin surnames. Later and more secondary layers include Hui, Manchu, Mongol, and possible Yuwen-derived changed-surname accounts; these are kept separate from the Si and Yun lines.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
This surname page is ready for a fame-ranked figure list. Later passes can add generals, poets, rulers, artists, scholars and modern public figures with source links.