The 巫 surname

Wu (巫) is one of the surnames of Taishan. Accounts of the origin of the Wu surname include descent from Wu Peng (巫彭) of high antiquity and taking the occupation or office of shaman-priest (巫祝) as a surname. Among the Taishan Wu on record is Wu Xiuyun (巫岫云) of the end of the Song, a native of Tongheng Village (通亨村), Shalan (沙栏), Haiyan (海宴).^[1][2]

Origin of the surname[edit]

There are several main accounts of the origin of the Wu surname. The Brief Study of Surnames (《姓氏考略》) says that “Wu Peng, a minister of the Yellow Emperor, practiced medicine, and was the beginning of the Wu clan”; another account says it comes from Gongwu Zhaobo (公巫召伯), of the ducal house of the state of Lu in the Spring and Autumn period, whose descendants shortened “Gongwu” to Wu; and there were also those in ancient times who made their living as shaman-priests or held offices of that kind, whose descendants took Wu as their surname. The ancestral commandery of the Wu surname is Pingyang Commandery (平阳郡).^[1]

Coming to Taishan[edit]

According to Chen Risheng (陈日生), one of the editors of Origins of Taishan's Surnames (《台山姓氏源流》), in his article “From Origins of Taishan's Surnames to Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong” (《从〈台山姓氏源流〉说到南雄珠玑巷》), Yuan troops took Lin'an in the second year of Deyou of the Southern Song (1276), and in that year Wu Xiuyun, a native of Tongheng Village, Shalan, Haiyan, gave up his office and returned home to live in seclusion; this shows that by the end of the Song there were already people surnamed Wu living in what is now Taishan.^[2]

How the Wu came to Taishan and where they live is yet to be added. Family members who know more are welcome to edit this article.

People[edit]

• Wu Xiuyun, of the end of the Southern Song, a native of Tongheng Village, Shalan, Haiyan. Originally an official of the Song, he gave up his office and returned home to live in seclusion after the fall of Lin'an in the second year of Deyou (1276).^[2]