Bai Jia Xing compound surname #35
子车
子车 is read as Zǐchē. It is one of the 60 compound surnames in the expanded Bai Jia Xing sequence.
Pinyin
Zǐchē
Script forms
Simplified 子车 · Traditional 子車
Meaning
Qin aristocratic compound surname with chariot imagery
Five element
Metal
Origin
Time: Spring and Autumn period, 770-476 BCE
Place: State of Qin
Origin
子车 is strongly anchored in the Zuo Zhuan story of Qin Mugong's death, where three men of the Ziche clan were sacrificed and mourned by the Qin people. Later traditions treat it as an old Qin noble surname.
Name meaning
The graph 车 links the name to chariots and elite military culture. Its cultural memory is tragic because of the three Ziche men and the Huangniao poem.
Historical figures
子车奄息 Ziche Yanxi
One of the three Ziche men mourned after Qin Mugong's death.