The 曾 surname

Zeng (曾) is one of the common surnames of China. In Taishan, the Zeng are found among the Hakka of Chixi Town (赤溪镇); according to Chixi Town's village records, the forebears of the Zeng around Tiantou (田头) came from Fujian (福建) to Xinning County (新宁县; today's Taishan) in the Ming.^[1][2]

Origin of the surname[edit]

The Zeng surname comes mainly from the Si (姒) surname: according to tradition, Shaokang (少康), king of Xia, enfeoffed his son Qulie (曲烈) at Zeng (鄫; around today's Lanling, Shandong), founding the state of Zeng; in 567 BCE Zeng was destroyed by the state of Ju (莒), Crown Prince Wu (巫) fled to the state of Lu, and his descendants dropped the yi (邑) radical from the character "鄫" and took "曾" as their clan name. According to excavated materials, there was also a state of Zeng of the Ji (姬) surname in the Western Zhou (around today's Suizhou, Hubei), whose descendants likewise took the name of the state as their clan name. In the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius's disciple Zeng Shen (曾参) was revered as the "Ancestral Sage" (宗圣), and the hall names the Zeng commonly use, such as Sanxing Hall (三省堂) and Wucheng Hall (武城堂), are mostly connected with him.^[3]

Coming to Taishan[edit]

Chixi is the only purely Hakka town in Taishan. Surname Culture of Chixi (《赤溪姓氏文化》), compiled by the Chixi Hakka Culture Research Society of Taishan (台山市赤溪客家文化研究会), lists the Zeng among the surnames of the people of Chixi, and says that the Hakka forebears of Chixi mostly came from Huiyang (惠阳), Jiaying Prefecture (嘉应州), Chaozhou (潮州) and other places in the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns of the Qing.^[1]

According to the village records on the website of the Chixi Town People's Government, the surnames long settled in Daxiang Village (大巷村), under the Tiantou Village Committee (田头村委会), include Zeng, Li (李) and Luo (罗); the Zeng forebears led their clansmen from Fujian to Xinning County in the Ming, and their descendants later moved to this village; the village has a Zeng ancestral hall (曾家祠). This account does not entirely agree with the account above of arrival in the Qing.^[2]

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